Attachments to Blog “Journey Around the 5 Stans in Central Asia”

Attachment #1: Geography, c) Cities to be noted

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

The city dates to the 3rd century BC and is the cultural and political capital of the country. It is large with a 2.5 million population. In 1966, most of the buildings were lost in a devastating earthquake. It was rebuilt “Soviet style” (which means bland and commonplace, although it hasn’t dominated everywhere). The Chorsu Bazaar was great, selling pretty well everything one can imagine. I particularly liked the bakery section and the smell that came with it. Most of us tried the warm freshly baked bread.

Khiva, Uzbekistan 

This was a peak trading post on the Silk Road and I got the feeling that not much has changed since those days. The city has existed since the 8th century as a minor fort and trading post. It’s not large – less than 100,000. 

A big point of attraction is the ancient fortress Ichan-Kala, which is surrounded by a high defensive wall whose foundations were laid in the 10th century; it’s essentially the inner town. Many families live here, most of whom are hereditary artisans. All the significant attractions of Khiva are located here, including a very beautiful “short minaret” called Kalta Minor.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

The city lies between the Karakum Desert and the Kopetdag mountain range in Central Asia, approximately 50 km from the Iran border. My separate piece on the uniqueness of this city, and the country of Turkmenistan described it further.  

Mary-Merv, Turkmenistan

We flew to Mary which is located near the famous old Silk Road city of Merv. Several cities have existed on this site. It is claimed that Merv was briefly the largest city in the world in the 12th century. The ruins are quite extensive mud brick buildings.

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

This ancient city (a UNESCO site) contains hundreds of well-preserved mosques, madrassas, ancient public baths, bazaars and caravanserais (roadside inns), dating largely from the 9th to the 17th centuries plus a massive royal fortress. Considered one of the best examples of well preserved Islamic cities of Central Asia of the 10th to 17th centuries, it was a glimpse of pre-Russian Turkestan. We saw the 12th century Kalen Minaret, a prominent landmark. The tower so impressed Genghis Khan that he ordered it to be spared when everything else was destroyed by his men. It was a prominent stop on the Silk Road trade route. 

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

We took a bullet train from Bukhara to Samarkand, a true crossroad city of cultures. It is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia and at one point one of the largest.It’s sometimes called “The Rome of the Orient” and was already flourishing when Rome and Babylon were founded (it was founded in the 7th century BC). It’s divided into two parts: the old city, which includes historical monuments, shops, and old private houses; and the new city, which was developed during the days of the Soviet Union and includes administrative buildings along with cultural centres and educational institutions. One evening we stood in the enormous Registan Square, the city’s ancient centre bounded by three monumental religious edifices, and watched huge search lights play over the square.

Dushanbe, Tajikistan 

As the Silk Road passed through here the consequences are clear: many nationalities coexist. The city is the capital of Tajikistan and it is flourishing with lots of construction. A surreal feeling came over me when we were given a guided tour of an edifice called the Navruz Palace. You will have just read my separate piece on this “palace”.

Almaty, Kazakhstan 

The view flying into this city is dramatic, as the country is rugged and mountainous. The two million population represents 10% of the county’s total. It’s the only Stan city with a subway (nine stops!). It has a more western feel, with Starbucks and KFC franchises, and a lot of store signs in English.

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

The capital of Kyrgyzstan, this was a major trading stop along the ancient Silk Road. It is set at the foot of Central Asia’s Tian Shan Mountains range, 800 meters above sea level. It is a city of wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings. Soviet-style apartment blocks are prominent.

Attachment #2: History, Ancient and Current – a modest sampling

The cultural and political history of Central Asia has changed hands many times over the years, from Alexander the Great to the Persian Empire, from the Soviet Union until it was finally divided between the somewhat modern countries that share control today. 

As I said earlier, while the shadow of Russia hangs over all of the Stans (both geographically and politically), the people who live in these countries have deep roots, with ancestors who have seen the rise and fall of many great empires. 

So we became emerged in the early history of human development. From some random samples of so many, I include: 

• In the foothills of the Fann Mountains, close to the Uzbek-Tajik border, we visited the ruins of the ancient city of Sarazm, likely established as far back as 3500 BC. 

• The historical part of Samarkand consists of three main sections. In the north-east there is the site of the ancient city of Afrosiab, founded in the 7th century BC. It was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BC, and destroyed by Genghis Khan and the Mongols in 1220 AD. In the 14th century, Timur (Tamburlane) made Sammarkand the capital of his empire and the site of his mausoleum, the Gur-e Amir. The different historic phases of Samarkand’s development have taken place alongside, rather than on top of, each other. 

• From 900 BC to 200 BC, the Saka, an ancient tribe, dominated the trade route preceding the Silk Road. Known later as the Scythians, they were nomadic warriors. Just east of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, archaeologists unearthed the Golden Man – an ancient warrior clad in a suit of gold, buried around the 2nd-3rd century BC, with 4,000 gold artifacts, and a silver bowl inscribed with the oldest known example of runic writing in Asia. 

• The Silk Road history, from as early as the second century BC until the mid 15th century, is a fascinating one and winds through many of these narratives. So interesting in fact that I devoted a section to describing it.

• We drove out from Ashgabat to the ancient Parthian capital of Nisa. It was a dynastic sanctuary of the Parthian kings (from the late 3rd century BC for more than 500 years). 

• The Samanid States was an empire that covered most of Central Asia from 819 to 999 AD. We saw a statue of their key leader, Ismail-Somoni, in the Friendship Square in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The country’s money is even named after him.

• We visited the tomb of Ahmad Sanjar a Seljuk ruler of Khorasan. It was built in 1157 in the medieval city of Merv in the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. In 1221 Tolui Khan, the son of Genghis, traversed the Karakum Desert and annihilated Merv. It was one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. In the 12th and 13th centuries it might have been the biggest city in the world!

• In the 16th century, the Tsardom of Russia embarked on a campaign to expand the Russian frontier. This effort continued until the 19th century under the Russian Empire, when the Imperial Russian Army succeeded in conquering all of Central Asia. (In 1865 Russia took the city of Tashkent. This was followed by the conquest of cities in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.)

• Although the Russian Empire collapsed during World War I, the Russian sphere of influence remained in what was Soviet Central Asia until 1991 when the Central Asian republics declared independence.

• As a severe and determined Russian critic, I’ll bring forward four items to ponder regarding the Russians. First, is the absolute disaster that has occurred in the Aral Sea (in the 1950s the Soviet Union deliberately deprived the Aral Sea of its two main sources of water income). Second, over the past three decades, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have sought to clean up abandoned Soviet-era uranium-mining sites (it has now been discovered that the dams preventing two of the tailings ponds from leaking waste into a river are structurally unsound). Third, in 1965 a lake was formed (Chagan Lake) as a result of an experimental underground nuclear explosion in Kazakhstan at the Soviet Union test site.The Soviets conducted 456 nuclear tests over 40 years with little regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure has been hidden for many years by Soviet authorities and has only come to light since the test site closed in 1991. And fourth, as one drives around the various Stans one realizes that the Russians chose not to bury the pipelines carrying gas. Their ugly presence is a constant blight as one gazes across the countryside.

Attachment #3: Religion, with Islam Predominating

These are Muslim faith countries. Well over 90% are Muslim in four of the five Stans, and over 70% in Kazakhstan. (The Sunni branch of Islam is practiced by the way). Several major Muslim empires originated in Central Asia – specifically the Timurid Empire (1370-1507 and later) and the Mughal Empire (1526-1720 and later). The Russians did put some severe restrictions on Muslim practices, but that’s all changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

As a result we were presented with many, many mosques to view or visit, some of them quite large and beautiful, and visitable. I wore my Skechers which I can slip in and out of with ease; smart move. 

Throughout our journey we would often encounter highly stylized adoration of religious things or people. One stop we made in Tashkent at the start of our trip was at the grave of Sheikh Ishan Babakhan Ibn Abdulmajudkhan (doesn’t that just roll off your tongue?) who was a preacher and theologian. The grave stone said he was the “first Chair of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan” and a “connoisseur of the Koran and Hadith.” “May he rest in paradise.” May he indeed.

There are “rule” signs at holy places and cemeteries. The first instruction on one (in a list of ten) stated “Every visitor should be prepared spiritually and physically to make ablution, to dedicate the visit to Allah, temporarily to be free from everyday concerns and think about the hereafter.” The third one was the obligatory “Men and women should enter the holy place separately observing the right order and queue, to respect the memory of the holy people and to be dressed simply.” There certainly are clear instruction regarding wearing apparel.

In a roadside diner where we stopped for lunch on the way to the Issyk-Kul Lake, the following quote was carefully painted, in English, on the wall: ”So eat of the lawful and good food which Allah has provided for you.” Another sign caught my attention on the outside wall of the walled city of Khiva stating “City of Islamic World”.

We did visit one Russian Orthodox church, the Zenkov Cathedral (it claims to be the second tallest wooden church in the world) on our evening in Almaty, Kazakhstan where a service was taking place. A male choir was chanting quite melodiously from behind some panels, the organ was in full flight and priests were walking about swinging incense containers. There was much lighting of candles by supplicants and placing them in front of pictures of what appeared to be revered faces; all manner of gestures and bowing and under the breath chanting accompanied the candles – sort of a random, free form obeisance.

As an aside on this one: Kirill, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, has lauded the Russian invasion of Ukraine, justifying the war as a struggle against “forces of evil”. He has described Putin’s rule as “a miracle of God”. I thus entered this church quite biased.

Attachment #4: Food and drink

We ate well, and we didn’t. By that I mean I wouldn’t cite the cuisine as a reason for visiting these countries. First of all, they are landlocked so seafood was rare. Second, I found a certain blandness crept in over time. But there were some delights too. I enjoyed the soups, for example shorpa, a meat and vegetable soup was excellent. Plov is one of their staples. It consists of chunks of mutton, shredded yellow turnip and rice fried in a large wok. Ka’urma is mutton deep fried in its own fat and churban churpa is mutton fat dissolved in green tea. Lagmon – thick noodles, fried or served in a variety of soups – is popular.

Samsas are often baked in the tandoor (a special clay oven). The most common filling for a traditional samsa is a mixture of minced lamb and onions, but also chicken, minced beef and cheese. 

One theme emerged: we were always presented with more food than we could possibly eat.

On one plate alone at lunch in Tashkent we had Lula kebab, stuffed pepper, dolmas, cabbage roll, and manti (dumpling). But that was just a start as more kept coming.

The cuisine does not generally use spices or seasonings; large amounts of cottonseed oil are often used for flavour. While I ate well, I didn’t eat a lot as I found it filling. 

Green tea is the primary drink, consumed at all hours. The juices, in cartons, are excellent. The use of milk and sour milk products is widespread and explainable because kumys (fermented mare’s milk), shubat (camel’s milk) and airan (sour milk beverage) are easy to store in conditions of nomad life.

Vodka is the most popular alcoholic beverage, due to its low cost (it can be cheaper than bottled water at times), followed by beer (local, which was fine, as well as imported), and wine. Brendan and I, along with our leader Jonathan, got into the habit of finishing off the day with a jigger or two of the vodka. Early on we tested the range of wines; many a glass was left un-drunk (see Brendan’s reaction to an undrinkable red), although we found some welcome surprises. 

Adventures Abroad tried to vary our choice. We had an Italian meal in Almaty and a Lebanese meal in Dushanbe. The Hilton Hotel in Dushanbe produced a spectacular Thai soup and a prawn main. One evening in Samarkand we spent at a private home which served a very “local” meal (salads, meat and pumpkin samosas, and Samarkand Plov).

Attachment #5: Language

Which languages are spoken? Are they all in the same family? How are they written? The short answer is: lots of languages, different families, and different, changing ways. Official languages are the local ones: Uzbek in Uzbekistan; Turkmen in Turkmenistan; Tajik in Tajikistan; Kazakh in Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan. 

Russian of course is widely spoken and has infiltrated many words and phrases. English, as we were frequenting the places tourists visit, is widely found. We also had a local guide for each of the five county’s we visited who was native to that country.

Each of the Stans have approached change to language differently. Four of the five Stans are moving away from the Soviet-imposed Cyrillic to a Latin script. The exception is Tajikistan, where Tajik is now written in Cyrillic, but with talk of changing to the Perso-Arabic script used in Iran.

Attachment #6: Itinerary and Transportation, Summary

This is a quick summary of the itinerary and modes we used to navigate from one Stan to the other. 

Getting there in the first place was from Toronto to Turkey (Istanbul) nearly 10 hours and 8 time zones. Then on to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, another 4 1/2 hours and two time zones. 

The Stan tour bit went like this:

1. Uzbekistan

• Tashkent: in a large bus we toured the city. This included the Old City; the Tila Shaikh Mosque, Kafelsashi Mausoleum, Barak Khana Medressah and the Chorsu Bazaar
• Local flight (two hours) to Nukus in the autonomous region of Karakalpakstan
• Bus (large) to the Fifty Fortresses (two of them)
• Khiva by bus. On to the border by bus

2. Turkmenistan

• Border crossing (four hours); lunch in town of Dashauz then into high end 4 x 4 cars (driver plus 3 passengers) 
• 5 hour drive to the Darvaza Gas Crater
• BBQ dinner and night in yurt camp 
• Drive to Ashgabat (4 hours). City tour (Carpet Museum; National Museum; horse stables)
• Drive out to the ancient Parthian capital Nissa (dynastic sanctuary of the Parthenon kings); spiritual mosque of Turkmenbashi; Russian bazaar
• 40 minute light from Ashgabat to Mary, and bus to ancient capital Merv (UNESCO); visited the ancient Hellenistic fortress of Gaiyur Kala, plus the sites of Elk Kala and Sultan Kala; then the mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar (an important Khorezmian ruler) 
• Drive across the Karakum Desert (“Black Desert”) to city of Turkmenabat (2 hours)

3. Uzbekistan (again)

• Bukhara: walking city tour of the old quarter (UNESCO); Labi-hauz (a 17th century plaza built around a pool); 3 domed bazaar; 12th century Kalan Minaret; Mausoleum of Ismail Samani
• Summer residence of Bukhara’s last Emir (Sitorai-Mokhi-Khosa)
• Bullet train to Samarkand (2 hours) 
• Samarkand (Bibi Khanum Mosque; Mausoleum of Tamberlane; Observatory of Ulugbek; regal mausoleums of Sha-i Zinda; museum on site of the ancient Afrasiab archeological site
• Registan Square with three Madrasas
• Bus to the border with Tajikistan

4. Tajikistan

• Cross the border (an hour plus a long walk across no-man’s-land) and into two small buses; through the foothills of the Fann Mountains 
• Penjikent; walled city; Sarazm Settlement (5500 BC); Rudaki Museum of History; Olim Dodkho Mosque and Madrasa
• Drive to Dushanbe via Iskanderkul Lake (Lake Alexander); drive through the mountains up to 8,200’
• Dushanbe:  4 x 4 cars tour of city; Navruz Palace; Museum of Antiquities; Rudaki Gardens

5. Khazakstan

• Flight to Almaty, Khazakstan; border entry executed at the airport; tour of city; Museum of Musical Instruments; Russian Orthodox Church
• Independence Square; drive into the mountains to a ski resort and high-altitude speed-skating complex of Medeo; State Museum of Khazakstan
• Bus ride to border (4 1/2 hours)

6. Kyrgyzstan 

• Through customs (one hour) to Kyrgyzstan
• Mini bus to Bishkek; time zone one hour ahead 
• City tour: Central Square; Statue of Manas; Victory Square; National Historical Museum 
• Attended soccer game North Korea vs the Kyrgyz Republic
• Bus drive to Issyk-kul Lake; boat ride; petroglyphs
• Drive back to Bishkek
• Watched the Kok-Boru game; visited the Burana Tower, the resting place for the rulers of 11th c Kara-Khanid Khaganate
• Wrap-up dinner; four musicians played ancient instruments and answered questions
• Bus to airport and group (see below) disperses