Uzbekistan

Journey through the Uzbekistan Pseudo-Roads


time frame
Soviet-era side about to cross an entrance gate in Ellikkalla, a village between the fortress of Ayaz Kala and Khiva.
camelid shearing
Rano Yakubova receives an excess hairball for the summer from Talgat that Talgat had removed from the Micha dromedary.
soviet propaganda
Soviet-inspired billboard reads: "Let's grant our citizens a beautiful life on the basis of freedom and the ability to trade and exchange ideas."
fake brigade
Fake police car used to limit speed on a road connecting Yangikazkan to Samarkand.
chashma
The religious complex of Chashma, built as a result of the miracle performed by Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, who gave birth to a spring there.
3 generations
Uzbek family visiting the ruins of Toprak Kala, one of the ancient capitals of the Korean civilization.
back to force
Rano Yakubova at the door of one of the gers in his Ayaz Kala camp.
an adobe maze
Uzbek family scattered across the ruins of Toprak Kala.
gers in the desert
The Ayaz Kala ger camp, managed by Rano Yakubova.
at the ger table
Ravshan, Nilufar and hostess Rano Yakubova share a meal at the table in one of the largest gers in the Ayaz Kala camp.
Uzbek snacks
Uzbek specialties on a dining table.
Soviet Memorial
Nurata Monument to Soviet participation in World War II.
hidden bride
Bride of Norata behind a traditional Uzbek veil.
Hidden Bride II
Bride, mother and other lady in the house in front of the bride's bedroom door.
a lake rest
Couple swims in Lake Aydar, the largest in Uzbekistan.
Centuries passed. Old and run-down Soviet roads ply deserts and oases once traversed by caravans from the Silk RoadSubject to their yoke for a week, we experience every stop and incursion into Uzbek places, into scenic and historic road rewards.

The deeper we get into Central Asia, the Uzbequistan and In yours Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakistan, but the unavoidable false-increase of these stops seems to do them justice.

We continue along the road along the edge of the Kizilkum Desert, which is dusty and yellowish, even if the various Turkish dialects define it as “red sands”.

muynaq and the Aral Sea they had been left behind. We anticipated the arduous path from Nukus to Khiva. Left to their own devices by the 1991 Soviet Union implosion, Uzbek politicians did not seem to see maintaining or improving the roads a priority.

Fake police car between Yangikazkan and Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Fake police car used to limit speed on a road connecting Yangikazkan to Samarkand.

The kilometers followed one another, bumpy and muffled, along the bed of the Amu Dária, the great river that crosses much of the country.

We felt we were grinding and fraying at the same speed as Ravshan was driving his Chevrolet, part of the successor fleet to the historic but decrepit armada of the nation's Ladas, Volgas, and UAZ(es).

We arrived mid-morning. The sun turns the car's plate into a grid and melts what was left of the asphalt. It is with relief that the driver announces, in German, a detour, that Nilufar, the young guide and translator, confirms that we are on the verge of the old fortress of Toprak Kala.

Toprak Kala ruins, Uzbekistan

Uzbek family scattered across the ruins of Toprak Kala.

An Interlude by the Historic Roadside

All this expansion of almost oases, between the south of the dying Aral Sea and the deserts of Karakum and Kizilkum were once the domain of the Iranian Korasmian civilization and of a succession of kingdoms from which the mighty Persian Empire stood out.

For, as Nilufar prepares us for the place, Toprak Kala stood out from this civilization between the XNUMXst and XNUMXth centuries AD and remained its capital for at least the entire third century AD.

The ruins revealed in 1938 by Sergey Pavlovich Tolstov, an archaeologist from Saint Petersburg who dedicated a good part of his life to his study.

Today, the structures Tolstov unveiled are more accessible than ever. Even so, one of the frequent missteps of the irrigation channels removed from the Amu Dária, forces us to jump too long and to get our feet wet.

A hidden path leads to what was left of the adobe walls of the old fort. As we passed inside, we were amazed at the complexity of partitions and corridors built with mere local clay that, favored by the arid climate, had resisted millenary destruction and erosion.

The Uzbek Family visiting Toprak Kala

Two young European friends walk and investigate the complex from corner to corner. In addition to Ravshan and Nilufar, the visitors “from the house” were represented by a large family that we see approaching in single file from one of the walkways, ascending to the nook where we stood and climbing to its highest threshold to, from there admire the view around.

Two ladies wear long dresses. They are paired with fur sandals and scarves that they wear in pirate fashion. The three men and two children who accompanied them were wearing little or no traditional clothing, except for the duppi – the sort of cofió of Central Asia – with which the patriarch signaled his Muslim faith.

One by one, they pass us and greet us. Without realizing it, we photographed them contemplating the panorama from the edge of the Amu Dária. Without great fears, they invite us to align ourselves with them and, proud of their identity and small tourist community, they take photographs with us.

3 generationsWe didn't stay long. Ravshan worried about the distance we had to cover. And the inevitable discomfort that the atrocious road and the summer heat would continue to subject us to.

Another Fortress and a Lunch at the Retreat of a Great Yurta

We left the shore of the Amu Darya. We veer north from Beruni, with Ayaz Kala in sight. Ayaz Kala was another stronghold, which was once the Korásmian capital. It appeared to us on the top of an unexpected and arduous plateau, like Masada Uzbek. We contemplate it and its secular solitude, for a time, from a distant rocky cliff.

Ayaz Kala ger camp, Uzbekistan

The Ayaz Kala ger camp, managed by Rano Yakubova.

Nearby, the Ayaz ger camp promised us a well-deserved rest and a lunch to match.

There, Rano Yakubova, owner of the establishment, receives us with courtesy and a saturated blush that contrasted with the large white scarf in which she was sheltering.

Rano Yakubova at his camp in Ayaz Kala, Uzbekistan

Rano Yakubova at the door of one of the gers in his Ayaz Kala camp.

Aware of the force, Rano hurriedly shows us around the camp and invites us to the largest of the gers, the one that used to function as a communal restaurant.

At that late hour, we were already the only guests. We sprawled on the floor covered with large red carpets, padded around a long table that displayed a delicacy worthy of a royal caravan.

Lunch in a ger in Ayaz Kala, Uzbekistan

Ravshan, Nilufar and hostess Rano Yakubova share a meal at the table in one of the largest gers in the Ayaz Kala camp.

Rano accompanies us for most of the meal. He interrupts the conversation with Ravshan and Nilufar only for strategic round trips to the kitchen tent where he used to renew some of the cold salads and the lepeshkas, the large flat loaves in the shape and tone of a solar disc that cannot be missing from an Uzbek table.

Uzbek snacks

Uzbek specialties on a dining table.

When the meal was over, the chatter vanished. We all shared the urge to land and let ourselves sleep there for the rest of the afternoon. And the same awareness of how far we needed to get to Khiva, tonight's destination.

Uzbek Desert Pets

Okay, we got up. We abandoned the ger's thermal truce. We soon found Talgat, a boy that Rano Yakubova explains to us is her husband's son, not hers. Talgat looked after Micha, a juvenile dromedary, one of the five camelids who served the camp.

With Central Asia reaching the height of its torrid summer, the camelids of the region shed the abundant fur that warmed them during the winter. For, in different parts of Micha, including under the long neck, on top of the back from which the large hump protruded, and in the upper section of the legs, the process was incomplete.

Talgat knew the inconvenience that this inconvenience caused the animal. Without much else to do, she kept pulling it out and petting the pet gratefully.

Dromedary shearing in Ayaz Kala, Uzbekistan

Rano Yakubova receives an excess hairball for the summer from Talgat that Talgat had removed from the Micha dromedary.

Rano, Ravshan and Nilufar emerge from the ger and join us. Talgat passes Rano a large ball of fur he has gathered. The stepmother holds, guards her from the wind and is absent for a moment. When she returns, she is free of the wool that was in the way.

He says goodbye to us with the desire to welcome us again during the winter or autumn when – he assures us – Kizilkum and its camp are much more welcoming and charming.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, we arrive at Khiva, another ancient korah capital of these parts, today one of the central historical cities of the Uzbequistan. There we spent two days in the delicious atmosphere of the Silk Road era, dazzled by the grandeur and architectural elegance with which its Khans and similar rulers endowed it.

De Khiva, we traveled almost 500km still and always along the edge of Kizilkum. So we moved to Bukhara, a rival city and just as majestic as Khiva.

From Bukhara, in turn, we point to Samarkand, another star in the constellation of fortresses steeped in history, walls, madrassas, mosques and imposing minarets that make the Uzbequistan an unmissable nation in Central Asia.

Part of the route, we complete it along the Estrada Real, which was used between the two former capitals. But instead of going straight to Samarkand, we scale in Nurata.

The enigmatic bride at the gates of Nurata

On the edge of town, a outdoor Soviet prophesies: "We grant a beautiful life to our citizens on the basis of freedom and the ability to trade and exchange ideas”. Even outsiders, we feel benefited by this civilizational privilege.

Monument to Soviet participation in World War II, Nurata

Nurata Monument to Soviet Participation in World War II

We stopped for another lunch at the home of a well-known Ravshan family. There we are presented with a young woman about to get married. Shy, obedient to tradition, the bride refuses to speak to us.

She doesn't even remove the long, pink veil that covers her from the top of her head to her arms, above a glossy yellow dress, full of multicolored sequins.

Hidden Bride II

Bride, mother and other lady in the house in front of the bride's bedroom door.

It is, in fact, rare to lift the face of the single and promised sobriety in which it should be maintained. Even so, as we say goodbye, we get permission to photograph her, in these same ways, together with her mother and another lady of the house, at her bedroom door.

We congratulate the ladies, give them a gift in Sums (Uzbek currency) and point to the center of Nurata.

In the Footsteps of Alexander. The big.

Rather than a khan of Mongol origin or descent, Nurata was founded, in 327 BC as Nur, by the adventurous Macedonian king Alexander the Great. To Nurata, Alexander the Great, bequeathed the military fortress from which, despite the many centuries that have passed, shapeless vestiges survive.

Today it is the religious complex of Chashma that we admire from the top of the ruins. Chasma summons the newcomers. Its mosque and crystalline spring full of trout that no one can fish, serve as a preamble to the sacred graves of believers.

The Chashma Religious Complex in Nurata, Uzbekistan

The religious complex of Chashma, built in function of the miracle performed by Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law who gave birth to a spring there.

At least for those who saw the (later sanctified) son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed hit the ground with his staff and caused a miraculous spring to flow.

We paid them our photographic tribute and tasted the pure water from the local aquarium fountain. Shortly thereafter, we returned to the car and departed for Yangikazkan.

Yangikazkan rises along the western edge of Lake Aydar, the largest in Uzbekistan at 250km by 15km. In recent times, new ecological ger camps have made these stops famous.

We installed ourselves in one of them. Until sunset, we cool off in the lake and ride a camel. During after dinner, around a campfire, we watched an exhibition of popular love songs, played by a picturesque Kazakh musician, under the overcrowded firmament of Central Asia.

Lake Aydar, Uzbekistan

Couple swims in Lake Aydar, the largest in Uzbekistan.

The next day, still and always cooked by the Kizilkum brazier, washed down by the poor roads of Uzbekistan, we enter the mythical Samarkand.

More information about Uzbekistan on the respective page of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

The Astronomer Sultan

The grandson of one of the great conquerors of Central Asia, Ulugh Beg, preferred the sciences. In 1428, he built a space observatory in Samarkand. His studies of the stars led him to name a crater on the Moon.
Margilan, Uzbekistan

An Uzbekistan's Breadwinner

In one of the many bakeries in Margilan, worn out by the intense heat of the tandyr oven, the baker Maruf'Jon works half-baked like the distinctive traditional breads sold throughout Uzbekistan
Khiva, Uzbequistan

The Silk Road Fortress the Soviets Velved

In the 80s, Soviet leaders renewed Khiva in a softened version that, in 1990, UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site. The USSR disintegrated the following year. Khiva has preserved its new luster.
Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, The Nation That Does Not Lack Bread

Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
Samarkand, Uzbequistan

A Monumental Legacy of the Silk Road

In Samarkand, cotton is the most traded commodity and Ladas and Chevrolets have replaced camels. Today, instead of caravans, Marco Polo would find Uzbekistan's worst drivers.
Aral Sea, Uzbequistan

The Lake that Cotton Absorbed

In 1960, the Aral Sea was one of the four largest lakes in the world. Irrigation projects dried up much of the water and fishermen's livelihoods. In return, the USSR flooded Uzbekistan with vegetable white gold.
Amboseli National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, Normatior Hill
Safari
Amboseli National Park, Kenya

A Gift from the Kilimanjaro

The first European to venture into these Masai haunts was stunned by what he found. And even today, large herds of elephants and other herbivores roam the pastures irrigated by the snow of Africa's biggest mountain.
Aurora lights up the Pisang Valley, Nepal.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 3rd- Upper Banana, Nepal

An Unexpected Snowy Aurora

At the first glimmers of light, the sight of the white mantle that had covered the village during the night dazzles us. With one of the toughest walks on the Annapurna Circuit ahead of us, we postponed the match as much as possible. Annoyed, we left Upper Pisang towards Escort when the last snow faded.
Luderitz, Namibia
Architecture & Design
Lüderitz, Namibia

Wilkommen in Africa

Chancellor Bismarck has always disdained overseas possessions. Against his will and all odds, in the middle of the Race for Africa, merchant Adolf Lüderitz forced Germany to take over an inhospitable corner of the continent. The homonymous city prospered and preserves one of the most eccentric heritages of the Germanic empire.
lagoons and fumaroles, volcanoes, PN tongariro, new zealand
Adventure
Tongariro, New Zealand

The Volcanoes of All Discords

In the late XNUMXth century, an indigenous chief ceded the PN Tongariro volcanoes to the British crown. Today, a significant part of the Maori people claim their mountains of fire from European settlers.
Ice cream, Moriones Festival, Marinduque, Philippines
Ceremonies and Festivities
Marinduque, Philippines

When the Romans Invade the Philippines

Even the Eastern Empire didn't get that far. In Holy Week, thousands of centurions seize Marinduque. There, the last days of Longinus, a legionary converted to Christianity, are re-enacted.
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Zapatismo, Mexico, San Nicolau Cathedral
Cities
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico

The Home Sweet Home of Mexican Social Conscience

Mayan, mestizo and Hispanic, Zapatista and tourist, country and cosmopolitan, San Cristobal has no hands to measure. In it, Mexican and expatriate backpacker visitors and political activists share a common ideological demand.
Beverage Machines, Japan
Meal
Japan

The Beverage Machines Empire

There are more than 5 million ultra-tech light boxes spread across the country and many more exuberant cans and bottles of appealing drinks. The Japanese have long since stopped resisting them.
Culture
Look-alikes, Actors and Extras

Make-believe stars

They are the protagonists of events or are street entrepreneurs. They embody unavoidable characters, represent social classes or epochs. Even miles from Hollywood, without them, the world would be more dull.
combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
travel western australia, surfspotting
Traveling
Perth to Albany, Australia

Across the Far West of Australia

Few people worship evasion like the aussies. With southern summer in full swing and the weekend just around the corner, Perthians are taking refuge from the urban routine in the nation's southwest corner. For our part, without compromise, we explore endless Western Australia to its southern limit.
Bride gets in car, traditional wedding, Meiji temple, Tokyo, Japan
Ethnic
Tokyo, Japan

A Matchmaking Sanctuary

Tokyo's Meiji Temple was erected to honor the deified spirits of one of the most influential couples in Japanese history. Over time, it specialized in celebrating traditional weddings.
ice tunnel, black gold route, Valdez, Alaska, USA
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Sensations vs Impressions

History
Military

Defenders of Their Homelands

Even in times of peace, we detect military personnel everywhere. On duty, in cities, they fulfill routine missions that require rigor and patience.
Moorea aerial view
Islands
Moorea, French Polynesia

The Polynesian Sister Any Island Would Like to Have

A mere 17km from Tahiti, Moorea does not have a single city and is home to a tenth of its inhabitants. Tahitians have long watched the sun go down and transform the island next door into a misty silhouette, only to return to its exuberant colors and shapes hours later. For those who visit these remote parts of the Pacific, getting to know Moorea is a double privilege.
Passengers on the frozen surface of the Gulf of Bothnia, at the base of the "Sampo" icebreaker, Finland
Winter White
Kemi, Finland

It's No "Love Boat". Breaks the Ice since 1961

Built to maintain waterways through the most extreme arctic winter, the icebreaker Sampo” fulfilled its mission between Finland and Sweden for 30 years. In 1988, he reformed and dedicated himself to shorter trips that allow passengers to float in a newly opened channel in the Gulf of Bothnia, in clothes that, more than special, seem spacey.
On the Crime and Punishment trail, St. Petersburg, Russia, Vladimirskaya
Literature
Saint Petersburg, Russia

On the Trail of "Crime and Punishment"

In St. Petersburg, we cannot resist investigating the inspiration for the base characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's most famous novel: his own pities and the miseries of certain fellow citizens.
Las Cuevas, Mendoza, across the Andes, Argentina
Nature
Mendoza, Argentina

From One Side to the Other of the Andes

Departing from Mendoza city, the N7 route gets lost in vineyards, rises to the foot of Mount Aconcagua and crosses the Andes to Chile. Few cross-border stretches reveal the magnificence of this forced ascent
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Garranos gallop across the plateau above Castro Laboreiro, PN Peneda-Gerês, Portugal
Natural Parks
Castro Laboreiro, Portugal  

From Castro de Laboreiro to the Rim of the Peneda – Gerês Range

We arrived at (i) the eminence of Galicia, at an altitude of 1000m and even more. Castro Laboreiro and the surrounding villages stand out against the granite monumentality of the mountains and the Planalto da Peneda and Laboreiro. As do its resilient people who, sometimes handed over to Brandas and sometimes to Inverneiras, still call these stunning places home.
U Bein Bridge, Amarapura, Myanmar
UNESCO World Heritage
u-bein BridgeMyanmar

The Twilight of the Bridge of Life

At 1.2 km, the oldest and longest wooden bridge in the world allows the Burmese of Amarapura to experience Lake Taungthaman. But 160 years after its construction, U Bein is in its twilight.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Swimming, Western Australia, Aussie Style, Sun rising in the eyes
Beaches
Busselton, Australia

2000 meters in Aussie Style

In 1853, Busselton was equipped with one of the longest pontoons in the world. World. When the structure collapsed, the residents decided to turn the problem around. Since 1996 they have been doing it every year. Swimming.
Pilgrims at the top, Mount Sinai, Egypt
Religion
Mount Sinai, Egypt

Strength in the Legs, Faith in God

Moses received the Ten Commandments on the summit of Mount Sinai and revealed them to the people of Israel. Today, hundreds of pilgrims climb, every night, the 4000 steps of that painful but mystical ascent.
Back in the sun. San Francisco Cable Cars, Life Ups and Downs
On Rails
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Society
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Gandoca Manzanillo Refuge, Bahia
Wildlife
Gandoca-Manzanillo (Wildlife Refuge), Costa Rica

The Caribbean Hideaway of Gandoca-Manzanillo

At the bottom of its southeastern coast, on the outskirts of Panama, the “Tica” nation protects a patch of jungle, swamps and the Caribbean Sea. As well as a providential wildlife refuge, Gandoca-Manzanillo is a stunning tropical Eden.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.