A macroseismic study of the Taldy-Sai caravanserai in the Kara-Bura River valley (Talas basin, Kyrgyzstan)

We report a macroseismic study of a ruined medieval building, a small caravanserai located along the caravan way from the Talas valley to the Chatkal and Fergana valleys in Kyrgyzstan. The ruins document several events in which the caravanserai was destroyed, apparently during earthquakes, and was rebuilt or repaired. The earliest earthquake occurred soon after the building was put up, about 400 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating of charcoal, and another event shook the area between 400 and 50 years BP. After being damaged in the ultimate earthquake, in the middle of the 20th century, the building was eventually abandoned.