The Five Stans of the Silk Road - Uzbekistan - 2019
25th July 2019 - Bukhara
First up let's start with something that will save everyone a lot of time. Unless something exceptional happened somewhere at some point in time let's assume everywhere I go on this trip was ruled by the Persians, then Alexander the Great passed through, then the had the Arabs converting everyone to Islam peacefully or not depending on how quickly the locals rolled over. Genghis Khan will have passed through killing anyone and everyone and demolishing all buildings on his way, probably in the palindrome year 1221. Some places at this point will have given up, other rebuild and carry on trading with anyone who has anything to sell. Until the 16th/17th century and the invention of guns most groups, tribes, clans were nomadic and the cities trading centres. Empires rise and fall I think India and China got involved too, then Tsarist Russia piled in around 1850. The locals who thought that was bad had another thing coming when the Bolsheviks reached them in the 1920s first destroying Islamic sites and then realising they had a lot of pissed off locals rebuilding then again. Then to top it off they all became independent in 1991. Throw in the odd earthquake and that's the history of the Silk Road.
Now I can stop listening to our guides drone on and you can all stop reading my rough memories of what he said.
Buchara, the holiest city on the Silk Road and intellectual center of the Islamic world, second only to Baghdad. Apart from the Ismail Samani Mausoleum which we see tomorrow most of the city dates from the 16th and 17th centuries. Mosques, madrasah and minarets and lots of trading halls. Above is the Kalyan minaret, also known as the Tower of Death. Legend has it that criminals were executed by being thrown off the tower across many centuries. The tower is 45.6m high and 9m diameter at the base and dominates the two buildings (complexes) next to it; the Mir-i Arab Madrassah which can be seen behind the minaret in the picture above and the Kalân Mosque the courtyard of which is shown below.
The Kalân Mosque is big, one of the biggest on the Silk Road and could hold 12,000 people. We are travelling along the Silk Road at the hottest time of the year when few are stupid enough to be here so we practically had the place to ourselves. Obviously I'm not religious at all but I do like the look is many Islamic buildings. The blue and white, the geometrical patterns, the beautiful following script and so much detail.
As well as the beautiful buildings we also checked out the tradition tradesmen of the town; steel, carpets and of course spices.
We tried some of the herbal tea at the spice trader and in the steel works they demonstrated the toughness and quality of their scissors cutting intricate patterns and sniping metal with the same beautifully crafted pair.
In the carpet warehouse we got the usual sales speel running through the sheep and camel wool and silk carpets, floor and wall hanging carpets and carpets of varying quality from 100, 200, 300 knots per inch. Some were great but the highlight was the tea and sweets they gave us.
Later we headed out to the Ismail Samani Mausoleum. The mausoleum was built at the end of the 9th century AD for the Samanid leader who grew their empire and renounced Zoroastrianism and converted to Islam. Ismail Samani is honoured across Central Asia in fact the currency and highest mountain in Tajikistan are named after him. The tomb is one of few to survive the Genghis Khan invasion. It is said to have buried in mud from flooding and so when the Mongol hordes reached Bukhara, it was missed by the Mongols and subsequently forgotten for 700 years. The site was rediscovered in 1934 by the Soviets and Ismail's legacy began to be rediscovered.
This tour is described as a photographic tour so along with a few discussions and some tips from George we sometimes have scenes like thus where George and here our tour leader Tom try out some interesting shots. Here Mel is their model and they are using the light and shadow to create intersting portraits.
In the early evening we headed outside the old town the Ark of Bukhara. The Ark is a huge fortress initially built around the 5th century AD. Inside were many buildings and artifacts but nothing all that photogenic. The history of the place was interesting enough but nothing really grabbed me.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the four minareted Char Minor. We didn't go inside but it is another lovely building.
26th July 2019 - Bukhara to Samarkand
On the way out of Bukhara we stopped off at Bukhara's Summer Palace: Sitora-i Mokhi-Khosa. This is the last Summer Palace of the Emirs of Bukhara. It was built at the the beginning of the 20th century. It was completed in 1917, but three years later the Bolsheviks arrived. The palace is impressive both the building and the 19th century treasures and artifacts it contains. The place is looking quite run down but I thought it added to its charm.
From Bukhara it's about 7 hours to the Silk Roads crossroad city of Samarkand so we arrived late afternoon. In the evening I went out for a wander on my own to see the nearby 15th-century mausoleum of Turko-Mongol conqueror Timur. It was approaching sunset and the soft yellow light really contrasted with the blues and whites on the building.
after I wandered around to a park which in the cooler evening was quite busy. It was good to wander around and see some real life going on. So far this trip has been very much tourist site to tourist site. Seeing couples on park benches and families playing in the fun fair gives you a far better feel for a place than another mosque.
27th July 2019 - Full day sightseeing in Samarkand
Today we explored the old, old city of Samarkand. Samarkand is the same age as the cities of Babylon and Rome and has gone through the usual Alexander the Great, the Arab Conquest, Genghis-Khan thing. It's been called the Rome of the East and the pearl of the Eastern Muslim World. Samarkand has been an important city for 2,750 years because of its stategic position on the trade routes to the west to Persia, to the east to China and to the south to India.
This trip is billed as a George Kourounis Photography Adventure, but really this is their standard Five Stans trip accompanied by George. George has been great, exactly as you'd hope an adventurer TV presenter would be; down-to-earth, fun, full of great stories but best of all he's as much part of our group as anyone and discovering everywhere along the with us. Anyway this is a Photography Adventure and he's given us lots of pointers at all levels from those using their smart phones to those with big DSLRs. Last night he talked us through a few interesting photos he took on this tour, what he was thinking when composing the photo and how he improved it in post-processing. He also set us a challenge to take different/unusual/non-standard photos but which still captured the essence of Samarkand. It's great as it encouraged me to play around more both in setting up shots and in using functions on my camera and playing a little with the post-processing too. It is the kick I needed to make a bit more of an effort rather than take more vanilla shots of more blue and white buildings.
Today we visited Registan, Gur-e-Amir, Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Shah-i-Zinda; Shah-i-Zinda gave the best opportunity to experiment. Shakhi Zinda consists of eleven mausoleums, which were built in 14th and 15th centuries all along along a single strip. All are in the usual blue and white domes style but each one different, ornate and photogenic. I'm sure other more creative types got better shots than me but the first three photos on here were all take there.
For lunch today I had Lagman (Uzbek Noodle Soup). Lagman is sort of like ramen noodles, big thick noodles and in my dish they have a great texture almost like gnoochi. The dish had lots of noodles, some lamb and root vegetables. Throw in loads of pepper and wash it down with a pot of black tea, delicious.
One things 'proper' photographers do that I'm always nervous of doing is they include people in their photos a lot more. I know a face adds so much to a photo but I always feel awkward and like I'm invading their world uninvited. Last night's talk gave me a kick in that direction too with decent results. Of course and long lens being able to take the photos with them knowing helped too.
After lunch I went in search of some people photos and came across this guy in the big market next to the Registan. The Registan was the public square at the heart of ancient Samarkand but these places have become a bit same ol' same ol'. Anyway in the market this guy was crashed out amongst the big bags of nuts on his stall still hanging onto his plastic bags. It was just after lunch and it's around 40 degrees do you could understand how he felt.
These ladies were working on the flowerbeds outside some tourist site or other, I circled them from a distance to get a decent angle and then I was lucky to catch them just as they shared a joke; maybe it was about the big untidily dressed bloke who was pointing a camera at them? We'll never know.
Last up I tried something artistic. Actually at first I was trying to take photos of other people's mobiles as they photographed their friends but I never got one where the photo image was perfectly in focus so this was a second best. I'll continue trying on first choice type of shot but it is hard to get the camera up and focus and get the exposure right in the couple of seconds they hold the camera up. A proper photographer would get someone to pose for them but that seems like a bit of a cheat.
28th July 2019 - Shakhrisabz
Today was a long driving day to Termez stopping off at Shakhrisabz for a few sights and lunch. Shahrisabz was another great city of Central Asia, Alexander the Great spent winters in the area. It's main claim to fame though is as the birthplace of 14th-century conqueror Timur. The sights of Shakhrisabz are on one long boulevard and we started off with Timur's Summer Palace the Ak-Saray Palace. I quite liked the palace as it is a proper ruin; enough standing to envisage how it looked but not restored to a state that it looks like it was built yesterday. Timur’s summer palace much more grand than anything we saw in Samarkand. There’s not much little left just part of the gigantic, 38m-high entrance covered with unrestored mosaics. Coming here gives an idea of how Samarkand's buildings would have looked before the over done restorations.
At the other end of the boulevard is the Kok Gumbaz Mosque. Quite nice but looking pristine. It supposedly dates back to the 15th century but it looks like it was put up yesterday. After lunch we had a 6 hour drive south down to Termez near the Afghan border more on that tomorrow.
29th July 2019 - Termez city tour
Termez sits right on the Afghanistan border and so has had an interesting recent history as well as ancient one. During the Soviet times the city had thousands of troups stationed here and when they withdrew from Afghanistan Termaz bridge is where they evacuated through. Going back in time it's been a settlement for 2,500+ years. The old city has important early Buddhist sites from 300BC, fortresses and the usual mosques etc. First up today Kempyr Tepe an ancient river port which dates back at least to the times of Alexandar the Great. The site itself was nice enough but the location was great.
It looked out over a floodplain full of rice fields, behind that the river and beyond Afghanistan. I'd imagine the Afghan border to be mountainous, guard towers, razor wire not this beautiful scene.
After visiting some old Buddhist ruins where all the best bits had been removed to the city's archeological museum we visited the Sultan Saodat Ensemble. This is a mausoleum complex houses the great and the good from across many centuries. I quite liked this complex as most of it was built in unplastered brick and looked great. I particularly liked the building at the end with a brick dome.
Inside the light was great just coming in through the door way and a couple of windows high up.
I assume it had been rebuilt but the detail in the brickwork was great; I much prefer this to the over ornate tiles, carpets and things in most religious buildings.
Termez definitely lived up to its billing as the hottest city in Uzbekistan today, I prefer the 42 dry heat to the 36 and humid of Bangkok but it is still draining. So I took the afternoon off and rested up for our early start tomorrow when we head into Tajikstan.