According to legend, the Shopan-Ata mosque, located in the region of the Senek settlement more than 200km away from the city of Aktau, was built by Shopan-ata Sufi, one of Hodzhi Ahmed Jassavi's sacred students. The legend says that Shopan-ata found his mentor’s rod, and decided to build up a mosque of eleven underground cells on this very place. The legend goes on even further to say that the tree has grown from that rod stuck into the earth; and is still growing today more than 800 years later. If the legend is to be believed; when you go around the tree 3 times, you will get rid of all illnesses. Shopan-Ata mosque is surrounded by the enormous necropolis built over the centuries, and containing more than three thousand burial places.
