Samarqand


(and a bit of Bukhara)

a last look at the detail on the dome at Chor Bakr Chor Minor "Chor Minor" means "four minarets," and its obvious why this building is so named. It's actually quite recent- built by a wealthy Turkmen in 1807 to serve as part of a Madrassah complex (the Madrassah has since dissapeared). What is interesting about it is its unique design. The Mosques and Madrassahs of Transoxania are often accused (with some justice) of being on a grand scale, but very much repetitive. The monumental architectural tradition of Central Asia was quite conservative, particularly during the 19th century when this structure was built. The Chor Minor is actually the most radical architectural design of that period in Uzbekistan, and it is quite beautiful. The madrassah was destroyed by an earthquake in 1860, and the gatehouse suffered extensive damage (one of the four towers collapsed). The Soviets did some good restoration work in 1968, but the gracelessly stamped the date of the reconstruction on one of the domes (look at the center dome for the numbers "1968.") In historical preservation, as in all other things, the Soviet presence was both beneficial and destructive. As this was one of my favorite buildings in Bukhara, I'll throw in an egregious amount of photos: While walking back to our hotel from the Chor Minor (located to the South of the Lyub-i-Hauz) we heard the odd and atonal blaring of strange trumpets in a nearby alley. We emerged onto a street choked with a traditional wedding procession. Drummers and trumpeters were escorting the groom to the house of the bride to be. In a strange holdover from Zorastrian days, the pair then circle a fire three times (this is not a typical muslim custom) before they are joined together. As the trumpeters advance through the neighborhood, the following crownd gets biger and bigger. This sort of reminds me of the procession in the Portuguese village were I was married (minus the trumpets), the whole neighborhood turns out to gawk at the spectacle. The horns didn't seem to have any sort of controls on them, so I am not sure how they carried a "tune," but they mostly did. So that is pretty much it for our sojourn in Bukhara. That afternoon we arranged tickets on the "Sharq" fast train between Bukhara and Samarqand (about $8 per person, 4 1/2 hours). The train left at 6 AM, and as we were sitting in the train station it began to snow. The desert can be quite cold during the winter months. The train left well before sunrise, so we witnessed that during our traversal of the desert. The Snow had not followed us to Samarqand, yet. Samarqand the first thing we did after stashin our bags at the hotel was to head down to what many consider Samarqand's second greatest sight- the Shah-i-Zindah (Tomb of the Living King). Shah-i-Zindah with snow covered mountains It is believed that Qusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the prophet who brought Islam to the area, is buried here. Thus the desire for both the powerful and the commoners of today to be buried near here, that they might stand with him when resurrected upon the day of judgement. Timur, who ruled a vast portion of the muslim world from Samarqand, is not buried here. But much of his family is. At the entrance they will ding you for another $5-8 per couple, extra if you want to take photos. This whole thing was really irritating. It's not so much the fact that you have to pay, and I would hesitate to say that the state has commercialized the place (hard to do when you get so few tourists) but it certainly isn't for lack of trying. the main "lane" in the tomb complex However, a tip from a Anglo-New Zealand couple; if you enter the graveyard at the top of the hill, you can come into the mausoleum complex from the back and thus avoid paying. As you will have to shell out for every other damn thing, you might want to try this. Also, the graves on the top of the hill are quite interesting. I've got to clone out that branch! The couple were great folks and, I was pleasently surprised to discover, smugmuggers. (we are everywhere, resistance is futile) This is their website. The tomb complex is covered in magnificent blue tile, and each of the interiors are somewhat different, although some are in better repair than others. Bring your tripod (I, foolishly, didn't). Kufic inscriptions above complex gate

Samarqand was the first place that we encountered foreigners in any numbers (previously, we had seen two French guys in Khiva). We stayed at the Bahodir B&B. It's listed in the lonely planet, and is about 150 meters from the Registan, north, in the direction of the Bazaar.



The Bahodir is quite nice. It costs $20 per night for a double, breakfast included, with dinner an extra $1. The food is basic, but very good. Most of the foreigners staying in Samarqand seem to stay here. there were two Japanese, a New Zealander who is cycling from Japan to England, a mixed NZ-UK couple (nicky and alex, also smugmuggers), a crazed Albanian guy, and a German guy named Daniel.


The headgear of Central Asia, Albanian, Uzbek, and Tajik, modeled by, an Albanian, an American, and a German. (The Albanian headgear may be made up)

Bahodir is a quite helpful guy, who will secure you taxis to the airport at a good rate, can talk a bit of English, and will call folks on the phone for you. The rooms also have private bathrooms. Recommended.

The Bazaar

The moment, I believed, had arrived at last. I was going to see the Bazaar at Samarqand, the nexus of the Silk Road, a sight to shame both the Egyptian Bazaar in Istanbul and the Djem el Fnaa in Marrakech.

Sadly, I was dissapointed. The Bazaar in Samarqand is quite exciting, for those who have never seen a bazaar before. There is a lot of stuff for sale, from fruit, to little hats, to chinese made gadgets, but its a far cry from the reports of Clavijo, ambassador to Tamurlane from the Holy See, who in the 15ht century extolled its virtues. The soviets, I am afraid, killed all that and the bazaar has become a totally practical place.





Non seller at the Samarqand bazaar


"fashion pose" at the bazaar

We actually found a much better bazaar at a place called Urgut, about 40 minutes from Samarqand. The best day to go is Sunday. You can get their from the Mashrutka stand near the registan (you can get anywhere from the Mashrutka stand near the Registan, actually). TheUrgut bazaar reminds me a bit more of a classic asian bazaar.

The weather had turned cold and crappy, but it did a decent job of shadow elimination in the photos. Unfortunately, the sky ws not impressive that day.


The Urgut Bazaar


Big Green Ovens for baking Non, mmmmm.....


Urgut is a good place to get textiles

I absolutely had to get a rug in Samarqand, to complement my collection (which consists of a rug from turkey, and a rug from Morrocco.) I ended up buying a "really old" (yeah, right) handwoven wool carpetlet that measured about 2 feet by 1 1/2 feet long. The opening price was $40, which is scandalous, as I had secured a silk rug twice that size for about $25 in Morrocco, but I eventually got them down to $15. It was still a jacked price, but how can one argue beyond a certain point?


The shop where I bought my ruglet



We had lunch in the bazaar as well. More of the stuffed meat pies called "Somsa" (that name always makes me think of Franz Kafka).



The Bazaar was a fascinating place to people watch, or rather, shoot people. This was were the 70-300 IS lens I had bought for this purpose really shone. See my sweet review for more info on it. (modesty is my finest quality, no?)





Tajik Aksakal ("White Beard", a term for respected elder)


no idea what these are



man with Tilpak



ubiquitous gold teeth




buying Non by the stack



Afrosiab/Marakanda

Behind the Shah-i-Zindah is a ridge, and about 250m north is a small, modern, mosque. It looks like this:



In front of this is a road that passes over the ridge. If you walk about 1 kilmeter down this road, you will come to the site of ancient Marakanda, called Afrosiab by the locals after the legendary founder of the city, king Afrosiab.


The author has no idea what this sign means

This road takes you to the site of the city Alexander encountered in the 4th century BC. There is a museum here, of exceedingly poor quality. The proprieters will follow you through the museum turning on the lights as you enter a section, and shutting them off as you leave that section. They will also mercilessly attempt to sell you postcards and other trinkets, and charge you an outrageous amount of money should you choose to snap a picture of the exceedingly uninteresting displays. Of course, they won't mention this until after you have taken a shot. The will also let you onto the excavation site itself upon payment of a fee- I refused for two reasons; one, amatuers such as myself shouldn't tramp on sites, 2; their exceedingly vulture like attitude irritated me. You might want to skip this one.


On returning back along the road we had taken to the we saw a number of interesting sights. For some unexplicable reason, the road is blocked in the middle by concrete barrier. This serves to provoke Uzbek drivers into strange contortions to get around the block, it doesn't actually deter traffic.

How to navigate an Uzbek Roadblock






Discretion is apparently not the better part of valor

Near the Museum we saw a funereal procession nearing the graveyard.




We decided to walk back through the bazaar and see the Bibi Khanum Mosque.


on the road to the Bibi Khanum

The Bibi Khanum Mosque was built in 1404 by Tamerlane, in celebration of his victory in Hindustan (wherein he carried out one of the more spectacular sacks of Delhi), and named after his chinese wife. It was definitely an architectural overreach, as it immediately began to fall apart.

The Arch leading into the Bibi Khanum is enormous.



Inside is an enormous stone Koran stand. Crawling under its supporting arches is reputed to impart fertility.


The authors wife attempts to insure great numbers of boychildren








Outside the Bib Khanum, on the way back to our hotel, we encountered a number of interesting scenes.


A late afternoon nap




Closer to the hotel, we saw another funereal procession. The casket of the deceased is shrouded within some sheets, and transported atop a palanquin.



A crowd mills around the casket as the deceased friends and family attempt to carry it forward seven steps.



The Gur Emir

Tamerlane. His empire, with its capital at Samarqand, encompassed Transoxania, parts of Russia, Anatolia, and mesopotamia, as well as huge chunks of Hindustan (Pakistan and India).



Timur's Realm

The list of cities he sacked reads like the itinerary of a grand asian tour; Merv, Delhi, Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo. Upon the sack of baghdad, he ordered each of his soldiers to bring back at least two severed heads.


the author ponders the fate of empires

Yet even a world historical figure such as Timur must, as every mortal man, eventually die, and Timur eventually succumbed to the fate that all men share after catching pnuemonia during a campaign in Kazakhstan in 1405.

His mortal remains were ensonced in a suitable tomb, the Gur Emir.



Timur, being the new Uzbek hero, has the best and most extensively renovated tomb in Uzbekistan. It is covered inside with gold.







Timur's actual grave marker, strangely, is quite simple. a black stone, relativel unadorned.



this is just the marker. Timur's actual crpyt is below the Gur Emir. To deface a grave, in muslim tradition, is extremely bad mojo- Nadir Shah, ruler of Persia, discovered this when he removed the marker stone in 1740 and immediately suffered illness and deaths within his family. He returned the stone and his troubles ceased.

On the crpyt itself is carved the inscription "he who desecrates this tomb shall face an enemy greater than me." in 1941 Soviet archeologist Michael Gerasimov was the first person ever to open the crpyt, in order to examine the body. The next day Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Interesting.

The Registan

Timur's greatest architectural monument, and indeed the reason I came to Uzbekistan, is the Registan. This was what I wanted to photograph. Unfortunately, other than some dawn shots, I don't have much in the way of good images. The weather turned bad shortly after our arrival.


The Registan


Holiday Snap!


pano stitch







Last Look at Samarqand

Before we left Samarqand, there were a few more things we wanted to see. The first was the observatory of Timur's son Ulugh Beg. when it was built, this was the largest quadrant in the world, but was torn down by religious fanatics after Ulugh Beg's downfall.


the site of the observatory

All that remains is part of the Fakhri Sextant, which had a radius of 118 feet.




If one continues down the road about a mile, just past a bridge, one will reach the tomb of the prophet Daniel.

Muslim imams said, in the past, that daniel grows a finger length every 100 years, even in death, so his sarcophagus has reached some 60 feet in length. The site continues to recieve many pilgrims, and the folks who administer this place are very friendly.



Daniel's Sarcophagus

After that we returned to our hotel, went to the train station, and waited for our train back to Tashkent, and then the Fergana Valley.