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note: photo album isn’t complete as i’m on a reeeeeally slow connection here in Samarkand.

We’ve spent most of the last week in Samarkand, checking out the various monuments and sights in this ancient city. It’s a place whose name conjures up romantic visions of silk-laden camels and exploration in an era when men were men and regularly died in the course of getting to such exotic corners. Now it’s a firm stop on the tourist itinerary and the caravanserais and medressas shelter souvenir stands instead of traders or students. That’s been a little disappointing.

But before we could enjoy the sights of Samarkand we had to head to Tashkent to work out our visa. In a nutshell we have a visa which has validity dates which don’t match the duration of stay listed (validity dates 32 days, duration of stay 30). I heard one thing from the embassy in London where I picked them up, but we heard a different thing on arrival in Tashkent. When we double-checked at another office in Tashkent they agreed with London. In short, nobody seemed to have any idea. Unfortunately, one of those options had us potentially overstaying our visa so that wasn’t really good. As it turns out, the fourth person we asked confirmed that duration of stay was the overriding factor and to extend would cost US$40 for me and US$131 for Brett. Being American he often gets a rough deal on visa costs. As we were only planning to stay two extra days we opted to change Brett’s ticket and buy me one accordingly. We like Uzbekistan, but not that much. We’ll spend the time in Riga instead.

Once that was sorted we headed back to Samarkand. Here we’ve checked out some of the most beautiful mosques and medressas we’ve seen so far. Although it’s an ancient city, most of what’s left tends to date from around the 14th century. The site of Samarkand has been settled since around the 5th century BC and was already a thriving city when Alexander the Great conquered it in 329BC. It grew richer still in the Silk Road era, with a population higher than today, and changed hands many times as a result. However, anything that was here was destroyed in 1220 when Jenghiz Khan came through and it wasn’t until Timur (Tamerlane) made it his capital in 1370 that the city started to recover.

Samarkand’s (or Uzbekistan’s or Central Asia’s depending on your opinion) most impressive sight is the Registan, a trio of medressas around a central square. Back in the day this was the city’s commercial centre and the medressas are amongst the world’s oldest still standing. They have needed a lot of modern restoration but the resulting tile work is impressive. For all the bad things you can say about communism in the USSR, they at least worked hard to preserve historical buildings in this part of the world. Looking at old photos pre-restoration you can really appreciate that, as well as the incredible building skills of the original architects, whose work has survived multiple earthquakes over the hundreds of years. The oldest of the three is Ulugbek Medressa, which was finished by Timur’s grandson in 1420. The other two were finished in 1636 and 1660, with the latter’s mosque illustrating without a doubt the incredible wealth that must have existed in Samarkand at the time. It drips with gold leaf and intricate painting.

Not too far away is the Bibi Khanym mosque, once the largest mosque in the world. It was finished just before Timur’s death and was apparently built by his Chinese wife, Bibi Khanym, while he was away. The main gateway was 35m high and has now been reconstructed after it crumbled in an earthquake in 1897. When he died, Timur was interred in the Guri Amir Mausoleum along with his grandson Ulugbek, another grandson and two sons. As with most of the sites we’ve seen, there is some stunning tile work on the gate and buildings. Other family members were buried in the Shah I Zinda area, a line of mausoleums a little to the west. I feel a little like a broken record when I say that there is some beautiful tile work on the buildings, but there really is. And tiles to me are like mountains to Brett, I love them and always take too many photos of them. The first person to be buried here was apparently Qusam ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Mohammed, who brought Islam to the area in the 7th century. In the 14th century Timur, and then his grandson Ulugbek, buried their families near the auspicious tomb.

In Samarkand itself we’ve also checked out the excavated remains of ancient Samarkand at a small museum, visited the reconstruction of the 8th century Hazrat Hizr Mosque and seen the track of Ulugbek’s astrolabe. According to the Lonely Planet Ulugbek was “probably more famous as an astronomer than a ruler” – amongst who they don’t say. Personally I’d never heard of him in either role but then what do I know? Brett went in to the tomb of the Old Testament prophet Daniel while I waited outside. I’d had enough of overpriced entrance tickets that charged foreigners 10 times more than locals to look into pretty empty rooms. There was a “woodcarving museum” in Bukhara that had 3 items. Seriously. The walls were nicely painted at least. I preferred the free shade and Brett confirmed it was a bit of a waste of money, even if it was only US$2. That’s a cheeseburger in the real world! Oooooh for a cheeseburger…

Outside Samarkand we’ve checked out Urgut and Shakhrisabz. On Sundays Urgut is host to a bustling market which made for great people watching and aimless wandering. All sorts of things were for sale. Today we headed to Shakhrisabz, 90km south, on a daytrip. It was Timur’s birthplace and a sort of family seat of power. Some of his relatives are buried here and there is a tomb that it’s believed was intended for Timur himself. Legend says that when Timur died unexpectedly the passes to Shakhrisabz were snowed over and he was interred in Samarkand’s Guri Amir Mausoleum instead. Speaking of death and graveyards and other such things, we’ve taken a liking to the carved portraits used on local gravestones. They’re etched into black marble and are a beautiful way of making the grave more personal. Today in Shakhrisabz we asked a price at the local mosque and have decided to have one of our wedding photos carved. Not as a grave marker, obviously, but as a quirky way of remembering both our wedding and Uzbekistan. Of course Brett is once again rolling his eyes at his wife’s propensity for buying impractical souvenirs.

So we’re heading back down to Shakhrisabz tomorrow to take them a printed photo and sort out the design, check out the backstreets of Shakhrisabz then head further south to Termiz. Then it’s back to Tashkent ready to fly out on the 20th. I have a ticket back to Munich when Brett goes back to work; I’ll spend the time studying German (if I can find an appropriate course) then head to the States.