Sun and Moon | Silver and Roses, Henna and Myrrh

Central Asia

I visited Central Asia in the summer of 1998, as an excursion from Beijing, China. The first time I went, I took a train to Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China, and from there I flew to Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, but I was deported for lack of a visa. I flew back to Beijing at my own expense, rather than go to prison, and in Beijing I applied for a visa. On my second trip, I went by train and bus from Beijing to Ürümqi, and by bus from there to Alma Ata. After visiting Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan for about 6 weeks in all, I returned to Beijing by bus, plane and train. You cannot go the way I went unless you have some proficiency in both Chinese and Russian. Even so, it is very difficult and can be dangerous at times.

Basically, I visited four cities in Central Asia: Alma Ata, Kazakhstan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Samarkand is the most interesting of the four, and a very beautiful city. Samarkand dates to before the days of Alexander the Great, and has as its ancestor the city of Afrosiob, whose ruins are nearby. Afrosiob goes back to around 600 or 700 BCE. Samarkand, known as Maracanda in antiquity, was under Iranian (Persian) rule for several centuries, during the Achaemenian, Parthian and Sassanian Empires. Then came Arabic rule, after the conquest by Qutaiba in the eighth century. Samarkand was also the capital of the great 14th-century Uzbek conqueror, Prince Timur (Tamerlane), second only to Genghiz Khan, whom he claimed as one of his forefathers.

The Registan, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Prince Timur, who conquered most of western Asia, also founded the Mughal (Moghul) Dynasty of India, which endured till the ascendancy of Great Britain in those parts. Timur has been adopted as the national hero of Uzbekistan. His statue has been erected in downtown Tashkent, where once a statue of Lenin stood.

Prince Timur, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Tashkent. the capital of Uzbekistan, is the largest city in Central Asia, with a population of about 2,000,000. The Tashkent Metro, the only subway in Central Asia, consists of three lines, and features very beautiful stations.

Incidentally, the local name of the city and the country are Toshkent, Özbekiston, the English version being a borrow from the Russianized version.

Subway Station in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Still to be seen today in Central Asia are yurts (also called 'gers'). These portable houses are made out of felt and poles, but can be sizeable. I don't imagine that they are really very warm in the Arctic winters that befall the region, probably much like wigwams in Wyoming. In the picture, the sign above the door is in Kazakh, not Russian, though Kazakh uses a modified Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet.

Yurt in Kazakhstan

In Panfilov Park, in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, which in 1998 was still the capital of Kazakhstan, stands a Russian Orthodox church, Zenkov Cathedral. During Soviet days, the cathedral was inactive, but today has been refurbished and is in use. You can see wedding parties on Saturdays there, and in the park are carriage rides, a merry-go-round, chess matches and Russian music from loudspeakers.

Zenkov Cathedral, in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan

The Zailiysky Alatau mountains, part of the Tian Shan range, rise majestically south of Alma Ata, Kazakhstan. The highest mountain is Talgar Peak, which, though only 16,500 tall, is more imposing than some mountains that are taller.