The tower is located in Tokmak, 80 km east of Bishkek. The Burana tower was the site of the Balasagun city. Founded in the middle of the 10th century on the site of an older settlement, the tower's minaret (Burana from Turkish munara'- minaret) is one of the oldest of its kind in Central Asia. The minaret was built in the 11 th century and was originally 45m. tall.Balasagun was the birthplace (circa 1015) of the poet Jusup Balasagun, and later, together with Kashgar, became one the capital of the Eastern Khanate within the
Karakhanid state. The western capital was Samarkand. Jusup Balasagun's poetic works represent a brilliantexample of high Islamic culture in Medieval Central Asia. Jusup's only surviving work is "Kutadgy Bilig" (translated roughly as "the knowledge which ings happiness"), which is a long didactic epic poem. This work was written in Jusup's native Uigur language in Arabic script circa 1070.The Kyrgyz translation,"Kuttum Bilim," is located in Bishkek's museum of Kyrgyz Language and Literature.
Balasagun was so important and celebrated that Genghis Khan's Mongol horde spared the city from destruction when it began to conquer the world in the early 13th century. The horde renamed Balasagun Gobalik, "good city." This act conveyed high praise for a people who were the greatest Nemesis to sedentary life in history.
