June 2018
June 2018 · 30 Juni 2018
The day started with the visit of the Gur-e-Amir 15th Century Mausoleum. Amir Timur or Tamerlane was a Turco-Mongol conqueror, who made (as many others of his alike) great things and terrible ones. Depending of your background, the one or the others were put ahead and Otabek and André did not share the same point of view. Their arguments extended to Staline, but could have included others like Napoleon, closer to our era. Besides beautiful and great achievements, they are also responsible of...
June 2018 · 29 Juni 2018
The visit of Samarkand started with the three Medresas, the Koranic schools where the scientific matters are also thought, on Registan (English: Sand) Square. The oldest one, the Medresa of Ulugh Beg, one important scientist of the Timur dynasty, was built in the 14-15th Century. A big effort was made by the soviets to restore the buildings and work still is in progress. The sandy underground had trouble to sustain the massive buildings, which started to tilt over, like the tower in Pisa. A...
June 2018 · 28 Juni 2018
On the way to Samarkand we stopped at a traditional pottery which is in the same family since many generations and at a large caravanserai Raboti Malik which had the capacity to give shelter to over 100 people and 60 camels. The caravans used to arrive at a caravanserai every third day, in between they slept in tents. Later this caravanserai was transformed by half-nomades into a palace. The round platform was used for setting up their Jurte. The landscape along the road was green and yellow. A...
June 2018 · 27 Juni 2018
In the morning first we visited the old city walls and two mosques. There are five daily prayers that depend on the sun and geography. Otabek explained how the time of prayer could be fixed without astronomical calculation. The first prayer is when you start to see the difference between a black and white thread in the morning, the second at sunrise, the third at 13:15 when the shadow of a person is the shortest, the forth at sunset, the fifth when you start to be unable to distinguish a black...
June 2018 · 26 Juni 2018
Bukhara is Central Asia’s holiest city and gives a good idea of pre-Russian Turkestan. Our hotel is next to the Kalon Minaret (great minaret) which was built in 1127. It’s 47m tall with 10m deep foundations. It was not only used to call for prayer, but it was also strategic and was used as a light house and a watch out. Next to it there is the Mir-I-Arab Medressa. It was built in the 16th century and is still an active university. From the beginning there was not only the koran taught, but...
June 2018 · 25 Juni 2018
Today was another long day with a border crossing to Usbekistan. We passed Merv, what means queen of the world. It was once one of the great cities of the Islamic world and was a major center of power, culture and civilisation on the Silk Road. Today almost nothing remains. We saw Erk Kala, some undifferentiated remains of a city wall and got lost (the first of three times during one single day) in a sad neighbourhood. We passed cotton fields, saw a few camels and had lunch in Türkmenabat....
June 2018 · 24 Juni 2018
Today was a hot day with temperatures above 40 degrees. We had a tea-stop at a beautifully maintained caravanserai on the way to the Turkmenistan border. We reached the border before noon and after 2.5 h we waved goodbye to our sympathetic young guide Saeed only to be stopped at the next checkpoint and sent back, because they had controlled our passports but forgotten to put a stamp. So we had to go back to the Iranian customs and we left Iran 30 min later. We were happy to take off our shawls,...
June 2018 · 23 Juni 2018
Mashhad lies at the altitude of 1250 m. It is far more conservative than the other cities we visited. Most women wear the chador, the trams have separate compartments for men and women. We are far away from the fashionable Esfahan ladies who dye their hair blonde, wear their shawl as much back as possible and if really up to date show the Zopf. Nevertheless the people are friendly and helpful and want to know where we come from and what we think about Iran. Mashhad (means place of martyrdom) is...
June 2018 · 22 Juni 2018
Today we drove 250 km through the desert. We admired the changing colours, there were a few sheep, a train. There was a nice breeze, the temperatures 32 degrees during the day, 25 degrees in the evening which was pleasant. The entry to Mashad was easier than expected, because it was Friday. In the evening we went to the shrine of the poet Ferdowsi. It is situated in a beautiful garden. Later we had a very tasty gigot at a big garden restaurant in a chic neighbourhood on the mountain slope of...
June 2018 · 21 Juni 2018
Today we drove 600 km in the heat (above 40 degrees) on a good 2, sometimes 4 lanes road that was built on the former historic Silk Road through the desert. Beautiful colours, changes from mountains to flat land. We saw a lot of ancient caravanserais. They look like a rectangular fortress built around a court yard. There is one big entrance gate. On the ground floor there used to be shops, the bedrooms were upstairs. In the middle of the courtyard there was a fountain. The water arrived through...