Uzbekistan

Aya Sofia

Registan, Samarkand

September 2024

Kosmonavtlar

If the world history had to be dumbed down to a few lines, it would be a series of invasions/migrations by the nomadic steppe tribes into the settled-world and how the settled world reacted to them. The reaction spanned everything from abject surrender to assimilation to occasionally overpowering the nomads. The earliest migrants (that we know) were the Indo-Europeans and latest were the Ottomans and the Mughals. The "settled-world" usually refers to the Romans, the Persians, the Indians and the Chinese. However, the ones that stood in the forefront and bore the brunt of all these invasions were the Central Asian cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. And when they weren't doing this "bearing of the brunt", these cities became the important hubs on the Silk Road. Uzbekistan is the current country to claim ownership on these timeless cities. And they just introduced an e-visa for Indians and that was all the invitation that we needed to make our first trip to the legendary lands of Central Asia.

There are two daily flights between Delhi and Tashkent, a luxury that I am not used to and in my delirium, I booked the flight that dropped us at three in the morning instead of three in the afternoon. That gave us an extra day right at the beginning of the trip. Since we did not want to go through the trouble of re-planning we tried to pick out something that wasn't already on the itinerary. We picked the Chimgan Mountains on the north-eastern corner of Uzbekistan. At the fag end of summer with no sign of any snow, the place was a bit underwhelming. On the plus side (although we did not know at that time), we had our best somsas of our trip in Chimgan. Yes, our samosas came all the way from Middle East and during its parcourse ended up as somsas in Central Asia. And we (i.e. Indians) are the only ones to fry it. Everyone else bakes it. Uzbeks bake it in a tandir. Yes, etymologically, our tandoor and their tandir come from Akkadian word "tinuru" i.e. oven. We also got to taste the famous non. Yes, their non and our naan comes from Persian. Naan just means bread in Persian. And paneer means cheese in Persian.

Kosmonavtlar Metro Station, Tashkent

Kokand Palace

Having successfully managed to drive away my Punjabi readers, let's move on to Day 2. We visited one of the lesser visited, but nevertheless famous, corner of Uzbekistan: the Fergana Valley. Famous because it has witnessed many historically significant events, less visited because it has very little that exists today to show for it. Couple of cases in point: In 1861, American Civil War breaks out and that cuts the world's supply of cotton in half. Russia was the primary buyer of the said cotton. The other superpower (i.e. Britain) sourced it from Egypt and India. Russia desperately needed a new source and the Fergana Valley was the answer. This is the immediate cause of Russia conquering the 'stans in 1864 and they ended up planting cotton all over the Valley. Today, when you drive through Fergana, all you see are miles and miles of cotton farms. There's history for you, but at the end of the day, they are just cotton farms. Let's now travel further back in time, to the 1490s. The great empire that Timur founded is now carved into small principalities divided among his various descendants. One of these was a small time fifth generation ruler called Zahiruddin Muhammed Babur and he was ruling Fergana. And like every Timurid prince, his eyes were set on the capital, Samarkand and he eventually captures it in 1497. Only to face a new conqueror from the north, the Uzbeks under Muhammed Shaybani. Since the country is eventually named Uzbekistan and not Muhgolistan, it is obvious that Babur was the one who lost and had to flee and he fled south. He fled to India and that watershed event is still talked about in our election rallies. But, for all this history, the only physical thing that you can look at is a solitary modern statue of Babur in his home town, Andijan.

So, we are now past noon and just two pictures to show for our ordeal. It has been nearly two days since we arrived and we haven't seen a single blue tile that Uzbekistan is famous for. Thankfully, there is one consolation for the travellers to Fergana. And that is the Khudayar Khan Palace in Kokand. The Shaybanid Empire that was founded after the exile of Babur soon splits into three within a generation. The daughter states were the Khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand (i.e. Fergana). The last ruler of Kokand before the Russian takeover was this Muhammed Khudayar Khan and he built himself a sumptuous palace just two years before the Russians arrived i.e. in 1874. As that is too recent, some of the palace has survived intact and its front facade was the text book example of the mesmerising geometric pattern that hypnotises all visitors to the country.

Khudayar Khan Palace, Kokand

Shah-i-zinda

The following day's agenda was to check out the sites of the capital, Tashkent. In Turkic, "tash" means stone and "kent" means city making Tashkent the City of Stones. After the obligatory selfies at the Amir Timur statue at the city centre, we headed underground to see the architecture that Soviet Russia was famous for. The government that excelled in creating ugly apartment blocks was also capable of creating artistic metro stations. USSR created the first metro line in Central Asia in 1977 and gave it its best. Tashkent metro stations are all unique and each a work of art. And for some reason, we decided to cover them during the morning rush hour. The puzzled looks from the locals who were rushing to their work while we two were hunting for the perfect Instagram shot was simply priceless.

Climbing back up to the ground, we spent rest of the day doing what a normal tourist would do: gaping at the milky-white, ultra-modern Minor Mosque, rambling around the sprawling four-century old Hazrati Imam Complex, trying in vain to take the perfect selfie at the equally old Kukeldash Madrassa and having our first sight of the famed onion domes of a Russian orthodox church at the century old Assumption Cathedral. Apart from this, we also did something that only an Indian tourist would do: pay our homage at the Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial. He was our second Prime Minister and breathed his last here right after signing the Tashkent Declaration, the peace accord that concluded the Indo-Pak war of 1965. Yes, at one point in time Russia was brokering peace.

Up next was top visited city in Central Asia: Samarkand and our first stop was at the top attraction in all of Central Asia: the Registan. Nothing prepares you for the first sight. It is barely visible from across the road and it suddenly pops up in full glory as you enter the viewing platform. Three grand madrassas stand facing each other around a large square, their sheer size dwarfing everything in their vicinity. They date from the 15th to the 17th centuries, towards the end of Samarkand's long history. Samarkand dates back to about 8th century BC when it was part of the ancient Iranian civilisation of Sogdia. Cyrus conquered the region in the 5th century BC and made it part of the Achaemenid Empire. A couple of centuries later, Alexander's conquest added these to the Hellenistic Empire. The Göktürks, Samanids and Kharakhanids were the most notable of the empires that followed. In the early 13th century, Genghis Khan bulldozed everything during his infamous conquest. A century later Amir Timur rose from nowhere to find the great Timurid Empire. Amir left a trail of destruction everywhere else. (His infamous Sack of Delhi would be one of the saddest moments in our history.) But here, he built up Samarkand and turned it into the masterpiece that we know it today. He forced artisans and engineers of all the conquered lands to settle in Samarkand and ushered what we now call as the Timurid Renaissance. And Registan is its crowning glory.

Shah-i-Zinda, Samarkand

Ak-Saray

Another masterpiece is the nearby Gur-e-Amir, the final resting place of Timur. In June 1941, Russian scientists opened the tomb and confirmed that Timur was indeed lame and the skull they found was used to create the current Wikipedia image of the Amir. Hence, as long as he did not have all those chubby cheeks, dimple chin, rosy lips, eyes-so-blue, this is as close to a real life photograph of the man that we can get. There is also a story that says there was a curse written on inside of the tomb which said whoever opens the tomb will face a more terrible invader than Timur ever was. And within a week, someone called Hitler invaded Russia. All good stories are ruined by an ugly fact. Everything about the story is true except that there was no actual curse carved on the tomb.

Timur's relatives and aristocrats were buried in the nearby and equally impressive Shah-i-Zinda. Although the name means "Living King", no royal buried here is alive today. The name comes from the belief that the place houses the tomb of one of Prophet's cousins, Qutham ibn Abbas, who came here in the 7th century to spread Islam. A short drive away stands the massive, intimidating Bibi Khannum mosque, a gigantic masterpiece that Timur built using the money he looted from Delhi. The scale of the construction is well and truly breathtaking.

Ak-Saray, Shahrisabz

Bukhara

Ulugh Beg, the third ruler of the Timurid Empire and the grandson of Timur, had an evening job. He was also a mathematician and an astronomer and built (and also taught at) one of the Registan madrassas. He also built an observatory at the local high point in Samarkand of which very little remains other than a small portion of a large sextant. It was his meticulous observations that helped Tycho Brahe take science forward a century later. The last of the must-sees in the city is the extraordinary mid-7th century mural called the Paintings of the Ambassadors, a very rare example of Sogdian Art which had somehow survived the Mongol destruction. It depicts an array of ambassadors from various countries bringing gifts and tributes to the local ruler.

The following day, we drove (rather were driven) to Bukhara via Shahrisabz - the name is Persian and not Hindi, so "Green City" and not "Vegetable City" (sabz means green in Persian). It was the birthplace of Timur and he wanted to shift the capital here. As a pre-requisite, he started on an ambitious project to build a massive palace here. Known as Ak-saray (or the White Palace), it took 24 years to complete, finishing just months before Timur's death. Thanks to the Shaybanid pillage and destruction of the 16th century, all that remains of the palace are the massive 38 m tall front portal. Apart from the palace, there is also a beautiful mosque built in 1437 by Ulugh Beg and a mausoleum that Timur built for his favourite son Jahangir.

Bukhara's history is pretty similar to Samarkand's up until the 10th century. That's when one Iranian Samanid Empire made Bukhara as its capital. Samarkand regained the limelight once they disappeared. When the Shaybanid Empire split into three, the Khanate of Bukhara, as the name suggests, again made Bukhara the capital. Most of the buildings you see in Bukhara date from this Khanate and there is only one solitary madrassa by Ulugh Beg that goes back to the Timurids. Samarkand, on the other hand is predominantly Timurid architecture.

Bukhara

Ayaz Qala

Bukhara sites are far too numerous to go through and I will just stick to the highlights. The top attraction is easily the Po-i-Kalyan housing the Kalyan Mosque and the Kalyan Minaret. Both were constructed in 1127 by the Kharakhanids on top of an earlier Buddhist structure (ergo, the Sanskrit name Kalyan). When Genghis Khan came, he was so moved by the minar that he let it be and hence it is exactly how it was at its birth. The mosque however was not so lucky. It was pulverised and what you see is the 16th c Shaybanid reconstruction. The Ark or the Fort of Bukhara has been standing since at least the 5th century and the best view of Bukhara can be enjoyed from its ramparts. The nearby Bolo-Haouz mosque only dates back a couple of centuries, but it is easily the prettiest we saw on the trip and given that this is Uzbekistan, that is indeed a high praise. And finally, the solitary Samanid architecture to have survived intact, the mausoleum of Naser II. Thankfully it was buried and lost when Genghis came here and did his thing.

From the time of its finding the cities of Bukhara, Khiva and Samarkand have been trying to defend against the relentless raids from the steppe world. A series of ancient forts stand at the edge of the desert that bears testimony to this bygone era. These are collectively known as the Elli Qala (fifty forts in Turkish and Uzbek). The oldest date back to 7th c BC. Some were constructed by the Greeks in the 3rd c BC and some by the Kushans in the 1st c AD. Bulk were created during the time of Khorezm kings (4th to the 7th c AD). On our long drive from Bukhara to Khiva, we got to visit eight of these forts. Most were nothing more than crumbling walls jutting out from the desert sands defying nature's attempt to reclaim them. Ayaz Qala was the most impressive - with its dramatic perch up a hilltop, its view from the upper fort area was one of the highlights of the trip. Wandering these relics of history, the oldest of which were created by unknown kingdoms, contemplating the unfathomable amount of history witnessed by these silent giants was indeed the stuff of dreams.

Ayaz Qala, Elli Qala, Qarakalpakistan

Islomkhoja Minaret

Khiva was the third and last of the legendary Sogdian/Silk Road cities that we visited and it was quite different from the other two. Firstly, there is nothing that is older than the 18th century. Khiva was destroyed by Genghis, bulldozed by Timur and pulverised by Nader. It is a testimony to human endurance that a city of any sort is standing here at all. Secondly, the entire old town occupies a small area inside the Ichin Qala (which just means "inside fort" in Turkish and Uzbek) making it a pleasurable open air museum to roam around. And lastly, it had the best food by far in all of Uzbekistan. Every restaurant had dedicated vegetarian choices and it was only here that we could taste the vegetarian versions of the traditional Uzbek dishes like Manti, Plov and Laghman. Among the sites, the pick were the 57 m tall Islomkhoja Minaret, the tallest in the country; 29 m tall Kaltaminor which started of with the intention of being the tallest but the project was shelved once the patron died; the Pahlovon Muhammed Mausoleum with its hauntingly beautiful blue tiles; and the lavish Tosh Hovli palace.

Our trip could have ended here. But I decided to stretch it one more day. We now have a selfie with Babur. So it is only a matter of time before someone asks us to go to Pakistan. Since that is an impossibility with our passports, I thought why not go to Qarakalpakistan instead. Yes, that is a real place and an autonomous republic inside Uzbekistan. Apart from the bragging rights of visiting an unheard of place, the trip there did have two interesting stopovers. The first was the Chilpak Qala, which despite its name is not a fort, but an ancient (~1st c AD) Zoroastrian Tower of Silence. And the "qala" offered a bird's eye view of the legendary Amu Darya. Known to the West as the Oxus, this traditionally marked the boundary between the known and the unknown worlds. The second stop was the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, the capital of Qarakalpakistan. When USSR started purging the art that they did not like, this Igor Savitsky smuggled them out and chose Nukus for their safekeeping. Well, Nukus would be the last place you would come looking for anything, let alone Avant-garde art. The result - Nukus now houses the world's largest collection of 19th c Russian art. And it was indeed a treat and privilege to see these vibrant paintings in real life.

Islomkhoja Minaret (57 m), Khiva

The history and the architecture alone would have been enough to make Uzbekistan one of our best and most memorable trips. But, Uzbekistan also had an icing on top of this: their people. They have a special affection to us, Indians. They could instantly recognise our nationality and would burst into humming a Bollywood tune revealing their age. Oldies would hum Raj Kapoor, middle-ies Amitabh and young-ies Shah Rukh. For the first time in our lives, everywhere we went, people requested selfies with us making us feel like celebrities. Now, if our YouTubing takes off from two hundred subscribers to two million, we are now well and truly prepared.

Click here for more photos from Tashkent and Chimgan.
Click here for more photos from Samarkand.
Click here for more photos from Bukhara.
Click here for more photos from Khiva.
Click here for more photos from rest of the country.

TRIP DETAILS AND ESSENTIALS
Click here for more photos from Tashkent and Chimgan.
Click here for more photos from Samarkand.
Click here for more photos from Bukhara.
Click here for more photos from Khiva.
Click here for more photos from rest of the country.

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