This crumbling 7th-century koshk (fortress) outside the walls of Merv is interesting for its ‘petrified stockade’ walls. Constructed by the Sassanians in the 7th century, it was still in use by Seljuq sultans, 600 years later, as a function room.
Great Kyz Kala, along with its pair, Little Kyz Kala, are some of the most symbolic and important structures in western Merv archaeology and they have no analogues anywhere else.