We are on the way ... AZ here we come
September 1 in England
⛅ 12 °C
It's still dark when we leave home.
Mentally it feels rather early but at our destination it's already 8:30, so we better get used to the time 😬
We are flying from Terminal 2 with Lufthansa (via Frankfurt) to Baku. Compared to T5, the Queen's terminal (T2) is an oasis of calm. Check-in works like a dream and our bags are spot on the strictest weight limit for one of the flights along the silk road - 14.9kg and 14.8kg respectively. Work of the packing master! 😂
And we have plenty of headroom for potential purchases bearing in mind we still have space for 7kg hand luggage, each!
We must admit, we are impressed with Lufthansa, if nothing else, the sleekness of their app and communication is amazing (& miles ahead of BA).
Hard to believe that Germany is still a digital backwater.
But then, BA still has a huge advantage for us ... access to the business lounge (as long as my friend Kerry is gifting me a silver card and one doesn't fly business class with LH.
Sneakily, Fergus upgraded us to business class for the leg to Baku. So instead of hanging around the airport for 5 hours, we enjoy the comfort of Lufthansa's Gold lounge.
However, measured by the comfort of the BA lounge and the food & drinks available, BA beats LH easily.
Still it's nice to just chill and play some games ... sadly after 1.5 hrs of fierce competition I lost the first round of our Silk Road Cabo Challenge.
How about the in-flight competition for business class ??
🤔 - it's a tough one to judge as the flight is only 5 hours and not overnight.
The seats are a lot smaller, no inflight entertainment but brilliant WiFi ... only until we entered difficult airspace, e.g. Turkey, Armenia etc ... when it got blocked for security reasons 🤔🤔
The 5 hour flight was over quite quickly. And unexpectedly, immigration and luggage is so fast that we are in the car to the airport in less than 20 min after landing.
Just as well we get to the hotel quickly.
I am rather tired. It's definitely time for bedRead more
Baku - a mesmerising place ...
September 2 in Azerbaijan
⛅ 25 °C
... with a mix of ancient heritage fit for a city of the Silk Roads and unapologetic futuristic architecture.
We are staying at the Hilton in the modern part of town, right next to Baku Boulevard with a fabulous view across the Caspian Sea and the F1 race track which is being built for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of the month.
After a leisurely breakfast, we start the day at a slow, unhurried pace along Baku Boulevard and tasting the salty breeze off the Caspian Sea (Baku is not for nothing known as 'city of winds').
Established in 1909, the wide pedestrian promenade stretches for several kilometres and is lined with parks, cafés and modern landmarks but at this time of day it feels rather deserted and most places are shut.
From the promenade, we head into Baku Old Town which is surrounded by ancient walls. There are plenty of narrow winding streets, traditional stone buildings, mosques, caravanserais ('old' road side inns or guest houses that are now great looking restaurants where one can just imagine the rooms going out from the central plaza), museums, charming courtyards ... and cobbles everywhere as well as lots of people trying to sell their wares - everything from sightseeing tours, Russian style fur hats to carpets.
But it doesn't matter where you are, looking past the centuries-old limestone facades, the arched merchant windows and wrought iron gates, the gleaming, futuristic curves of the Flame Towers are looming right over the rooftops.
From the old town we head further uphill via the wide stone staircases, past the Flame Towers and all the way to Highland Park. From the terrace, we have an incredible panoramic view of the entire crescent bay including Baku’s mammoth seafront flagpole.
That reminds me of a little snippet I remember from what I read ...
Azerbaijan entered the race for the highest flagpole in the world in 2010. But the claim to fame for the 162m high flagpole was short-lived as in 2011, the Tajik flag was flying from a 165m flag- pole in Dushanbe. But even the Tajik flag isn't flying high enough anymore. Since 2021 the top price now goes to Egypt with 202m. But at least Azerbaijan caught up in 2024 with a 195m high flagpole.
On the other side of the terrace, the iconic silhouette of the Flame Towers perches high above the skyline, paying homage to Azerbaijan’s roots as the ancient "Land of Fire." Even more so at night when the more than 10,000 high-power LEDs transform the towers into animated fire scenes.
Having walked up the hill in the midday heat, we are very happy to spot Manzara, a café along the terrace. So, the only logical next move is to sit down, take in the panorama, and have a couple of cold local Xırdalan beers. Just what the doctor ordered.
Despite the refreshments, our legs are too tired to walk all the way down again. Instead we take the funicular 🚠 - 2 min ride for 1 AZ Monat, just one other futuristic construction.
It's still a long way along the now busy and buzzing boulevard and I am in need of sustenance. We planned to stop at the fish & chips place but that's still closed, so we just made it to Papa John's 🙈.
Never mind, I was desperate and the pizza was tasty giving us enough power to try out the 360 degree bar back at the Hilton.
Great views and some happy hour drinks are perfect to finish our first, exciting but also tiring day in Baku.Read more
Baku - the walking tour
September 3 in Azerbaijan
☀️ 28 °C
As is traditional, we did a walking tour of Baku today but with one subtle difference - this was a paid for tour rather than a free one (I had quite a lot of credit with Viator!)
So we met with a young man called Namiq who guided us effortlessly over the next 3.5 hours through the old town and more, of Baku.
Namiq was a veritable mine of information talking virtually nonstop the whole tour without so much as a sip of water or a break. And it was pretty hot!
I suppose it helps that his grandfather teaches history in one of AZs 48 universities, but even so. As it was just the two of us, it was a very personalised one with him answering (almost) all of our - something challenging - questions but as usual, it was information overload so here is just some of what we learnt about AZ, Baku and our general impressions ...
We met Namiq in Nizami Park, underneath a large statue of a famous Persian poet called Nizami Ganjavi who died in 1209 but remains a very important cultural figure. Azerbaijan is celebrates their ports, scientists cultural figures intensely and this was just the beginning of a theme of cultural statues that are all over the place in the city centre, each with a certain relevance to the immediate area or to Baku in general.
We found the most interesting one to be of Aliagha Vahid, a poet (died 1965) famous for very satirical traditional poems. Apparently he was a bit of a troubled soul which was really reflected in his sculpted face. What's more, many scenes from his life and work are woven into the sculpture all around his giant head!
Two further themes ran through our tour - history and oil wealth.
Baku is one of the Silk Road cities with borders to the south with Iran, Armenia to the west and Russia and Georgia to the north. Thus it has had a bit of a turbulent past with many interested parties taking control at some time. Some items to pick out:
- The Shirvanshahs were a medieval royal dynasty in the 15th century. Their palace is one of the main attraction in Baku, although Namiq wasn't so enthusiastic about it !
- Persian influence was significant after the dynasty fell. Right up until....
- the Russian empire took over in the early 1800s. Which in turn ended with the Russian revolution.
- From May 1918, AZ had this first independence for 23 months until..
- the Bolsheviks invaded and AZ was absorbed into the Soviet Union until proper independence was achieved in Oct 1991.
As for oil, the country was known to be an area of substantial oil reserves (locals found oil when digging during house building) but it wasn't until the 1840s that they properly started to drill and subsequently the Russians allowed private investment.
By the time of the first AZ independence there were 47 oil millionaires in Baku. Many were generous for city needs, founding schools, hospitals etc. On our tour we saw several oil millionaire residences. All but one had fled the country by the time the communists took over but their mark is still visible today. Currently 90% of AZs income is generated by oil.
The old city has many interesting buildings, a lot had Polish or German architects. Some were destroyed by the Bolsheviks but many survive. There are also many mosques (AZ is 90% Muslim) however there is no state religion as freedom of religion and religious tolerance is important to the country. There is then, a museum of tolerance, emphasizing Islam, Christianity and Judaism together. We did not go in .......
One of the many museums we did go into was the museum of small books. It's even in the Guinness book of world records having the largest collection of tiny reading material. Including the smallest in the world that you can hardly see let alone read! (It's from Japan and printed with laser technology)
We were supposed to end the tour at Highland park but the time had flown and we didn't get to the funicular before it closed for lunch! Fortunately we had been there briefly yesterday so were able to ask Namiq a few questions about it before we said goodbye.
So, after some liquid refreshment we made our own way up there.
In Soviet times this area was an amusement park but these days it's much more peaceful and pleasant, albeit a reminder of war casualties., war cemetery and several memorials.
Some parts remember over 1000 Turkish troops who died trying to help AZ resist the Bolsheviks in 1918. Other parts actually have graves of those who died fighting the Armenians in 1992 and the people massacred by the Russians during "perestroika" shortly before the collapse of the USSR.
Incidentally the most recent war with Armenia was in 2020 and some fighting was as recent as 2023. There is apparently a peace process being negotiated now and it made us wonder what life outside Baku might be like.
All in all a fascinating day, probably a good taste of what's to come.Read more
Rolled, stitched, weaved - Baku's carpet museum
September 4 in Azerbaijan
☀️ 29 °C
Few buildings in the world announce their contents with the subtlety of a sledgehammer quite like the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum in Baku.
Designed by Austrian(!) architect Franz Janz, the building is literally shaped like an enormous, partially rolled-up carpet.
It feels delightfully kitsch from the outside, is slightly disorienting on the inside with it's sloping floors but beneath it all, it's a museum doing some heavy cultural and geopolitical lifting
The museum is certainly not endless rows of dusty rugs, more a place showcasing that there is more to carpets than just floor coverings.
It offers an interesting glimpse into the ancient craft of weaving, spinning, and dyeing, with exhibits that show how raw wool is transformed into richly patterned carpets. It’s an introduction to the artistry behind Azerbaijan’s most famous cultural symbol.
We were especially fascinated by the various everyday life woven items from table cloths, headcaps for men, travel chests to walls for yurts and decorations for pack animals.
However, the most interesting, and somewhat revealing aspect of the museum isn’t just how the rugs are woven, but how the map is drawn.
The collection divides Caucasian carpet weaving into distinct regional "schools", e.g. Baku or Karabakh group. Among them, there are exhibits dedicated to traditions that spill casually across today's fortified borders, e.g. the Gazakh 'school'.
While Gazakh is a district in northwest Azerbaijan, the historical weaving cluster includes valleys in Armenia and eastern Georgia or as the museums information board puts it 'historically Azerbaijan land currently belonging to the territory of Armenia / Georgia'. Also, an entire section of the museum is devoted to the legendary Tabriz school of weaving, despite Tabriz residing in northwestern Iran, i.e. in the museum’s categorisation, modern political borders just dissolve.
Where a Westerner might describe these pieces under the umbrella of cross- cultural nomadic weaving, the curators of the museum frame them cleanly through an Azerbaijani national lens and the labels offer zero nod to the contested history and territories of the area. Everything is claimed under one unbroken thread of state identity.
In summary, an interesting insight in Azerbaijani applied art and certainly worth an hour or two escaping the sun outside.Read more
Saying goodbye to Azerbaijan and ...
September 5 in Uzbekistan
🌙 18 °C
... getting ready for our tour of the Stans.
It has been a whirlwind visit to Azerbaijan (country #79 on my quest), a quick stopover on route to the starting point of our tour of the Silk Roads. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Baku, learned a lot and would love to see more of the country and meet it's people.
We enjoyed a lovely afternoon along the Caspian Sea, stopping at Dopamine for a drink before wandering back in the early evening light for the next adventure.
Now we are embarking on a part of the world that is even more unknown to us - the alphabet, the language, the religion, the culture and certainly the history.
So over the last few weeks, I have been doing some reading ...
There are a few things I can remember ...
☝️the suffix *stans comes from Persian and means 'place' or 'land' clearly indicating the key influencers of the culture. The post-Soviet Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) are simply known as the Stans but despite the common suffix, the five Stans are supposedly remarkably different.
👉 Turkmenistan is more than 80% desert, whereas Tajikistan & Kyrgyzstan are more than 90% mountains.
👉 Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have vast oil and gas reserves with KZ being the richest country in the region whereas Turkmenistan is wealthy on paper but it's all state-controlled.
👉 Tajikistan on the other hand is poor as a church mouse and is heavily dependent on worker remittances (primarily from Russia) with people in many towns and villages having electricity for only a few hours each day.
👉 The regime in Turkmenistan is extremely insular with strict political isolation almost comparable with North Korea, there is no free press and the president is omnipotent.
👉 Kyrgyzstan on the other hand has even ousted one of its presidents and is moving move towards a democratic nation.
👉 While most of th Stans speak Turkic tongues, Tajiks speak an Iranian language closely tied to Persian.
Although the five countries are in many ways very different, they also share the same origin and fate: for almost seventy years, from 1922 to 1991, they were part of the Soviet Union, a gigantic social experiment without parallel in history. The Bolsheviks abolished private ownership and other individual rights. Their goal was a communist, classless society and they stopped at nothing to achieve it.
2026 marks the 35th anniversary of independence from 'Sovietstan' - it will be interesting to see how different the countries has developed.
Bring it on!Read more
A leisurely explore of Tashkent
September 5 in Uzbekistan
☀️ 30 °C
Landing at 2am in the morning we actually made good time to get to bed by 3:45. But we certainly needed a bit of a kick to get going today.
Having arrived almost 30 hours ahead of our fellow travellers, we have plenty of time to explore the city under our own steam and hopefully see parts of the city we won't cover on our organised tour tomorrow 🤞
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and claims to be the most cosmo- politan city in Central Asia. At first impressions, it's no match with Baku - not as grand (with a few exceptions) and certainly not as clean.
Although the city has been inhabited for over 2000 years, a massive earthquake in 1966 destroyed most of the city. It's now a huge Soviet-designed city with plenty of Soviet-style buildings and gigantic four lane boulevards that aren't designed for walking.
Mind you, we still did plenty of walking despite having a few rides on the famous Tashkent Metro. Built between 1966 and 1977, it was the first metro in Central Asia. The subway stations are beautiful and famed for their amazing architecture. What's more, all set up with modern technology, i.e. just tap in & go and the ride costs just 11 pence for unlimited stops - can you believe it?
We found Kosmonavtlar Metro Station the most impressive stop as it celebrates Soviet space achievements and human fascination with the cosmos with its deep-blue interiors, cosmic murals, and medallions of Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova and other Uzbek astronomers and ceiling designed to resemble the Milky Way. It almost feels like a “hidden museum” of Soviet-era art and science.
The metro took us to the Independence Square which is framed by grand fountains, the Ezgulik Arch with storks - which represent gratitude and peace - and memorials, making it both a very ceremonial looking place.
The Independence Monument itself - a Globe symbolizing Uzbekistan’s sovereignty with a globe highlighting the country’s outline on the world map - isn't really accessible and can only be admired from afar. Interestingly, there used to be a statue of Lenin where the globe is now.
At the northern end of Independent Square we have a look at the “Crying Mother” memorial, a bronze sculpture of a mourning woman symbolizing the pain of mothers whose sons never returned from World War II. The memorial commemorates approx half a million soldiers from Uzbekistan’s 14 regions who died in the war with their names inscribed in the Books of Memories.
From here we walk along the Anhor Canal, a historic waterway originally part of irrigation systems, which has now been revitalized as a modern leisure zone with pedestrian paths, bridges, cafés, and evening light shows (not that we stayed long enough to see these) .
Along the canal, we see the summer concert venue with its stage canopy supported by giant angled steel arms that resemble alien tripods, giving it that “War of the Worlds” vibe.
Further along, we have a look at the Monument of Courage, the city’s most symbolic memorials, dedicated to the victims of the devastating 1966 earthquake that destroyed much of the capital. It stands in a landscaped park near the former epicentre with a black cube split in two, symbolizing the earth breaking apart during the quake and a man, woman, and child stepping forward together, representing resilience and the rebirth of Tashkent.
Very poignant and symbolic!
At the end of our little walking tour along the canal, we wander around
Minor Mosque and Cemetery, one of the most prominent and prestigious resting places, with graves for many of Uzbekistan’s renowned writers, scientists, public officials, and artists.
Apart from being amazed about the elaborate headstones, we can only wonder who these people are.
After another 30 minutes walk, we reach Tashkent TV tower, with 375m the tallest structure in Central Asia.
It's an impressive structure and they certainly showcase their competition with an exhibition of other towers around the world. But unfortunately, the actual visitor platform is only on the lower level, just a mere 6 floors or 97m up. So the views weren't as good as we hoped but we could glimpse the Tian Shan mountains in the distance.
Didn't I say, the city is not made for walking? So after more than 23k steps, we were in desperate need for some refreshments and opted for the rooftop bar of Hotel Uzbekistan. It's nothing special, small indoor bar at 16th floor but very popular. We arrived just in time to have a seat by the window.
.Read more
Tashkent - the official tour
September 6 in Uzbekistan
☀️ 31 °C
A nice leisurely start today as we don't meet up with our fellow travellers until lunchtime (they arrived this morning after an overnight flight - we are so glad we got here earlier). Also, apart from our guide Timur, we are the young ones in the group, naturally Birgit seems quite happy at this!
We met in the lobby and headed off for lunch. Birgit was about to ask for a group photo and casually mentioned she is writing a blog and if everyone was ok to have their photo taken. Somewhat surprisingly the two couple of the party declined, we started to think this might be a long trip but we all got along fine after that!
We actually lunched in a very ornate restaurant, it was a family Sunday lunch sort of place but looked as if we'd gate crashed a wedding 😁
After lunch first stop was the Islamic centre - Hazrati Imam, the historic spiritual heart of Tashkent. Our guide for the day, Akromjon (known as Jonny) explained that the Tashkent region produced hugely influential Muslim scholars, and Tashkent preserves important Islamic manuscripts and monuments.
Amongst other things we visited:
- Barak Khan Madrassa built in the 16th century but now houses handicraft stalls 🤔
- Hazrati Imam Mosque — the impressive twin-minaret mosque is actually modern, completed in 2007.
- The Abu Bakr Kaffal Shashi Mausoleum, the historic core of the Hazrati Imam complex.
Also in the complex was the enormous new Center of Islamic Civilization, opened in March 2026. It's a museum/research centre rather than simply a mosque, covering Central Asia's contribution to Islamic science, scholarship, art and culture - but we didn't go in there.
Instead we went literally next door to one part of the original old town. To be honest it wasn't up to much and we didn't get far because they were filming a TV commercial just where we wanted to go!
The one thing that stood out for me is these old mud houses have methane as the main gas supply! As installed by the Soviet empire ....
Back on our bus Jonny regaled us with a lot of facts about UZ. One of the more interesting was about the top five sources of income for the country:
1 - Agriculture
2 - Gold - they have some of the largest deposits in the world
3 - Light industries / small. Manufacturing
4 - Money from abroad - 20% of the UZ population actually works in other countries and sends money home!
5 - Tourism
But the current president wants to turn this upside down and make Tourism the key pillar.
Next we moved on to Chorzu Bazaar, a massive domed market selling virtually all foodstuffs from Tashkent and beyond. A few free samples were on offer, we particularly liked the macadamia nuts. Originally this was open air but no longer and it's also for the locals just as much as the tourists. Bartering is mandatory of course!
We then took the metro to look at Independence Square again before walking past the Romanov Palace which was built in 1891 for Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I who had been exiled from St Petersburg to Central Asia. He had been accused of stealing diamonds belonging to his mother, apparently in connection with his American mistress.
Next door there's a large building being converted into a hotel. Apparently it used to be the KGB headquarters in Tashkent!
We finally had a brief detour to look at the Alisher Navoiy Theater is Uzbekistan's principal opera and ballet theatre and one of Tashkent's landmark Soviet-era buildings.
It was designed by Alexey Shchusev, who also designed Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow. Construction began around 1940, stopped during WWII and was finally completed in 1947. An unusual part of its history is that Japanese prisoners of war helped complete the building after WWII. Uzbek craftsmen created the elaborate interiors, with different halls decorated in regional styles representing places including Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Fergana.
On the way back to the hotel, we had a brief drive round Amir Temur square and then an early night.
All in all it was ok but I'm glad we saw something of Tashkent the day before as well to give us a better overall view of the city.Read more
Nukus and the Savitsky Museum
September 7 in Uzbekistan
☁️ 30 °C
Gosh, another early start - alarm went off at 4:30 - to catch our flight to Nukus, an isolated, rather nondescript city, located in the valley of Amu Darya.
In fact, Nukus lies in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic inside Uzbekistan.
This adds another 'Stan' but sadly not another country to our list 🤔
However, the destruction of the Aral Sea has pushed the republic's environment to the brink and it now feels like the half-forgotten end of the world. I would have loved to get closer to the no longer existing Aral Sea but unfortunately, it's not on the tour agenda and too far to go in the few free hours we have this afternoon.
So why come all the way here???
It's definitely a place for off-beat travel but a haven for art lovers.
Nukus' main claim to fame is the Savitsky Museum - a museum of forbidden art, housing remarkable late Soviet avant-garde art that was prohibited and destroyed elsewhere in the country for not conforming to the socialist realism of the times (1920s and 1930s).
We had a very detailed guided tour through the exhibitions. The museum owns about 100,000 artefacts - at times, it felt we were looking at all of them. Maybe this isn't fair to the lady who has such a wealth of knowledge of Russian, Uzbek and Karakalpak art but for me (and I am sure for my fellow travellers) it was too much.
From what she explained about the background of the museum, here are just a few items that will stick
☝️Savitsky Museum often hailed as the "Louvre of the Steppes," houses the world's second-largest collection of Russian avant-garde art alongside thousands of Karakalpak ethnographic treasures.
☝️Igor Savitsky is the man 'Who Saved the Forbidden'. Originally from Kyiv, he trained as an artist in Russia and in 1950 joined an archaeological expedition in the area. Enchanted by the desert light and local nomadic culture, Savitsky abandoned his Moscow life permanently for Nukus.
☝️As Stalinist doctrine enforced Socialist Realism — crushing any art that didn't glorify Soviet labour — Savitsky realized an entire generation of avant-garde artists was being erased, imprisoned, or executed. He turned Nukus - far from the watchful gaze of Moscow - into a sanctuary of forbidden art. And sometimes, when he couldn't pay for the paintings, he wrote 'I owe you' for the artist or their widows
☝️ Savitsky frequently persuaded local Uzbek officials to give him state rubles to purchase what he called "regional ethnographic research"—only to spend the cash rescuing blacklisted art across Moscow and Leningrad.
As for the art work, there are just a few out of the many we have been shown that I find striking.
☝️The Bull by Vasily Lisenko
The museum's defining piece. Featuring a charging beast with hollow, shotgun- barrel eyes, Soviet censors condemned Lisenko to a lunatic asylum partly under the pretense that "a bull cannot be blue". When a visiting party bureaucrat demanded Savitsky take it down, Savitsky quietly complied—only to rehang it the second the inspector's car vanished over the horizon.
☝️Woman Bukhara by Victor Ufimtcev - like much of the non-conformist art gathered by Igor Savitsky, the piece works on two levels. Superficially, it aligns with Soviet critique against feudal oppression and religious conservatism. Subversively, the motif of barred windows, padlocks, and suffocating isolation served as a potent allegory for life behind the Iron Curtain under Soviet totalitarianism.
☝️ At the Chaykhana (tea house) by Alexandr Volkov (note Lenin's portrait of in the back)
In the 1920s, the Soviets actively transformed teahouses — the epicenter of male community life, storytelling, and local governance — into political education cells. The Soviet state was demanding that artists abandon formal experimentation and adopt clear, uplifting Socialist Realism.
👉 Incorporating the portrait of Lenin was partly a survival strategy—a visible token of ideological loyalty that allowed Volkov to continue experimenting with radical forms and deep local themes.
👉 Yet the painting subtly subverts the state's intended narrative. Instead of showing an enthusiastic class of "re-educated Soviet labourers," Volkov portrays an ancient, meditative, and unhurried culture that seems capable of outlasting any political regime hanging on its walls.
We spent 2 hours in the museum, without water (not allowed), and at times it felt a bit gruelling but it was doubtless a fairly unique visit. Not something many westerners will ever do and certainly thought provoking. However, I think we are all happy there's no more museums like that on the itinerary!Read more
Mizdakhan - the sacred city of tombs
September 7 in Uzbekistan
☀️ 31 °C
After a stop for lunch - desperately needed after the marathon in the museum - we drive about 40 min outside of Nukus, just 8km from the border with Turkmenistan to the remains of the ancient Mizdakhan Necropolis, once the largest city in this region. The city was founded in the 4th century BC and inhabited right up to the 14th century when it was destroyed by Tamerlane, the Turko- Mongol leader who conquered most of Central Asia.
It's one of the oldest and most visited pilgrimage sites of the region. Even after its destruction, it remained a sacred place, although as a 'city of the dead' and it's still used today as an active burial site.
There are a few interesting burial sites we had a look at in more detail
☝️Mazlumkhan Sulu Mausoleum, one of
the best-preserved architectural gems within the ancient Mizdakhan.
Built during the Golden Horde period (13th–14th), it is a unique underground palace-like tomb, richly decorated with glazed turquoise and dark-blue tiles.
The story goes, that a poor architect fell in love with the beautiful daughter of the local ruler. The father of the girl declared that he would only win her hand if he could create an architectural miracle: a palace that is cool in summer and warm in winter. Having built this beautiful palace, the ruler still didn't approve of the marriage - so the young girl and her lover together jumped to their deaths from the roof of the dome. In the end, the grieving father buried the young lovers side-by-side in the palace which became the underground resting place for them for eternity.
☝️Mausoleum of Khalifa Erejep, an 11th century ruin believed to be the resting place of a spiritual teacher who taught wisdom to his followers. But it's far more famous for its mythological connection:
👉 Local legend says that it's the burial place of Adam, the first man. Historians trace this legend back to ancient Zoroastrian traditions
👉 The crumbling structure of Khalifa Erejep serves as an allegorical hourglass of the Apocalypse. According to the legend, one brick falls from the walls of the mausoleum each year. When the final brick dislodges and strikes the ground, the clock runs out, triggering the end of the world.
Interestingly, out of respect for the myth and a symbolic desire to postpone the apocalypse, pilgrims who visit the ruin stack the fallen bricks into small, balanced pillars and in 2024, the government with support from the US embassy in UZ decided to partly reconstruct the mausoleum 🤷
☝️Shamun Nabi Mausoleum
Unlike typical single-domed Central Asian mausoleums, the building features an elongated rectangular hall crowned with seven domes. Inside rests an unusually long cenotaph measuring over 25 metres in length.
And the story goes ... Shamun Nabi was remembered not just as a prophet and mystic healer, but as a legendary warrior of supernatural stature, strength and size, battling infidel rulers and wild beasts.
In fact, when Soviet archaeologists excavated beneath the 25-metre cenotaph, they found no giant skeleton—in fact, there were no human remains inside the giant mound at all.
☝️Jumart Kassab Mound is believed to be the only Zoroastrian grave in Mizdakhan.
The mound is about 5m high and is linked to the Islamic legend of Jumart the Butcher. According to the story, Jumart was a prosperous and generous butcher who lived during severe famine and drought. Instead of hoarding or selling his stock at exorbitant prices, he gave away meat free of charge to the poor and hungry. When he was dying and as he didn't have any children himself, the community asked him what they could do for him. So he asked for a handful of soil on his grave whenever someone came there. One needs a lot of handfuls to get to 5m.
Even on a very hot afternoon it had a certain eerie atmosphere in the peace and quiet.Read more
Zoroastrians 'Tower of Silence' - Chilpik Kala
September 8 in Uzbekistan
⛅ 22 °C
Only a 40km drive from Nukus, we stopped at Chilpik Kala, a circular structure on a hill top, that was originally a Zoroastrian burial place or 'Tower of Silence'.
In Zoroastrianism, once the dominant religion in Persia, towers such as Chilpik Kala were an important element in their burial rituals
In these kinds of towers, the bodies of the dead were exposed to the elements so that with the effect of the sun and birds (usually vultures) they could be disposed of naturally.
The impressive tower of Chilpik Kala is thought to have been built over 2000 years ago. Although it seems more likely a remnant of an ancient volcano.
It eventually became a signal tower until the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. It was scientifically studied until 1940 and today it is depicted on the coat of arms of the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan.
The way up is via lots of steps but over a long enough distance to be pleasant. Nevertheless we pause half way along for our guide, Quaat, to explain the legend associated. i.e. sons carried their old (but still alive!) fathers up to the top and left them there to die as old people were thought to have no value! This changed when one son hid his father in the basement. That father then helped his son to cure the king of an illness all the royal physicians couldn't. When the king discovered it was from the old man, instead of punishing the son he changed the custom and recognised old people do actually have value 😁
After a few more steps there was a short scramble to the summit. Kudos to the old people as we all made it!
From the top of the ruins there are excellent views over the surrounding country and to the river Amu Darya.Read more
Crossing the Kyzylkum Desert ...
September 8 in Uzbekistan
☁️ 32 °C
After an hour or so enjoying the scenery at the Zoroastrian tower, we are back in our minibus and on the way to Khiva.
It's about 150 km on a highway ... at least that's what our driver said.
Along the way, we are crossing the vast Kyzylkum desert, which lies between the two (once upon a time) great rivers - Syr Darya and Amu Darya.
The Kyzylkum desert (meaning 'red sand' in Turkic although it does look anything but) is one of the most extensive deserts in Asia.
The crossing of the desert was an important stage on the Silk Road - Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane all passed through here, as did British and Russian spies in the 19th century, often disguised as holy men and horse traders, during the secret stratagems of the 'Great Game', when Russia and England were vying for influence in the region.
Most of the way we see scrappy looking shrubs and sand, interspersed with miles and miles of fields growing cotton and strangely plenty of rice fields.
I certainly did not expect rice being planted in an area that struggles with water supply. Timur, our tour guide, explained that the two main rivers (Syr Darya & Amu Darya) are actually originating in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and both countries starting to build dams for hydropower cutting off even more of the water supply. Water that is already scarce because of the irrigation system introduced during Soviet time for growing cotton which has resulted in the environmental disaster of the Aral Sea. Water security is certainly a big topic in the region.
But back to our journey ... highway?
It has been a very bumpy 2.5 hour ride and we were all very happy when we finally reached Khiva.
There we were awed by the beauty of the place we are staying at - an old Madrassa.
It's true Silk Road feeling!Read more
Khiva!
September 9 in Uzbekistan
☁️ 33 °C
After a long journey yesterday, we are in Khiva - if it didn't feel like we were on the Silk Road before, we certainly do now!
Khiva is an ancient city of the Silk Road, once famous for its slave market - the second biggest in Central Asia. The centre is a UNESCO site also known as Itchan Kala, the fortified capital and royal city of the Khans - the ruling dynasty.
Nowadays the well preserved city centre is a delightful labyrinth of narrow mud-walled alleyways and spectacular blue mosaics. But the first impression is deceptive and the buildings in the old town are not as old as they look. Most of them are from the 19th century.
First things first though, our hotel is the magnificent Orient Star just inside the walled city and formerly the Mohammed Amin Khan Madrassa. In fact this was one of Khivas 64 madrassas until the 1930's but is now an amazingly atmospheric hotel.
On our first full day here we embarked on a tour with our new guide - Bakram. Once again, information overload but some of the things he explained to start with:
- the walled city covers a total of 26 hectares with seemingly countless mosques, minarets and madrassas.
- there is a population of 3000 today.
- founded in 4BC it has been destroyed four times and most buildings aren't older than the 18th century
- it's also known as "land of stairs", I think we climbed every one!
- Our hotel was such a good Madrassa Bakram said it was the "Harvard of central Asia"
Our first stop was literally outside the front door where there is Khivas most iconic landmark - the unfinished minaret. Fantastically decorated, this 29 metres high structure was begun by Muhammad Amin Khan around 1852 and was intended to be enormous—probably around 70–80 metres high. Construction abruptly stopped in 1855 when Muhammad Amin Khan was killed during a military campaign against the Turkmen. Without its patron, the project was abandoned.
Next stop was the Khans royal palace, the Kunya-Ark Castle. This was a mixture of palace and administration in former times. We looked at dungeons, reception areas, winter and summer mosques as well as the mint. Most of the grand buildings have the same magnificent telltale blue mosaics patterns, all slightly different, with depictions of geometry or fruits like pomegranate, lemon and almonds - each one of them with their symbology.
After stopping for some refreshing mint tea we stopped at a silk carpet factory. Not saw much factory but a small family run business/cooperative. Here, Bakram explained the process from silk worm to finished articles. We saw a carpet being painstakingly worked on as well as the obligatory display of a few for sale 😉. At about $5k each we decided to give them a miss on this occasion 😂.
After yet another substantial lunch (in an old madrassa) we headed for the Tash-Hovli (“Stone Palace”). It was the new royal palace of the Khans of Khiva, built for Allah Kuli Khan between 1830 and 1838. It was intended to be more luxurious and comfortable than the older Kunya-Ark. Inside were several artifacts to look at but the harem was the main attraction with five bedrooms, one for the Khan and the others for each of his four wives, the tallest one obviously for the Khan. The Khan had some back stairs built so he could secretly attend any of the wives to try and prevent jealousy amongst the others!
The final stop of the afternoon was the Juma mosque. Once capable of holding 5000 worshippers it is now just for the tourist. Although with its several hundred wooden columns it felt very atmospheric.
The day was rounded off with our first taste of the traditional dish - plov. Not quite as oily as we thought but definitely not a diet dish 😉.Read more
Golden hour and Khiva at night
September 9 in Uzbekistan
🌙 23 °C
We only have a short break after our full-on city tour before we are off to catch the golden hour while walking Khiva's city walls.
The ascent begins at the North Gate, where a flight of mud-brick steps climbs steeply toward the parapet. They are uneven, knee-jarring, and devoid of handrails, it's crawling up on all-fours territory.
Once we are atop the ramparts, the first thing we spot are workers replastering the walls, a never ending task as the mud & straw cover doesn't last very long when exposed to the elements.
Walking along you definitely needs to have their wits about you, the ground is uneven, narrow and partly covered in the mud-straw giving off a not too pleasant smell in places.
With the high walls, it's almost impossible to catch the sunset and the few glimpses through the holes are a bit underwhelming - but as Fergus says 'there will be another sunset tomorrow'.
It is at night, when the daytime tourists disappear and the warm, amber spotlights cast long, dramatic shadows against carved wooden pillars, soaring portals, coloured domes and minarets that Khiva begins to look like a scene pulled from the pages of A Thousand and One Nights.
Or in other words - just gorgeous 🥰Read more
Ichan-Kala's gorgeous bronze sculptures
September 10 in Uzbekistan
☀️ 25 °C
We have seen plenty (and frankly enough) of the historic buildings and Madrassas in Khiva.
So for our free day, we were looking for a different sort of sightseeing!
There are a few contemporary bronze sculptures dotted around Ichan-Kala, depicting everyday historical Khorezmian life and creating a modern contrast to the city’s grand Islamic architecture.
So we went on a bit of a treasure hunt to find the most iconic ones.
☝️Camel Caravan Sculpture - Silk Road merchants, loaded camels, and caravaneers are placed near the fortified entrance of the Western gate honoring Khiva's history as a major Silk Road trading oasis.
☝️Elders at the Chaikhana (teahouse) - two older men laughing and relaxing on a traditional wooden daybed. Next to them are tea bowls, a traditional teapot, and a samovar, capturing Central Asian tea culture.
☝️Boys with Watermelon - two boys sharing a massive slice of melon while sitting on a wooden log. One wears a traditional Khorezmian sheepskin hat while the other wears a traditional skullcap. It captures the region's famous melon-growing heritage and local childhood life.
☝️Boy Musician / group of musicians - in traditional garb playing regional instruments, paying tribute to Khorezm’s folk musical heritage.
☝️Kurash Wrestlers - two athletes locked in Kurash, the ancient national belt-wrestling sport of Uzbekistan that dates back millennia.
And finally, we were on the hunt for the sculpture of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi - a 9th-century polymath born in Khorezm whose treatise gave birth to the word algebra and whose name is the root of the word algorithm.
Well, we were walking around for quite a while and finally gave up!
Telling AI that the sculpture actually no longer exists, it came back with ...
" You are spot on, the original bronze statue from the Soviet era (erected in 1983 for his 1200th anniversary) was dismantled and removed from that main square outside the West Gate back in the early 2010s during city modernization works.
Many guidebooks and travel blogs still list it as if it were standing right by the ticket gates, but the plaza has since been cleared and redesigned"
What can I say 🤷🤷Read more
The story of Mennonites in Khiva
September 10 in Uzbekistan
☁️ 28 °C
We were totally surprised to learn that Mennonites, a unique German- speaking religious community (from Switzerland and Netherland) migrated to Central Asia in the 1880s, settling in a village near Khiva.
So far, we have only come across Mennonites during our trip to North America - perhaps this shows our ignorance 🙈
Their influence on local life, education and even food is quite profound. So much so that there is actually a little museum documenting the community's lasting cultural and agricultural imprint on the region.
Initially, Mennonites moved from Switzerland and the Netherlands to Russia mainly because of religious persecution in Western Europe and the promise of land, religious freedom, and exemption from military service offered by the Russian Empire in the late 18th century. But then moved further eastward after Russia threatened to end their exemption from military service.
Muhammad Rahim Khan II - the Khan of Khiva - invited the Mennonites as they were seen as skilled workers, especially in agriculture.
Our guide told us, that some of the most eaten vegetables in Uzbekistan have actually been introduced by the Mennonites - crops like potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, and aubergine.
Believe me, we had aubergine 🍆 and tomato 🍅, practically with every meal!!
Mennonites set up schools to teach their skills in carpentry, farming, and mechanics, influencing Khiva’s economy and technology. They even introduced photography - which is actually frowned upon in Islamic culture but the Khan was quite happy to have his picture taken.
Ultimately, the Mennonites disappeared from Uzbekistan with younger generations being either increasingly assimilated into Soviet society or emigration to Germany and North America
Sadly, we weren't supposed to take pictures in the little museum. Cheekily Fergus managed to get a couple.
There was even a picture of the German Bundespresident Steinmeyer with the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev (May 2019), when President Steinmeier travelled to Khiva to explore its historic heritage of the German Mennonites. Unfortunately, we couldn't snap a photo of it.Read more
Aimlessly wandering around Khiva
September 10 in Uzbekistan
☁️ 27 °C
There is no agenda today, so we wander around Khiva to catch a few glimpses of local life, people and capture some last impressions of Ichan Kala, the walled old town.
We also had a look at the fake tombs outside the south gate of the city. The primary legend surrounding these tombs is that they served as a defensive deterrent against invading Muslim forces and nomadic raiders. In Islamic military and cultural ethics, stepping over or desecrating graves is considered severely sinful and forbidden. The city’s defenders deliberately constructed graves and cenotaph-style mounds along vulnerable approaches and the inner base of the walls, calculating that pious invaders would refuse to charge through, scale, or drive siege equipment across a burial ground.
So farewell Khiva, you gave a fascinating view of life in a different world.Read more
Off to Turkmenistan ...
September 11 in Turkmenistan
☀️ 26 °C
It's a very early start today - we are up before the sun - to get to the border with Turkmenistan (TM) at Shavat as soon as it opens. It's the only border in this region that is open to foreigners. ALL foreigners need a visa to get into TM with the exception of residents of the Shavat region as families are living either side of the border.
After about 40 min drive, we reach the Uzbek side of the border - meaning:
Everyone gets out of the minibus, picks up their luggage and then waits at the iron gates until the border guard lets us in.
Well, we have to hand our passport to the guard who is then leafing through all the pages before we are let through the gates - one at a time of course.
Next, all our luggage has to go through security screening before we join the next queue at border control. There is a short moment of apprehension when both our rucksacks are stopped for further investigation.
It seems we have rather a lot of medication in the bag - but none are banned substances - and they didn't like the shape of my power bank. Suppose to the weary eye, it could look like a bomb or a hand grenade as it doesn't have the typical brick like shape. But all good!
So, we wait for the actual border guards to inspect our passports and the required face screening. And we are almost through when there is a blip in the electricity - there we go, we think - but that's quickly sorted and we get our exit stamp.
One would think we are through now, but no! Take your luggage and walk for another 50m to the UZ gate to no-man's land. And here we go again, hand your passport over ... checking through all the pages before we are finally entering the neutral zone. It has taken us 75 min to get that far.
From here, it's about 1km to the border with TM. Luckily, there is a bus and we don't have to lug our luggage along the dusty road in the late morning heat.
Arriving at the border control post of TM, we are met by our TM guide - Shelby.
There is no way to travel in TM without an official, government approved travel agent.
And here begins the organised chaos. It's a small building with lots of groups - Japanese, Chinese, some Belgian, lots of locals and us congregating in a very small room. It's a bit of a squeeze.
First of all, having handed over our passports to our TM tour guide everyone has to 'park' their luggage somewhere in the room and queue to get a Covid test done while our tour guide queues to officially register our passports to get a bill per person for entering TM.
Done that, she collects the necessary dollars from everyone and queues at the cashier to pay for us to receive formal proof of payment while we wait patiently huddled around our luggage in a corner of the room.
Finally, having received the handwritten paper confirming that we have paid our dues, we are asked to move our luggage to another corner of the room ever so slightly closer to the actual border control booths. The masses in the little room move like tides - every new bus load from the UZ border starts a new wave.
But finally, it's our turn to queue up at border control which actually moves rather quickly. Hand over your passport to the border guard, smile for another picture to be taken and leave your thumb prints. Hey presto, in less than 10 mins we are through.
Actually, no, not yet.
Our luggage has to go through security screening again - well, understandable - and we have to hand over our passports to the guard manning the security screening ... who leafs through all the pages of the passport.
That's it we think and pack away our passports. But hey no!
Leaving the building, we have to handover our passports to the doorman who leafs through ....
It must be it now - surely!
Well, think again. We have to handover our passports to two more guards who...... before we are finally let out through the iron gates and officially enter TM 🙌
All in all it took about 2.5 hours - almost equally split between leaving UZ and entering TM - and handing over our passports 10 times. Apparently, quite a record as Timur, our general guide, said it can easily take 4 hours.
So then, how about the country?
In lots of the books I read, TM is often described as the "North Korea of Central Asia" because it has long been one of the world's most isolated and tightly controlled countries. Not surprisingly having jumped through all the hoops to get our visa to start with and then crossing the border.
However, the comparison is not exact but several features have led to the nickname:
☝️Authoritarian rule: Since independence in 1991, the country has been ruled by highly centralized presidency with very little political opposition. Elections are not considered free or competitive by international observers. In fact, the current president is the son of the previous president.
☝️Cult of personality: The first president, Saparmurat Niyazov (who called himself Turkmenbashi, "Leader of the Turkmen"), promoted an extensive personality cult. His portraits were everywhere. He even declared himself as President for life.
The father of the current President called Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow changed his name to Arkadag, meaning The Protector. An entire smart city built outside Ashgabat, along with television channels, monuments, and a top-tier football club, is named Arkadag in his honour.
The current President is called Arkadagly signifying that he has the backing, protection, and legacy of his father. Also, he has been awarded with
Hero of Turkmenistan status and his portraits are everywhere
☝️ Restrictions on civil liberties:
International watchdogs, United Nations committees, and foreign observers consistently rank Turkmenistan among the most restrictive and repressive countries in the world with strong digital censorship Internet access is among the most restricted and expensive globally. Major social media platforms (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp) and independent news websites are blocked.
☝️Isolation: Our experience confirms that the government tightly controls tourism, visas, and contact with the outside world, making it difficult for foreigners to visit and for citizens to travel abroad. However, with the new President this seems to improve.
In 2025, 40,000 tourists visited TM while the year before it was only 12,000.
Despite these similarities, there are important differences from North Korea. Turkmenistan is proud of it's neutrality, has a much smaller military, maintains diplomatic and trade relations with many countries, exports large amounts of natural gas, and does not pursue nuclear weapons. It is definitely less confrontational internationally.
It will be interesting to spend some time with our official tour guide and hear her views.
Let the next part of our adventure begin!Read more
Driving to 'The Gate of Hell' and back
September 11 in Turkmenistan
☀️ 26 °C
After crossing the border we stopped in Dashogghoguz uz, the capital of the northern province for lunch before embarking on the long and bumpy road to Darvaza in the heart of the vast Karakum Desert, one of the largest sand deserts in the world.
Our destination is the 'Gate to Hell', a gas crater that has been burning for over 50 years and one of Turkmenistan's most unusual and surreal sights - so they say.
It's a journey of 370 km, about a 5 hour drive based on current road conditions. The first couple of hours go by in relative comfort but after that ...
Never have we seen or driven along a road that bad. In fact, it's so bad, that cars and trucks are driving off-road to avoid the worst sections.
The road built in mid-1990s is mainly used for transit from Iran through to Uzbekistan. Normal people wouldn't even use it, they fly instead.
Our driver was telling us that in 2016, it was still possible to cross the desert from Dashoguz to the Iranian border close to Ashgabat (540 km) in four hours - driving as a maniac I guess - now it takes lorries over 24 hours to make the journey. The road hasn't been maintained since 2008 and was definitely not built for the 40t lorries crossing it daily.
After just over 5 hours of being shaken around and feeling slightly worse for wear 😵💫 🫨, we finally make it to the gas crater at Darvaza aka 'Gate to Hell'.
Before 'checking in' at our yurt camp in the desert, we have a look at the famous gas crater. It's rather underwhelming to say the least.
Apparently, the flames are now less than an third they have been and might disappear fully in the future, especially now that the Chinese have started to pump out the underlying gas field.
This crater, set in the middle of the desert, has a diameter of 60-70 metres and is about 30 metres deep and was formed when a natural gas field collapsed into a crater during gas explorations by Soviet geologists in early 1970s. Apparently, it got covered up by the Soviets - our guide compared it to Chernobyl - until it became clear that something needed to be done against the foul-smelling methane gas.
The decision was taken to ignite it with the expectation that it would burn for a matter of days or weeks. Well, more than 5 decades later, it's still going (sort of).
So after a quick walk around the crater, we go to our yurt camp for some rest while our guides prepare dinner.
Having sat for most of the day, we spend some time wandering through the desert marvelling at the sunset.
As soon as the sun sets, it gets cold in the desert so I am quite happy to go back to the crater after dinner. The heat coming up from there is just lovely.
We get bored pretty quickly and after trying my luck on some astro photography, it's time for bed.Read more
The road out of hell
September 12 in Turkmenistan
☀️ 19 °C
After a sleepless night on the rather hard camp bed in the yurt, I am up early to catch the sunrise ...
After a quick and unhealthy breakfast and a rudimentary wash at the facilities, we start early to cover the remaining 280 km across the Karakum desert on the way to Ashgabat, the capital of TM.
On the way stop at two more craters, these are also collapsed drilling sites from the Soviet era, each with distinct features — the mud crater emits a strong odour and bubbling gases, while the water crater is filled with liquid where gas bubbles rise to the surface.
The road conditions are pretty much the same as yesterday. So we are shaken around again but we are promised an improvement of the road.
And hurray, after about 1.5 hrs when we reach the end of the desert and start getting closer to Ashgabat it's getting better!
Glad that's over!Read more
Ashgabat - city of ......
September 12 in Turkmenistan
☀️ 31 °C
Whatever words you might use to describe Turkmenistans capital, Ashgabat, there would always be more that spring to mind. Surreal, dystopian, futuristic, fantastical, authoritarian, breathtaking, vibrant, Orwellian..... the list can go on with a wide variety of adjectives.
Its nickname is the city of lovers yet others seem more appropriate: city of contradictions, white city, city of the future.
It's actually a very young city, founded in about 1920 then virtually completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1948, rebuilt by the Soviets and finally, since a "Golden Age" was announced by the president in 2000, the city centre has been transformed by magnificent buildings and giant monuments made of marble. It's in the Guinness book of World Records for the most marble buildings in a city! (We'll gloss over the fact most of the marble is imported from Iran or China...)
Coming from the desert region, our driver has to show his documents before we can drive into the Ashgabat District. What's more, window shades are not allowed, so Birgit has to lower hers and sit in the sun instead. Just before reaching the city, we need to swap cars as the two we have been using in the desert are not allowed to enter the city.
The roads are worthy of an Oil-rich state - four lanes wide in each direction, illuminated by white, specially designed lights. But, hardly any traffic, not exactly a ghost city but the immediate impression is it's over the top for the needs of the normal citizen.
And the buildings are truly awesome. Huge, fantastic designed edifices spread around (this is not a walking city). Most seem to be universities, specialist medical centres or government departments. Indeed, if you work in a government department you also live in a block for civil servants of the department!
The parks are also massive and intricately designed and manicured. The roundabouts all have huge statues or centrepieces depicting something.
It's like no other place we've been to.
After an hour to freshen up we start our tour by going to the National Museum. It's as magnificent inside as it is outside, internally built with Italian marble. Only 2 floors are relevant, the first being all about ancient times, Alexander the Great and origins of the region. The second floor seems more about the current president, Turkmenistan position in the world i.e. a neutral country, and finally, a large section about horses! Somehow they missed out the part of the history of being part of the Russian empire in the 1800's and the Soviet empire in the 1900's....
Anyway, it's back on the bus towards Nisa - post Alexander the Great, the Parthians made Nisa an important royal centre from aenbashisround the 3rd century BC. Our visit there will be covered in a separate post but in the meantime we passed a few interesting monuments.
As mentioned above, TM is very proud of its neutrality. Thus they have a couple of monuments proclaiming that. In 1995, the UN formally recognised TM's status of permanent neutrality. The Monument of Neutrality commemorates this. Originally built in 1998 in the city centre, it is a huge three-legged structure topped by a golden statue of Turkmenistan's first president, Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenbashi).
Famously, the original statue rotated during the day so that Niyazov always faced the sun. The monument was dismantled and rebuilt on the outskirts of Ashgabat in 2010; the statue is still on top, but no longer rotates. I have to say it looked more like a space rocket to me 😂
Then we had a brief stop at the Independence monument. This celebrates TM becoming independent from the Soviet Union on 27 October 1991.
It's one of Ashgabat's characteristically enormous white-marble complexes. The central tower is 91 metres high with the final top part another 27 metres — therefore a symbolic number referring to 27 October 1991 . (We found out that symbolism is a big part of Ashgabat.) Around the monument are statues of important figures from Turkmen history, landscaped gardens and fountains.
Our final sightseeing stop was just outside Ashgabat for the mosque and mausoleum of Turkmenbashi. He designed it all himself and it was completed in 2004, two years before his death. Located in the village he was born in, it is another magnificent building. It's one of Central Asia's largest mosques, accommodating around 10,000 worshippers - women can pray on the upper floor whilst man use the main floor. Unusually—and controversially—the walls contain quotations not only from the Qur'an, but also from Turkmenbashi's own Ruhnama, his book of spiritual, moral and national teachings. The story goes that the Turkish builders of mosques around TM refused to build it because of this. So instead he found a French company who did it for the right price - not that we know how much it cost!
Just next door is the mausoleum he is buried in with the rest of his family.
Sightseeing done for now we headed for our guides favourite bar/restaurant in an older suburb of the city. It was totally western and the complete opposite of what we had been looking at the past few hours.
Finally on the way back to our hotel (in Ashgabat everything has to close by 11 pm), we admired all the buildings again but this time all illuminated. It was like Las Vegas, but spread over a much wider area.
What a surreal yet fascinating place. I could have easily spent another day there.Read more
Nisa - the capital of the ancient Parthian Empire
September 12 in Turkmenistan
☀️ 29 °C
From Ashgabat, it's only a short trip to the excavations of old Nisa, one of the earliest and most vital royal strongholds of the Parthian Empire (3rd century BC – 3rd century AD).
While local residents always knew the mounds existed, Nisa was uncovered through several archaeological digs.
In the 1930s, Turkmen-Soviet archaeologists suggested that this might be the seat of the Parthian kings. But only in the 1950s and 1960s, did a TM team unearth the royal palace and other major treasures. Even now, fieldwork is ongoing by an Italian- Turkmen team.
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, it represents a remarkable cultural crossroads where Persian royal traditions merged with Hellenistic Greek art and Central Asian nomad culture.
The Parthians are famous for:
☝️defeating the Romans, most notably at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.
☝️their empire rivalling Rome by conquering Persia, Mesopotamia and modern Iraq
☝️ mastering mounted warfare with heavily armoured cavalry and expert horse archers; the origin of the famous "Parthian shot," where riders fired arrows backwards while retreating.
☝️creating a distinctive culture by blending Persian traditions with Hellenistic (Greek) artistic influence, e.g. beautiful ivory drinking horns decorated with scenes from Greek mythology
Turkmenbashi, the first president of independent Turkmenistan, integrated Nisa into his state-sponsored nation- building ideology and personal cult by rewriting history in the Ruhnama - his 'Book of the Soul", a mandatory philosophical text to be studied by every citizen designed to forge a unified national identity.
In it, he claimed that the Turkmen people had a continuous 5,000-year civilizational history directly descending from ancient empires, most notably the Parthians.
In reality, the ancient Parthians were an East Iranian-speaking society, whereas modern Turkmens are of Turkic origin.
Turkmenbashi bridged this gap ideologically, framing Nisa not as an Iranian or Hellenistic relic, but as a monument of Turkmen ancestral genius.
Turkmenbashi was so engrossed in that ideology that he built the Ruhy mosque and his mausoleum in a spot that can be easily seen through the remnants of Nisa's fortress wall.Read more
Merv - one of world's great lost cities
September 13 in Turkmenistan
☀️ 24 °C
It's another early start today (alarm set for 4am) to catch a flight to Mary, a city in the southeast of TM.
There is a slight panic when one of our group isn't even awake 10 min before we want to depart for the airport - and no, it's not one of us; remember, we are the youngsters on this trip. The last two days have taken their toll. But all ends well and we get to the airport in time to make the flight.
Arriving in Mary after a short 40-minute flight, we are in desperate need of some coffee and tea. So why not stop at our hotel, drop off the luggage to top up on caffeine, even though we can't check in so early in the morning. In fact, it would have been great to have some breakfast there instead of the stale takeaway breakfast from the hotel in Ashgabat (which sadly most of us put in the bin anyway ... think some constructive criticism for our tour operator is in order).
The whole purpose for the trip to Mary is to visit Merv, one of the greatest oasis cities along the ancient Silk Road. It connected routes towards Bukhara and China, Khorezm, Persia & Afghanistan.
Merv was part of Alexander the Great's empire in the 4th century BCE but was most powerful during the Seljuk Empire in the 12th century. It was briefly considered the largest city in the world - home to roughly half a million people, famed for its massive libraries and rivaling cities like Baghdad, Cairo, and Constantinople as a centre of science, philosophy, and Islamic culture, before being destroyed by Mongol armies in 1221.
Since 1999, Ancient Merv is a UNESCO World Heritage site containing archaeological layers spanning over 4000 years.
A bit disappointing for us, the desert people did not build for eternity. With the main building material being clay, most of the structures are nothing more than mounds in the sand and no-one knows for certain what lies hidden beneath the ground within the ruins of the city. It may be houses or temples, perhaps even entire palaces.
In fact, Ancient Merv is so vast (roughly 20 square km), that we are driven between the different ruins.
As everywhere, history and legends are plentiful, but only a few things stick in my head at the end of the day ...
☝️The most memorable - shall I say legend that has nothing to do with the ruins is that at several places in Merv we were 'hijacked' by groups of young girls and families to have their pictures taken with us. It almost felt like being minor celebrities.
☝️ Greater and Lesser Kyz-Kala (8th–9th centuries), fortified mud-brick fortresses. While their exact purpose is debated - elite noble residences, fortified manors or storehouses - the architecture with corrugated columns is unique.
According to local folklore, Great Kyz Kala housed a fiercely independent princess, while the nearby Little Kyz Kala was home to young men and eager suitors. The princess decreed that she would only marry a man who could throw an apple all the way from the walls of the men's fortress across the expanse into her castle window.
After plenty of men failed, one clever suitor built a small catapult or sling and successfully launching the apple right into her room. And guess what?
She kept her word.
☝️As-Sahaba Complex. The twin domed tombs commemorate two 7th-century companions of the Prophet Muhammad. According to the legend Buraydah, one of the companions, met Muhammad while intending to capture him for a bounty on behalf of Buddhists, but was so moved upon meeting the Prophet that he converted immediately and became a follower and standard bearer of Mohammed
☝️Erk-Kala (6th century BC), the oldest of Merv structures, a massive circular citadel dating back to the Achaemenid Persian era.
After a steep but easy climb to the top, the view was really impressive, especially over the rounded fortress remains and the surrounding landscape of the desert.
☝️The Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar (12th century) houses the tomb of the last great ruler of the Seljuk Empire. Standing nearly 38 meters tall with massive brick dome and intricate geometric brickwork it is another masterpiece of medieval Islamic architecture according to the experts.
And of course, there is a legend ...
Sultan Sanjar fell in love with a magical winged fairy (or ghost). She agreed to marry him on three conditions: he must never watch her comb her hair, never look at her feet while she walked, and never hug her. Driven by curiosity, Sanjar broke all three: he peeked while she groomed and saw she removed her head to comb her hair. He saw she glided without her feet never touching the ground. When he tried to hold her, he felt she had no spine. Distraught by his betrayal, she transformed into a dove and flew into the sky. Before disappearing forever, she told Sanjar: "Build the highest building in the land with an hole in the roof; every Friday I will fly by so you can see me." Sanjar built the mausoleum with an open central skylight which is now right above his tomb.
☝️ The Muhammad ibn Zayd Mausoleum. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad which gave the shrine particular religious importance.
Just outside the entrance of the mausoleum grows a tamarisk tree. According to folk belief, prayers uttered near the saint's resting place carry special favour. For centuries, visiting pilgrims, particularly women praying for fertility, have tied colourful scraps of cloth to its branches to show their wishes.
It's taken a few hours to get around the ruins and as we didn't have any breakfast, we are all more than happy when it's time for lunch.
As a surprise, we have lunch at a small newly established family business with race horses, camels and plenty of traditional costumes.
Before we sit down for lunch, we learn about the famous TM horse breed, Akhal Teke (but I have forgotten everything already) and about wedding customs & costumes.
In fact, I had to take one for the team and model the traditional costume a bride would be wearing during the multi-day celebration and when moving into the household of the groom.
The bride is supposed to keep her eyes cast downward, maintaining a quiet, humble posture and don't speak directly to the new family. The
bowing I think comes automatically when wearing all the gear that I had to put on as it's bloody heavy (the full regalia can weigh up to 10 kg). The weight comes from layered fabrics and extensive silver jewelry designed to serve as both spiritual armour and financial security.
I was wearing a headdress & cape - a tall, rigid bridal cap adorned with silver plaques, coins, and bells. Draped over the entire head and shoulders is the 'kurte', a heavily embroidered cape or coat that conceals the bride from public gaze.
What's more, following the wedding, the bride practices modesty by covering the lower half of her face with a scarf and refraining from speaking aloud in the presence of her husband’s older male relatives (especially the father-in-law). She communicates through gestures or whispers to young children.
This goes on until eventually the groom’s parents and elder relatives perform the official ceremony to lift the kurte and inner veil. Looking at the bride's face requires paying tribute, so the in-laws offer her gifts of gold, fine silks, or cash before the veil is raised and formally welcoming her as their daughter.
Shelby mentioned that this can take up to 40 days. What a humiliating tradition!
On a more cheery subject ...
We had a lunch - as usual dining like kings and queens with huge amount of food - in one of their yurts.
And this time, the even opened a bottle of TM wine - more dessert wine but not bad.
Guess that was our pay for them to film us the whole time for their advertising on Instagram and Tik-tok. We are definitely becoming influencers 🤣🤣🤣
And don't think our opulent lunch was the last of the food of the day. We had another 'small' dinner in the evening.
... still need to write my 👣 about foodRead more
Getting out of Turkmenistan
September 14 in Turkmenistan
☀️ 27 °C
Today is primarily a travel day as we say goodbye to Mary and head to the border to cross back over into Uzbekistan.
It's another long drive but on better roads and before we hit the highway we have a couple of short stops.
First is the Orthodox church of St Mary. Constructed in 1900 it was turned into a nightclub type venue in the Stalin period. In 1947 permission was granted to revert to it's intended use.
Next we stop at a cotton factory outlet as one of our travel companions, Ian, wanted a couple of shirts. We didn't buy anything (!) but Ian wasn't the only purchaser 😁
Then just before the nice smooth, toll road that takes us most of the way, we stop at a field of cotton. We walk into the bushes and find most seed heads have bloomed and the cotton is ready to pick. It's really easy to ease off the cotton wool. It still has seeds mixed in and these have to be separated, and used to make oil, before the cotton can be processed into textiles.
On the way our driver got stopped for speeding and, we assume, had to pay a big bribe 😂😂 especially as he grumpily had to come back to the car for more before the police were satisfied!
We stopped for lunch at Turkmenabad although Timur and Shelby didn't seem to have organised a venue beforehand. The driver of a separate car with our luggage in basically kidnapped a passerby to show us to a good restaurant 🤣🤣🤣
Eventually we got to the border and it took another monotonous 2 hours of waiting, shuttle buses and passport checks before we were through and on to Bukhara.
Felt like another long day and we were certainly ready for the beers after all that!Read more
Bukhara
September 15 in Uzbekistan
☀️ 33 °C
Bukhara, another mainstay city on the silk roads, is a compact place where you can walk almost everywhere - the opposite of Ashgabat. What's more, our boutique hotel is right in the city centre perfectly positioned for our tour.
Bukhara is one of the most complete examples of a medieval Islamic city. Much of the historic centre, which is still intact, has been listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco (1993) and contains numerous fabulous buildings.
Our guide today and tomorrow is Mumin. Another person with seemingly encyclopaedia knowledge and more stamina than a Turkmenistani horse, it turned out!!
Anyway, Mumin started with a mildly convoluted history pertaining to the Ark Fortress which we would see in the afternoon. In the meantime I did pick up Bukhara is about 2,500 years old and its name means "lucky place".
The first stop is almost next door, the 16th century Kukaldosh Madrassa. It looked a carbon copy to the one we stayed at in Khiva, but not refurbished. It was Bukhara's largest madrassa that had 160 students. Today it holds craft shops.
Attached is an old mosque also converted into "shops". One of them was a fabric/clothing place where Mumin showed us how ancient people used to cope with the "output" from young babies, including props!! I think I will leave this description at this point 😲.
Next it's a short hop over the road to another Madrassa. The Nodir Devonbegi Madrassa, a 17th-century caravanserai converted into an Islamic college. Its remarkable animal-and-bird mosaics make it one of Bukhara's most distinctive madrassas. It was renovated in 1985 from photos taken in 1911 (before it was destroyed in revolutionary times in the early 1920s).
Just outside is the Khodja Nasreddin Statue. A clever ordinary man who outwits the rich and powerful through humour and common sense.
By now our heads were starting to spin slowly with all the data Mumin was bombarding us with. So here are just a few other things I remember from the morning session:
- Bukhara had a canal system in the 16th century and ponds to provide a water source. Some are restored today. The Soviets built a water tower in 1953 which today is a visitor lookout.
- There's a tiny Jewish quarter. There are only 150 Jews in Bukhara. There used to be many more but they fled to Israel. Bukhara has the only Jewish school in central Asia though which is thriving apparently.
- We went to a puppet making workshop which was fascinating. Today they are made from papier mache rather than the leather and porcelain of yesterday. The puppeteer gave us a nice demonstration of how the puppets are moving.
- We wandered through trading domes, looked at caravanserais and looked at more magnificent madrassas, mosques and the famous minaret.
Then we had lunch! To be honest all a bit too much as it was also very hot! And we still had the Ark fortress to go afterwards but by this time nobody except Mumin was paying too much attention. And everyone switched off when he started to take us through each object in the museum starting sometime 4th century BCE 😉
Anyhow, the Ark Fortress was Bukhara's royal citadel and seat of government for centuries. Archaeology suggests a fortress existed here as early as the 4th–3rd centuries BC, although it was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt.
By the time of the Emirs of Bukhara, it was effectively a city within a city: around 3,000 people lived inside, with the Emir's palace, throne room, mosque, treasury, arsenal, government offices, workshops and accommodation for officials.
Much of it was destroyed in 1920, when the Red Army attacked Bukhara and the Ark was bombarded, bringing the Emirate to an end.
And by that point we were just about at the end - of our tether!! So we called a halt for the day and wandered back to the hotel. Unsurprisingly we had to stop for a beer at the first suitable watering hole 🤣🤣.
Bukhara has so much and is a fantastic place, better than Khiva in many ways. But it was tough going!
But after dinner we went back to the minaret and sampled the evening atmosphere and lights. We really like Bukhara.Read more
There is more to Bukhara than mosques
September 16 in Uzbekistan
☀️ 31 °C
After lots of mosques and madrassas yesterday, today's focus is on Bukhara's arts and handicrafts scene.
Bukhara is famous for the ancient art of gold embroidery using gold thread and jewellery making.
Wander into Bukhara’s domed bazaars and quiet madrassa courtyards, and one could almost get this Silk Road feeling - the city is alive and in the hands of its master artisans, or masters as our guide calls them. Apparently, these aren’t souvenir shops; they are living lineages of craft, where every geometric tile, beaten copper tray, and woven Suzani carries centuries of patience, pride, and soul.
Bukhara is famous for
☝️Gold Embroidery (apparently
Bukhara is the historic epicentre of Central Asian gold embroidery)
☝️Suzani (needle) & fine silk embroidery
☝️Blacksmithing, Metal Chasing & Knife making - Stork-Shaped Scissors are the thing
☝️Ceramic Pottery
☝️Carpet Weaving (Silk & Wool)
☝️Miniature Painting & Calligraphy
But cynical us, we have our doubts on the authenticity as the objects all look remarkably similar. Or shall I say 'the same'?
Anyhow, this morning we visited the workshop of Uzbekistan's most recognised master in Gold Embroidery- Jumayev Baxshullo Shirinovich - who is formally recognised in Uzbekistan’s National Catalogue of Folk Applied Art Masters. Lots of framed certificates adorn one wall of his workshop.
He represents the sixth generation of a celebrated Bukharan embroidering 'dynasty'. His grandfather served as the guild master of the emir’s royal gold embroiderers. We are all impressed when Jumayev talks about his work to document the art and history of gold- embroidery and his efforts to revive independent artisan guilds after Independence. During Soviet times, he and his wife were working in an embroidery factory. After independence he established the very first private gold embroidery workshop in Bukhara, creating a blueprint for other traditional artisans to operate independently.
His workshop is especially renowned for monumental decorative panels and ceremonial robes. Their masterpiece is the curtains of Tashkent's national theatre (70 x 20m). Just to make the paper pattern for this took two years. 140 people worked to complete the embroidery.
They are the biggest embroidered curtains in Tashkent.
During the demonstration he explains that there are two primary methods of embroidery
☝️zaminduzi - dense, solid background embroidery using gold or gilded-silver threads with about 50 to 60 stitches per 1 sq cm
☝️ gulduzi - relief embroidery over intricate, hand-cut cardboard patterns with about 26 stitches per 1 sq cm
Jumayev is responsible for designing the motifs and preparing the paper pattern which form the basis for the embroidery. His wife, who also has been working in the embroidery factory during Soviet times, is patiently getting on with the stitching.
To produce the gold thread a thin gold metal wire is twisted around a soft silk thread. These days they only use 5pc gold, instead of the 30 pc used at the time of the emirs. But even this supple gold thread is too coarse to repeatedly pull back and forth through heavy velvet without fraying, therefore Bukharan embroiderers never pull it through the fabric. Instead, they lay the gold thread exclusively on the top surface and tack it down with tiny, invisible stitches of ordinary yellow silk - clearly visible when watching the woman demonstrating her work. The results are just magnificent!
After the gold-embroidery, we have a look at the jewellery making workshop of his son - Nodir - next door. Nodir is also highly celebrated as a master jeweller. There are some beautiful pieces but absolutely not my style.
We also watched some metal engraving artists. It's amazing how these artisans can punch intricate geometric and floral patterns into sheet brass or copper with their small steel chisels and a specialized hammer.
After spending the morning at various artisan workshops, we travel 4km outside of Bukhara to visit the summer palace of the Emir.
Sitorai Mohi Hosa aka the Palace of the Stars and Moon, showcases the opulence of the last emirs.
The summer palace was built between 1912 and 1918 and stands out as an eclectic fusion of traditional Central Asian craftsmanship and Imperial Russian architecture with imported materials and furniture from Germany, France and Italy highlighting the cosmopolitan court of the Emir.
The first building we enter holds the emir's reception and living rooms - chess room, banquet hall and tea house. All the rooms have fabulous silk and gold embroidery and display cutting-edge novelties as colour glass, ceramic fireplaces and tiles imported from Germany, chandeliers from Austria and furniture from France and St Petersburg.
The summer palace even used to have a zoo but the elephants and tigers were taken to Moscow Circus in 1923 - only some sad looking peacocks remained.
When Soviet forces took Bukhara in 1920, Alim Khan, the last Emir, fled to Afghanistan, leaving his luxurious palace behind. He eventually died in Kabul in 1944.
After the palace tour, we have enough time for lunch before heading to the train station for our journey to Samarkand.
It's a pretty boring train ride - nothing much to see apart from desert, some mountains in the distance, the odd gas plant and a few goat herds.
We get to Samarkand just in time for dinner, i.e. more food 🙈Read more
TravelerHope you both have a wonderful trip! A and K x