0282, 1960 UZBEKISTAN (Xorazm) - Itchan Kala (UNESCO WHS)

0282 Itchan Kala (1)

Posted on 19.07.2012, 15.09.2015
"It was now near midnight, and the silent, sleeping city lay bathed in a flood of glorious moonlight. The place was transformed. The flat mud roofs had turned to marble; the tall, slender minarets rose dim and indistinct, like spectre sentinels watching over the city. Here and there little courts and gardens lay buried in deepest shadow, from which arose the dark masses of the mighty elms and the still and ghostly forms of the slender poplars. Far away, the exterior walls of the city, with battlements and towers, which in the misty moonlight looked as high as the sky and as distant as the horizon. It was no longer a real city, but a leaf torn from the enchanted pages of the Arabian nights."

1960 Itchan Kala (2)

Thus described in 1873 the American journalist Januarius MacGahan the city of Khiva, then the capital of the khanate with the same name, which the Russians had just occupied it. Of course, the 13,000 soldiers of General Von Kaufman (the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan) didn't entered in the fairytale city on flying carpets, but have opened the way with their German-manufactured cannons. Khiva remained a Russian protectorate until the October Revolution.

0660, 0661, 1273 UZBEKISTAN (Bukhara) - Historic Centre of Bukhara (UNESCO WHS)

0660 Bukhara - Minaret Kalyan and
the main portal of Kalyan Mosque

Posted on 30.05.2013, 09.10.2014
According to the Iranian epic poem Shahnameh, Bukhara was founded by King Siavash, son of Shah Kai Kavoos, one of the mythical Iranian kings. Officially, it was founded in 500 BCE, subsequently being mastered by Alexander the Great, Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrians, and the Kushan Empire. When the Islamic armies arrived here in 650 AD, they found a multi-ethnic and multi-religious collection of peoples, and didn't managed to impose their religion until 751, when the Arab Abbasid Caliphate along with their ally the Tibetan Empire defeated the Chinese Tang dynasty.

0661 Bukhara - Chor-Minor Madrassah (1)

In 850 it became the capital of the Samanid Empire, which brought about a revival of Iranian language and culture, becaming the intellectual center of the Islamic world. In 999 AD the Samanids were toppled by the Karakhanid Turkic dynasty, later it became part of the kingdom of Khwarazm Shahs, and in 1220 it was leveled by Genghis Khan. It recovered and was part of first the Chaghatay Khanate, then the Timurid Empire. Capital city of the Khanate of Bukhara in 16th century, and since 18th century of the Emirate of Bukhara, in 1920 was conquered by Russians.

1273 Bukhara - Chor-Minor Madrassah (2)

Situated on the Silk Roads, Bukhara is "one of the best examples of well preserved Islamic cities of Central Asia of the 10th to 17th centuries, with an urban fabric that has remained largely intact. (...) With the exception of a few important vestiges from before the Mongol invasions of Genghis Khan in 1220 and Temur in 1370, the old town bears witness to the urbanism and architecture of the Sheibani period of Uzbek rule, from the early 16th century onwards. The citadel, rebuilt in the 16th century, has marked the civic center of the town since its earliest days to the present."

0901, 1187 UZBEKISTAN (Samarqand) - Samarkand, Crossroad of Cultures (UNESCO WHS)

0901 Samarkand - The Registan and its three madrasahs.
From left to right: Ulugh Beg Madrasah, Tilya-Kori Madrasah
and Sher-Dor Madrasah.

Posted on 14.12.2013, and 17.08.2014
Along with Bukhara, Samarkand, located in a large oasis in the valley of the Zerafshan River, is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, prospering from its location on the trade route between China and the Mediterranean (Silk Road). With a history of over two and a half millennia, it was the crossroads of world cultures, having its most significant development between 14th and 15th centuries, when it was capital of the powerful Temurid realm. Founded c. 700 BC by the Sogdians, it was successively conquered by Alexander the Great, Sassanians, Hephtalites, Göktürks, Sassanids, and Umayyad Caliphate.

1187 Samarkand - Bibi-Khanym Mosque

During this period, Samarkand was home to a number of religions, including Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Judaism and Nestorian Christianity, but after the Arab conquest of Sogdiana, Islam became the dominant religion. The Abbasid control was replaced with that of the Iranian Samanids, overthrown by Turkish tribes around the year 1000. Genghis Khan conquered and pillaged completely the city in 1220, killing all who took refuge in the citadel and the mosque.

0817 UZBEKISTAN (Tashkent) - Navoi Theatre in Tashkent

The Navoi Theatre (Alisher Navoi State Academic Bolshoi Theatre) in Tashkent, one of the only 3 theatres that were given the status of Grand in the erstwhile Soviet Union, is also one of the leading centers of performing arts in Central Asia. Designed by the acclaimed architect Alexey Shchusev (who also built a mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow), it was named after Alisher Navoi (1441-1501), "the founder of Uzbek literature", and even "the founder of early Turkic literature".

0670 UZBEKISTAN (Surxondaryo) - A Kungrat old woman

Besides Uzbeks, in Uzbekistan live a number of ethnic minorities, among which are the Kungrats (also named Hongirat, Qongirat, Onggirat, Qongrat, Wangjila, Yongjilie, or Guangjila), who can be found mainly on the Surxondaryo valley, on extreme south-east of the country. The homeland of this tribe, one of the major divisions of the Mongols and Kazakhs, was located in the vicinity of Lake Hulun in northeastern Mongolia. Because the clans were never united, the tribe didn't known the military glory. Their greatest fame comes from the fact that Genghis Khan's mother, great grandmother, and first wife were all Kungrats.