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We are moving on later this morning but not before visiting Registan Square during the daylight and a local bazaar. “Registan” means “place of sand” and this square is the most recognizable landmark in Samarkand. It consist of three former emblematic madrasahs (Islamic school) with a large empty space in the middle (from whence came the name). Originally it was a public square and marketplace. The three major structures are: Ulugbek, Tillya-Kari and Sher-Dor (L to R as you view them). They date back to the 15-17th centuries and have been restored. They are no longer schools; they are often small museums or schools for artists. By the way, the spelling I have found for these various buildings seems to vary, depending on the citation given. I believe it is a reflection of the differences in the languages. I really do not know what is the correct spelling.

In the buildings in what used to be rooms for students there were shops that housed artists, small museums and vendors selling things.

From there we went to see the Bibi-Khanym mosque, built (1399-1405) by Timur to be the largest in the Islamic world and dedicated to the memory of his favorite wife.

Then we stopped at the local Slab bazaar for some free time to shop before we had lunch and then began our almost 5 hour drive to Bukhara.

We will be exploring this area for the next several days but the high temperatures are a bit of a concern. By the way they are expected to be 20 degrees over the average for this time of the year. Another effect of global warming? We have talked about starting earlier in the day to avoid the heat and resting in the afternoon. That sounded good to all of us.

Steps for the day:  8,947…That is more like it!

The town of Shakhrisabz is only about 80 km from Samarkand, but to get there you must travel over  a 1,650 meter (5,413 feet) mountain pass on the road that prohibits buses. So the MIR tour company rented us three new black mini vans for the day. We looked like important politicians as we traveled; all we were missing was a police escort!

Bit of trivia:  Many (most?) women we see have one or more gold teeth. We were told this was a sign of wealth and an investment. Google seems to confirm that!

Shakhrisabz was originally called “Kesh” and it is the birthplace of Timur. It is over 2,700 years old! Timur wanted it to be his capital and built the Al-Sarah Palace (the White Palace) starting in 1380 until 1404, right before he died. Supposedly 50,000 slaves were used to build this enormous structure.

We wandered around the complex to see the other buildings of the Dorut Tilavat complex, before having a late lunch at a local restaurant. By 2:30PM we headed back to Samarkand over the same mountain pass. Back in Samarkand we made a short stop at the 2nd largest Russian Orthodox church in the country.

But the day was not through as we visited a business where we saw how they make “silk” paper from the bark of the mulberry trees that grow here.  It should be noted that at 6PM it was still 90 degrees.

And because of our late lunch our dinner, again at a private home, was going to be later than normal, followed by a visit to Registan Square to see the light show that we missed last night.

Steps for the day: 15,506!!   I will sleep well tonight.

 

• We are headed to the southeastern part of Uzbekistan to Samarkand,  a city known for its mosques and mausoleums. It was also an important part of the Silk Road which linked China with the Mediterranean. We are taking an express train (2.5 hours) rather than driving the estimated 5 hours by car. Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia and has a current population of about 551,700. It is the third largest city in Uzbekistan.  The city was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BC (when it was known as Maranda). It was later ruled by Iranian and Turkic rulers, only to later be conquered by Genghis Khan in 1220. It is noted as being a center for Islamic culture and for the presence of Timur and the Timurid Empire of the 14th century. More about Timur later.

Once in Samarkand we immediately drove to the first of several madrasas (madrasah), mosques and mausoleums we will be visiting today. They are starting to “run together”. By the way I forgot to mention we do not need a local guide here in Uzbekistan as Furkat is our official local guide because he lives near here.

We are pretty familiar with Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Marco Polo. On this trip we were introduced to another famous emperor in this region, Timur. Who is Timur (also known as Tamerlane)?  Amir Timur (1336-1405) was a famous warrior from this area. He was also known as Timur the Lame because of an injury that left him partially paralyzed. He was a furious warrior and never lost any of his 58 war campaigns. His empire ran from the Volga River in the west to India in the southwest. Central Asia was the heart of the empire. Samarkand was his capital. Under his rule Samarkand became the center of culture and science in Central Asia.

Our first stop in Samarkand was at the mausoleum (Gur-Emir which means the grave of the ruler, i.e. Timur) that contained the graves of Timur, his sons and grandsons. It was built in 1404! A unique aspect of the mausoleum is that Timur’s grave is placed (at his request)  next to the largest gravestone, that of his spiritual teacher, Mir Said Baraka. The other interesting feature is that while all the gravestones are marble, Timur’s gravestone is made of a solid piece of jade! Needless to say the mausoleum is quite magnificent.

From there we went to see the observatory complex built by his grandson Ulugbek (Mohammad ibn Shahrukh ibn Timur Mirza Ulugh Beg Guragan) who was born in 1394. As a teenager he became  interested in science and when he was 15 he was named emperor. He was more interested in science and math than politics and conquest. He created many madrasahs (Islamic schools) to encourage schooling. He was considered an extraordinary scientist and compared to Euclid and Ptolemy. He was such a great scientist that he was able to determine the length of a year to within one minute of the modern accepted value! Because of his lack of interest in politics ultimately a conspiracy arose and he was murdered in 1449 and his observatory (built in the 1420s) was destroyed. It has since been rebuilt.

It was then time for lunch where we had another famous Uzbek dish, shish kebab.

More touring in the afternoon. We went a short distance to the site of the ancient city of Afraisiab that dated back to the 5-3rd BCE. . In 1965 while building a road they discovered a building with frescoes, some of which they managed to preserve. The Afraisiab museum was created in 1970 to house these paintings along with some 22,000 artifacts found in the area, documenting the 2500 year history of Samarkand. We only spent a short amount of time in the museum as there was more to see before we rested!

Last stop of the day was at the Shakhi  Zinda necropolis where there are many individual mausoleums. There are over 20 mausoleums dating from the 11-19th century located here. One legend states that one even contains a cousin of the prophet Mohammad. Most date to the 13-14th century. We were given free time to wander through the complex and take all the pictures we wanted! Behind these mausoleums is a hill that is filled with thousands of burial stones of more common people.

By 4:30 we were walking down a small street to get to our hotel as the bus could not negotiate the narrow street. Hmmmm… turns out we were headed to the Kosh Haviuz Boutique Hotel in the old town portion of Samarkand and it turned out to be simply a delight! It was small with 32 rooms facing a lovely interior courtyard with a rooftop hot tub and bar.

The evening dinner was also a delight as we walked those same narrow streets, finally arriving at a small restaurant that had a rooftop eating area, overlooking buildings in the old part of town. It was  real treat!

Steps for the day: 11,239!

Apparently having seen all the major attractions in this part of Tajikistan we are heading back to Uzbekistan this morning.

The border crossing was quick-about 45 minutes but we had to handle our luggage this time, as there were no porters at this border crossing. It was not an inconvenience.

By late morning we were already in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, a much more modern city. And it is large, with a population in excess of 3 million people. A bit of trivia:  “Tash” means stone and “Kent” means camp so Tashkent is known as the “City of Stones”. It was first settled between 5 and 3 BCE. It had the dubious honor of being destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1219. Because of its importance on the Silk Road it was rebuilt and prospered. The Russians ruled this area from 1865 until 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.

On April 26, 1966 an 8.8 earthquake pretty much destroyed the city again.  300,000 people were homeless, 78,000  poorly built homes were destroyed and but supposedly only 15 people died, but no one believes that number because of Russian secrecy.  But once again it rebuilt itself.

We spent a considerable amount of time wandering through the Khazrati Imam complex which consists of Tillya Sheikh mosque, Abu Bakr Kaffal Shashi Mausoleum, Barak Khan madrassah and Imam al-Bukhari Islamic Institute. The complex includes a library which is home to more than 20,000 books and 3,000 manuscripts. The major attraction there was a Koran that is considered to be one of the oldest in world, having been written in the 7th century. The Othman Koran was compiled in Medina by Othman, the third caliph or Muslim leader. Before him, the sacred verses which Muslims believe God gave to Muhammad were memorized, or written on pieces of wood or camel bone. To prevent disputes about which verses should be considered divinely inspired, Othman had this version compiled. It was completed in the year 651, only 19 years after Muhammad’s death. We could view the sacred document (written on deer skin) but were not allowed to photograph it.

 

We stopped at the memorial to the war dead and then entered the underground metro built by the Russians to view the 1977 architecture and ride on two separate lines to see the different decor of the stations. The metro has four lines, 50 stations and covers 70 km.    It was well done.

Sightseeing for the day was done and we checked into the fanciest hotel so far, the Hyatt Regency. Sadly we will only be staying one night!

Steps for the day:  9,631. Not bad!

A bit of trivia for the day.

– Cotton is the #1 crop of Uzbekistan but they are now moving towards growing wheat which is currently #2.

-Talib is the name for a student; taliban is the name for a group of students!

-We kept hearing the word “Emir” and “Khan”. What is the difference? They are both names for a ruler; an Emir was more commonly used in the Arab world whereas Khan was used in Mongolia and Central Asia.

-Why do mosques all have domes?  It was for acoustics and to promote air circulation.

We are headed to another border crossing this morning, leaving Uzbekistan and entering Tajikistan. We were told that Tajikistan is not as developed as the other “Stans” so lower our expectations. Maybe that is why they do not get many visitors. The border crossing went smoothly, taking less than 30 minutes, and our guide, Furkat, hired a porter to cart our luggage across the “no man’s”  land so it made our journey easy. The only glitch was our bus on the Tajik side was about 10 minutes late in arriving; it was a minor inconvenience.

Tajikistan has about 10.7 million people but it is growing.  It  declared its independence in 1991 but suffered through a civil war from 1992-1997. It is not was as well developed as the other “Stans”. Young people leave for better paying (2-4 x) jobs in Russia. Tajiks make up 86% of the population; 97% of the people are Muslims and Tajik is the official language but Russian is used extensively.

Our first stop was the city of Khujand, the second largest city in Tajikistan. It’s origins have been attributed to Alexander the Great (329BCE) and Cyrus the Great of Persia (several centuries earlier). It was an important stop on the Silk Road.

After lunch we visited the Arbob cultural palace, built in the 1950s by the Russians and patterned after Peterhof in St. Petersburg. It is the site where Tajikistan independence was announced in 1992. It is now used occasionally for cultural events. Looked awfully expensive to maintain.

From there it was on to walk through the very large Panjshanbe Bazaar and some free time to explore the area on our own.

Next was a visit to the historical Museum of Sogdiana which contained ancient artifacts and articles depicting Tajik history.

Dinner was held in a local restaurant and we were only staying here for one evening before moving on.

Steps for the day: 9640. Not bad!

We are in the Fergana Valley, considered to be the most fertile part of Central Asia. Alexander the Great founded a city here in 329BCE. This area was on the famous Silk Road trade route. They grew and continue to grow grains, silk, cotton, nuts, vegetables and fruits here. The current city of Fergana was established by the Russians in 1876 and retains its Russian influence to this day. Early settlers were encouraged to plant trees and it is now one of the greenest cities in Uzbekistan.

From Fergana we drove the short distance to the city of Kokand, that dates back to the 10th century where we visited an 18th century Madrassah school and the 1873 palace of Khudayer Khan with its 113 rooms.

Nearby is the Jami Mosque, one of the 600 mosques and 15 Islamic boys teaching schools  (called “madrassah) that once existed here.

It was then on to the town of Rishtan, famous for its ceramics. We visited the shop of a ceramics master where we saw how the intricate pottery is made and painted, all by hand. Lunch was also served in the garden area of this small “oasis” in the city.

Leaving there we visited a local business that grew silk and made silk products. There we received a fairly detailed explanation and demonstration of how silk is created and made into unique products. Of course we were given the opportunity to purchase some unique, fairly inexpensive silk products they manufactured.

After the shopping spree we returned in the late afternoon to our hotel in Fergana for dinner again in a private home. We move on in the morning.

Steps for the day:  5,989- an easy day.

 

Our visit to Bishkek was over, simply an overnight stay, as we have an early morning flight to Osh, the second largest city that lies in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan. We had been warned in our pre-trip literature that there would be a charge for any luggage that weighed more than 33 pounds.Furkat said not to worry, MIR would pay for any overage. Kudos to MIR! Our flight left at 8AM so we had to leave the hotel at 6AM. MIR arranged for us to have a boxed breakfast bag available when we left the hotel. The airport required two security checks. When entering the terminal you had to remove your shoes and put them on the X-ray belt with your luggage. Later on you went through another security check but you did not have to remove your shoes that time. Weird?

Osh dates back to the 8th century BC. It was an important area for silk production and a key stop along the Silk Road. It lies on the edge of the Fergana Valley, an important agricultural area of Kyrgyzstan. It also is quite close to Uzbekistan, our next stop. The city of Osh has a population of 455,000 people, consisting mostly of Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.

Our first stop was a visit to Sulayman (also spelled Sulaiman) Sacred mountain, a holy Islam site where the prophet Sulayman is said to be buried. Sulayman is the Islamic story of King Solomon. It is also the site where Babur, a 14th century Muslim prophet who founded the Mughal Dynasty in India, came when he was 14 for forty days of fasting and meditation (called a chilla). The site is a UNESCO World Heritage site and historians think it might be the mid-point of the famed Silk Road. It is often visited by pilgrims from around the world. Indeed there were people there when we visited that morning.

From there we visited a local private (350 students) school in Osh where three students gave us a tour of their school (students gone already) and answered questions about their schooling. Their English was quite good. The most common language spoken in the country is Russian because of their past relationships.

We had an earlier than normal lunch in a private home with a typical meal of multiple salads, bread, soup, a meat course and fruit. I was impressed with the quantity and quality of the vegetables and soup. It was something I did not expect to find in this part of the world.

After lunch we continued our journey. The border crossing went smoothly, taking only about 25 minutes and by 1 PM we were in Uzbekistan.

By 4PM we had arrived in the city of Fergana (also spelled Ferghana or Farg’ona) where we stayed in a “funky” 1950s hotel where  the decor reminded me of my grandmother’s home. The water was hot and the AC worked so I had no complaints!

Steps for the day:  7,181- respectable!

We are leaving the lake region and headed to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but will be doing some sightseeing along the way. Near the Baytur resort is a fairly new (2019) small museum called the Museum of Nomadic Civilizations where we made our first stop of the day. It was surprisingly very nice as it was compact with plenty of English postings so we could understand what we were seeing. The museum contains artifacts and displays that partain to the history and culture of the ancient  Turkic and Altaic nomadic peoples. The displays range from clothing, jewelry, carpets tools weapons and even musical instruments. Everyone seemed to like our one hour visit.

Our next stop was at the Burana Tower, one of the few remaining minarets/watchtowers on the old Silk Road. There was a 9th century town ( Balasagun) that surrounded the tower, but it has disappeared. The tower was built in the 11th century and was originally 45 m (148 ft) tall. A major earthquake in the 15th century destroyed the upper half of the tower and the resulting tower is now 25 m (82 ft) tall. Even so it is an imposing structure.

MIR seems to like to break up meals by offering some in private homes and today was our first such experience with that and it turned out to be a huge success as once the meal was done we were entertained by a local four piece musical group that played local music on traditional musical instruments. It was delightful. Leaving the home we got to interact with other (i.e.older) family members who were demonstrating making a major product of Kyrgyzstan-felt and its associated products. Of course there was an opportunity to buy some souvenirs if we so chose. I felt obligated to help the local economy by buying one of the homemade products.

We were off to a nearby field where we got to experience a local sporting event called “kupkari or ulak” which has existed in Central Asia since the days of Genghis Khan (13th Century). Teams of horsemen compete against each other by trying to pick up a goat carcass (weighing 30-40lbs) and tossing it into a bin at the end of the field. Think of it perhaps like polo but with a dead goat instead of a ball.  It can be a fairly dangerous sport. You can learn more about the sport here:

https://www.visituzbekistan.co/articles/apof2wo3qqhkkpzuy4fqtkwuwzbasy

Today two local teams put on an exhibition of the sport for us. It was quite a sight, something I have never seen before.

By this time it was after 3:30 PM and we left for our destination for the night- Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, arriving there after 6 PM. Dinner was at the hotel, the Hyatt Regency (very nice) and early to be as we have an early morning flight to catch.

Steps for the day:  only 5498. There was a lot of bus riding.

Kyrgyzstan is a relatively small landlocked country (7 million population) surrounded by the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. Visually it is stunning! Although there are over 130 ethnic groups represented the vast majority are native Kyrgyks (78%) followed by Uzbeks (14%) and Russians (4%).  Why so many ethnic groups?  It turns out this area is on the main Silk Road trail so everyone passed through here at one time or another. Many stayed. The primary religions are Islam, followed by Russian Orthodox.

Trivia for the day:  Kyrgyk is derived from a Turkic word meaning “we are 40” which is believed to refer to the 40 clans brought under a unified control by the ruler, Manas. The Persian suffix word -stan means “place of”. Now you know!

Our hotel is on lake Issyk-Kul, the 2nd largest high altitude lake (5280 ft) in the world (after Lake Titicaca in Bolivia). It is huge: 113 miles long, 37 miles wide with a maximum depth of 2192 ft. The water is somewhat saline but it does have fish. Supposedly there is no outlet to the lake. The water temperature does not get beyond 70 degrees in the summer so you have to be pretty hardy to swim in it.  Even so this is a very popular summer resort area for people.

Our day began with a short boat ride on the lake. There was only one other active boat there, also full of tourists. Surprisingly there are not many boats on the lake at any time as the authorities dissuade their use to keep the area pristine.

From there we drove to the nearby park where there are some 1200 petroglyphs that date back some 2500 years.

It was then on to the Semenov gorge (also known as the Kyrchyn Gorge) where we stopped at a local yurt for lunch. We were told we would have to remove our shoes and sit on the floor.  I was a bit skeptical about being served a “local” lunch; however we sat down to a simply marvelous lunch that featured local caught grilled trout and a variety of salads and locally made bread. Best meal of the trip so far!

After lunch we went on a short “hike” ( I would label it as a walk) in the gorge. The gorge was a lush green with snow capped mountains in the background. The area reminded me of Colorado.

The last activity of the day was an encounter with a local  “burkutchu”, an golden eagle hunter who brought his birds and gave us a lengthy demonstration of how these magnificent birds are trained to hunt. This form of hunting has been used here for thousands of years. It was a fascinating experience.

We were back at the hotel a little after 5 PM after spending a great day exploring this lovely area. Most of us felt this was the best day of the trip so far.

Dinner was a buffet at the hotel; there was nothing worth taking a photo of.

Steps for the day:  9382.

 

We are headed to Kyrgyzstan today but will be sightseeing as we go, with our first stop to explore an area called Charyn Canyon, which is sometimes referred to as the “little brother of the Grand Canyon”. We will see how true that may be. Charyn Canyon is about 200 km east of Almaty, so it is closer to the Chinese border( ~480 km). The canyon itself is about 154 km (96 miles) long. It was 84 degrees when we arrived but luckily there was a good breeze so the temperature was not a problem. Once there we were given the opportunity to take one of two trails in the area. The first was a 1 km trail along the top of the canyon to two viewpoints. The second option was a trail down to the bottom of the canyon which was longer and had more elevation to deal with. Everyone chose the leisurely walk.

 

I returned to the parking lot at the assigned time to find our “picnic” lunch laid out under a pergola. It felt good sitting for awhile and the sandwiches were freshly made. All was well!

Refreshed and fed we began our long drive to Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan which included our first border crossing-from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan. We were warned to make sure we took no pictures anywhere near the border. The border crossing procedure goes as follows. You stop and get your luggage off the bus. You walk through the Kazakh border where first a guard checks your passport. You then go into an office where the Kazakh passport people “check you out” of the country with a picture and a passport stamp. Another guard checks your passport as you exit the country. Next you walk some distance in the neutral no-man’s land between borders and check in at Kyrgyzk border where a guard looks at your passport and I assume looks for the exit passport stamp from the previous country. You then proceed into a building to check in with the Kyrgyzk immigration people who also take your photo and stamp your passport. You are then free to walk across the border where another army personnel checks your passport to make sure you were cleared by immigration. There is a lot of looking at your passport!  Depending on how many people are trying to get through the timing to do all this can vary greatly. In this case we were fairly lucky and we cleared the border in about 35 minutes. And once we crossed the border we were met with a new bus and a local guide, Firhad, who happened to have studied a year at U of Texas. His English was excellent and he turned out to be a wealth of knowledge about his country, Kyrgyzstan. He would be with us the entire time we are in Kyrgyzstan. We boarded our new ride and continued our journey.

The driving process always includes regular scheduled “happy stops” along the way to stretch our legs and visit the local bathrooms, which so far have been fairly decent, but we were warned some might not be western style toilets and the ladies always knew to carry tissue with them. Most are at gas stations so we had a chance to grab some snacks if we chose. We did have an unusual one this trip as we pulled up to what appeared to be a commercial business and it turned out to be a school dedicated to sports training. They were gracious and allowed us to use their bathrooms.

Once in Kyrgyzstan we noticed a change in the landscape. It was more mountainous (90% of the country are mountains) and evergreen trees. The highest peak is over 23,000 feet.  It was really lovely and several of our fellow travelers remarked on how pretty it was. From the semi-mountainous area we next entered what is called the “greenlands” which was obviously agricultural, and again very pretty. By the way the government owns all the land but people can be granted long term leases to build a home or start an agricultural endeavor, or simply plant a family garden.

There was major road upgrades being made as we worked our way to the lake, resulting in us bouncing along on unpaved roads for over 50 miles! The ride was not bad but it did slow us down, so we did not arrive at our hotel (Baytur Resort & Spa) until 6:30PM, later than expected. The good news was that it is a very new hotel right on the lake and we will be spending two nights here.

Steps for the day: 9764, mainly due to the hike at Charyn Canyon.