This gallery contains 7 photos.
We finally made it into Bukhara after a looooooong driving day through the desert. The trip took more time than anticipated – due to bad road conditions and our over-cautious bus drivers (who were very concerned about their new bus … Continue reading
A long driving day was ahead of us … all the way from Khiva to Bukhara – a mere 460 km on bad roads through the desert … with a picnic lunch stop somewhere on the way.
In the evening we had dinner in the summer palace outside the old city. Before the dinner we enjoyed a performance of traditional Uzbek music and dancing.
This gallery contains 22 photos.
This day was our day in Khiva. We started in the morning with a half day guided tour to the main sights – all of course well described, with historic background and details on architecture and art. The afternoon was … Continue reading
We made it into Khiva and Uzbekistan a further long drive, a bureaucratic border crossing and another one hour drive later. The hotel was straight next to the West Gate of the old town, so I ventured our for some first impressions … and did not get disappointed (actually – Khiva was my personal highlight of the whole trip … but judge yourself).
We left Ashgabat in the (very) early morning to catch a flight to Dashogus in the North of Turkmenistan. Here a bus was waiting for us for a three hours journey to the ruins and necropolis of Konye-Urgench.
This used to be the thriving metropolis (and capital at stages) of the Khorezm empire back in the 12th and early 13th century until the city was hit by Chinggis Khan in 1221. While the town was rebuilt, however in the late 14th century the nearby Amu-Darya river changed course, leaving the city dry; on top another invader – this time Timur – destroyed the city once more in 1388. Refer to this wikipedia article for more details on the history, as well as details on the sights.
We started our tour of this UNESCO heritage site with a visit of the Turabeg Khanym Complex (I stick with ‘complex’ here … it is sometimes referred to it as mosque, sometimes as mausoleum, sometimes as complex – which I consider the most neutral); from here walked past graves and mausoleums (the whole area is a huge necropolis) to the Gutlug Timur Minaret (at 59 meters the highest on the trip) and finished our visit with stops at the Sultan Tekesh and the Il-Arslan Mausoleums (the latter being the oldest standing monument in Konye-Urgench).
This gallery contains 20 photos.
On my past trips the focus had always been on nature, so it was about time to look into history again … and somehow the old Silk Road came to my mind … Samarkand, 1001 night, Marco Polo, caravansaries … … Continue reading