Monuments, monuments, monuments

Uzbekistan's ancient cities are just AMAZING! On June 17th we arrived in Bukhara coming by train from Khiva. Bukhara is "same same but different" to Khiva. It has a well preserved old town filled with many ancient mosques, minarets and medressas. Boris and I were absolutely impressed by the area around the Kalon Minaret. Standing in the middle of the small market square we looked up at the immense Kalon Mosque to one side and the Mir-i-Arab Medressa to the other side and felt like small ants. Bukhara was once the most important Islamic Center in Central Asia. And the Kalon Mosque was designed to be big enough for 10,000 people. The Soviets then turned it into a warehouse during their occupation. It´s really huge but today not much in happening here.

The Kalon Minaret was also impressive for us. First of course because of its great height of 47m and its wonderful design with many ornamental bands. It was constructed 1127 or so and is totally out of brick and mortar. Thanks to its 10m deep foundation, it has survived many earthquakes. Later on it also survived the Russian artillery bombing. On some historic photos we saw that the Minaret looked like Swiss cheese with lots of holes in its upper part.

Finally we were fascinated again by the blue tiles used for the roofs of the minarets and mosques and by the overall friendly and welcoming impression these tall monuments radiate. At the time these inspirational, advanced, light filled buildings were constructed (around 1200-1500 AD) we had quite some dark centuries in Europe leaving behind rather scary looking cathedrals and domes.

Rather scary looking here was however the ancient prison of Bukhara. It was a dungeon of around 11m of depth, of course without light. You could get thrown in here for a multitude of reasons such as not going to prayer at the mosque or not paying adequate respect to the Emir of Bukhara. This happened to the Englishmen Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly in 1842: according to local lore they had neither presents not an official letter from the Queen for the Emir and he felt a bit bit dishonored. Interestingly enough the cell was named the "bug pit" and the mere sight of the dark dungeon sent shivers down our spines.

Bukhara is different to Khiva because it is not as compact and not so museum-like. To our pleasure it was much more lively. In the evening hours when the great heat of the day begins to cede, the plazas of the old town starts to fill with locals chattering and eating in the local restaurants. We of course participated in this tradition. We met up with the Shashlyk-Brothers (Horst and Simon), who had come to Bukhara directly from Tashkent. They had of course already discovered the restaurant serving the best kebab skewers.

On the morning of the 19th June Boris and I continued to Samarkand for a 24h look around before heading back to Tashkent. Again we visited some fantastic monuments. Our favorite site here was definitely Shah-i-Zinda, the avenue of mausoleums. It started with the grave of a cousin of the Prophet Mohamed, who is said to have brought Islam to Central Asia. Later Timor, the dictatorial ruler of Samarkand and his successors constructed a monumental complex with cool caves holding the tombs of their families and favorites. All the mausoleums are decorated with ornamental paintings and blue tiles.

Later in the evening we went to see the Registan, the most renown sight of the city. This was once Samarkand's commercial center and consists of a big Plaza framed by three giant Medressas, somewhat ancient business and trading centers.We had the privilege to climb the minaret of the Ulugbek Medressa on the western side. The monuments normally close at 7pm, but in Uzbekistan there are always a police officer running a little secret business with his gang of working colleges. We took his offer of 20 USD to climb the minaret tower, which is currently under construction just to have a good view onto the Registan in the light of the sunset. And the friendly policeman also offered us to have a look around in the Medressa afterwards - but no longer than 30 minutes :)