The Site of Aktobe is better known to archaeologists as Ak-Beshim, a ruined Silk Road town in the Chuy Valley of northern Kyrgyzstan, and it was once the city of Suyab. Around the seventh and eighth centuries it was a major stop for merchants, a Sogdian trading settlement and later a Turkic and Chinese Tang garrison town. Excavators found a Buddhist temple and also a Nestorian Christian church, a sign of how many faiths mingled on the road. The poet Li Bai, one of China's most famous, is said by some accounts to have been born here, though the matter is debated. Today it is a field of earthen mounds and low walls under open sky, and you need a bit of imagination to see the town.
The Chuy Valley is a broad, flat basin, hemmed in by the Kyrgyz Ala-Too range to the south, with the snow peaks standing clear above the plain on a bright day. The ground is good farmland, and the roads between villages are lined with poplars and irrigation ditches. From Bishkek, about sixty kilometres to the west, the highway to Tokmok is smooth and busy, with lorries and shared taxis. Beyond it, minor roads run off toward ruins and small villages, with patches of broken tarmac, gravel and the occasional cow.
A few kilometres east lies the Burana Tower, the remains of Balasagun, a later capital, and the rest of the story fits together neatly. Climb its tower for a view across the plain, and look at the collection of old stone figures called balbals nearby. For those wanting more riding, the road southeast to Lake Issyk-Kul passes through the Boom Gorge, a dramatic rocky canyon with a roaring river, and the pace picks up there.
Practical matters are simple. Tokmok has fuel, shops and small cafes with plov, lagman and fresh bread, and Bishkek has everything else. Summer is hot and dry, and the best months are May, June, September and early October. Do not expect shade at the site, and carry water. Dust follows any vehicle on side roads, and it is wise to keep a good distance from trucks.