Samarkand

We left Bukhara around 8:00am for the approximately five hour drive to Samarkand. As we were leaving the outskirts of the city, Umid pointed out a sedara on the side of the road and we had to stop for a picture. Sedaras were watering holes along the Silk Road, basically cisterns built to catch rainwater or a well dug from a spring, fitted with a roof over it to minimize water loss from evaporation.  While the sedara dated back to the 11th century, the roof had been reconstructed.  There was a set of semi-navigable stairs leading down into the empty basin so I climbed down to get a feel for the size- and it was huge.  Standing there, I imagined long camel trains of merchants trekking along the road, stopping to rest and freshen up at this important water hole.  Across the highway from the sedara was the remnant of a caravansari, so likely this location was a major night stop.  It’s interesting that modern day highways still follow parts of the Silk Road!

 

 

 

 

 

We slowly gained elevation through the journey towards Samarkand and as we climbed out of the desert, evidence of agriculture started to appear, especially apple and peach orchards.  The road was always crowded, unlike in Kyrgyzstan were there was not a lot of traffic between cities, at least on the roads we traversed. We got to Samarkand around lunch time and stopped at a very nice restaurant for lunch for what was probably my favorite meal yet.  They served a spinach soup which was delicious and for the first time ever I had eggplant fries— basically cut and deep fried like french fries, but made of eggplant- yum! After lunch we headed to our hotel, located near the city center.  Samarkand is very green and has a lot of parks and consequently is a very walkable city and our location was perfect for pedestrian exploration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a few hours of free time before meeting to go to Registran square, which served as the heart of Timur’s empire and hosts three historic madrasas. The square is also adjacent to a pedestrian shopping street, at one of which is the local bazaar, so it is a busy place! The three madrasas were amazing (see night shot at the top of the post).  One, located on the right as you look at the buildings, was built in the 13th century by Timur’s grandson, Ulugh Beg, who was a scholar and an astronomer. Opposite his madrasa is the Sher-Dor madrasa built 200 years later.  The center building, the Tilya-Kori madrasa, built just after the Sher-Dor madrasa, also served as the grand mosque and was decorated quite elaborately.  Each structure had some restoration done by the Soviets during Breshnev’s time but still had much of the original structure and décor as well.  (It turns out that during Breshnev’s term there was an incredible amount of work done in restoration, archeology and historical reconstruction in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.) Each madrasa contained a very large courtyard surrounded by rooms in the typical style I have seen all during the trip. The first floor rooms were classrooms; the second floor rooms were the dorms. The temperature was pleasant as we were no longer in the desert so we spent some time meandering in and out of each of the buildings, exploring nooks and crannies and admiring the amazing artwork on the walls, doors and ceilings.  It was a bit overwhelming.

 

 

After having dinner at a local guesthouse (we had dolma) we were back at Registan Square at dark to watch the light show that is projected on the three structures at night.  We got there shortly after it started and there was a huge crowd gathered on the steps facing the square, many with cell phones up recording the program.  The production walked through the history of Samarkand (I could not understand the audio, but got the context from the video) including an illustration of the different conquerers that had come through the region (see previous post), the rise of Timur and his accomplishments, and ended with a positive message about modern day Uzbekistan.

Timur is something of a national hero (especially in Samarkand, which was the seat of his power), even though he was not ethnically Uzbek, because he started a “renaissance” after the destruction of the area and disruption of the trading along the Silk Road, by the Mongols.  Recall I mentioned in earlier posts that the Mongols burned a lot of stuff down when they rolled their way across Central Asia. Timur re-established order and stability and made it a priority to get the Silk Road trading network up and operating safely (taxes!).  If you look at maps of the various Silk Road routes, the areas of Uzbekistan we’ve been visiting, Bukhara, Khiva and Samarkand, sit at the intersection of several different routes, so offered an excellent opportunity for meeting and trading.  Consequently, as the country has emerged from the Soviet umbrella, established its independence and charts its future, a new renaissance is occurring, and Timur is being used as an example.  Also, Umid noted that the government wants to provide something more inspirational than the communist philosophy which dominated the populace for so long.

After the show we walked back to the hotel, with a quick detour to Timur’s mausoleum to see it lit up at night. The next morning we came back to visit and walk through the complex, which also housed other burial sites as well as a madrasa.  It is believed that more structures and archeological finds are under the houses surrounding the complex, but clearly exploring that is not feasible currently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another stop on the day’s itinerary, which was really interesting, was the ruins of Ulugh Bey’s observatory.  Ulugh Bey pre-dated Galileo by almost two hundred years and built the observatory to chart the stars.  He also was able to estimate the length of a year as 365 days, 6 hours, which is pretty accurate.  His writings came to Europe via a translation by an Italian scholar and were available for Galileo, one small part of the propagation of knowledge via Arabia at the end of the middle-ages to spark the European Renaissance. Unfortunately, Ulugh Bey was assassinated, some believe by his son, because there was discontent he was too focused on scholarly works and not on conquest.  (His son was found killed later, so you have to wonder…..)

We also stopped at the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, which dates back to the 11th century and where many of Timur’s wives and relatives were buried, to see the beautiful mausoleums there.  It is a very holy place because Mohammad’s cousin, Qutham bin Abbas, who brought Islam to this part of the world, is also buried here.  As it was Friday, and the necropolis had an active mosque, it was quite crowded with a mix of locals and tourists.  Thinking back to the road-side Muslim cemeteries we had passed in Kyrgyzstan (see post: Yurt Camp 2: Tash Rabat), the necropolis was a VIP version of that same construct.  Instead of the small, plain mausoleums we saw in the village cemeteries, at the Shah-i-Zinda the mausoleums were palaces.  It was a lot to take in, and again, the carvings on the doors continued to amaze me.

Leaving the necropolis we headed to lunch at a café along the pedestrian shopping street next to Registan Square with a great view of the square.  We had free time in the afternoon and Umid took us to the bazaar, explained where to find various things, and left us to our own devices.  Most of the group went exploring but as I was not feeling well (something I ate the day before did not agree with me and I got no sleep the previous night), I went back to the hotel to take a nap.  After several hours rest I was feeling normal again and stepped out to explore the city on foot, walking through the various parks and green spaces. It was a lovely evening and people were out walking, talking, children playing, and music blasting from cafes.  After about an hour and a half, I strolled back to Registan Square to watch the light show again, since we had missed the beginning the day before.  Afterwards I headed back to the hotel for the night.