Voyage to Uzbekistan
From the 22nd of April to the 4th of May 2006
All pictures in this site are by Cherif
loutfi
Uzbekistan Map
UZBEKISTAN ! I am certain we all heard that name.
Uzbekistan we all know is the name of a country, maybe some are not sure.
When is the last time you heard that name pronounced ? I personally did not hear the name Uzbekistan since a long time, it is never mentioned by the national or international media, seen or read.
The BBC, CNN, and EURO NEWS and many other news channels never or rarely mention Uzbekistan - On the weather forecasts on all the TV channels , Uzbekistan is never mentioned.
Uzbekistan with its capital Tashkent, and the marvelous cities of Samarkand and Bukhara and many others like Urghensh and Khiva ; We don't hear about them like we hear about other countries and cities for example Greece, Holland, or even the Sudan, also like that awful country we don't miss hearing about ten times a day, Israel !!
We hear about Uzbekistan and its mystic cities of Tashkent and Samarkand only in the fairy tales and the thousand and one night.
Where is Uzbekistan situated on the world map ? how does the Uzbek people look like ? how do they live ? what do they eat? how do they dress?
Many thanks to Chahira Sirry (My wife ) who gave us the answer to all these questions as she is the one who organized and guided us ( A group composed of 24 persons ) through the mysterious Uzbekistan To those visitors who don't follow the paved tracks, an immense universe
offer itself, a universe of a forgotten population in an unknown part of the
world, a population that saw their existence freeze in 1920 when the Soviets
conquered their land.
It’s
a population rich with multiple culture, with incomparable amiability and
generous hospitability who were deprived of any contact with the exterior who
now are keen to make contact and learn about what is going on in the once
forbidden rest of the world.
Above Uzbek ladies visiting the mosque posed nicely for a photo.
To the right one characteristic face.
The main cities of Uzbekistan are :
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan, it is an unexpected universe, at the same time it is heteroclite and cosmopolite its a mixture of oriental and occidental.
The city was a place for lively trade and the distant countries ranging from the Byzantium in the west to China in the east are witness to that fact. During the 8th century the city of Tashkent was demolished by the Arabs conquerors.
It was only rebuilt in the 9th century not on top of the ruins but 4-5 km away to the northwest, on the banks of the Bozsuv canal.
In the 13th century khorazmshokh Muhammad once again destroyed Tashkent. Only in the 14th and 15th century, as part of Amir Temur's state, the city acquired its previous status of stronghold, its borders expanded, and industry culture and trade developed. A new wall encircled the city, wonderful architectural building were erected, parts of which have been preserved to our days like (Kukaldosh and Barokhon madrasahs)
Amir Temur known in the west by Tamerlan ( you can
see his statue in the picture on the right while riding a horse )
was a great man with extraordinary intelligence - not only
intuitive, but intellectual. Even though he did not know how to read or write,
he spoke two or three languages including Persian and Turkic and liked to be
read history at mealtimes. He had aesthetic appreciation in buildings and
garden.
He loved art so much that he could not help stealing it ! The Byzantine palace gates of the Ottoman capital of Bursa were carried off to Samarkand, where they were much admired by Clavijo.
Ibn Khaldun, who met him outside Damascus in 1401 wrote:
"This king Timur is one of the greatest and mightiest kings...
he is
highly
intelligent and very perspicacious, addicted to debate and argument about what
he knows and also about what he does not know!"
Left
: This is the Tashkent museum.
Its architecture reflects the beauty of Islamic art.
In the Museum a Mogol art piece below representing Amir Temur Lang sitting on his throne and around him all his aids
To the left a View inside the Museum
To the right is a detail of a Lion it is all made with a mosaic of different ceramics.
In
Tashkent, like in all over Uzbekistan you can see the magnificence of Islamic
architecture, the beauty of the monuments reminds us of the thousand and
one night, each one is a master piece of its own
To the right you can see All the designs are made with small pieces and fragments of Majolica Ceramics
They have many monuments called Madrasah, which is a Koranic school where they teach the Islamic religion
To the left
the majestic Kukaldosh Madrasah
Below is another view of the same Madrasah,
This is a mausoleum, you cannot count the great numbers of mausoleums in different cities of Uzbekistan.
To the right a charming Uzbek girl student of the madrasah
To the right, this is how a Madrasah look like from the inside
Below is the market place in Tashkent its a place where you can find all and everything you can imagine.
Below the market place.
To the right a face in the market .
A
man selling all sorts of ingredients
Uzbek ordinary people are very simple and nice people, they are friendly and curious to know about foreigners visiting their country, because they don't see much of them.
Is this an Uzbekistani ??
No its an Egyptian travel companion, trying an Uzbek traditional cloth, surely Samir has roots in Uzbekistan !
Me too I must have had ancestors in Uzbekistan, in one of the Museums I found a picture of a wiseman and his name written in Arabic is "LOUTFI"
Tashkent as one of the largest cities in central Asia, have one subway, that the Russian have built, it is one of the most beautiful undergrounds in the world after the one in Moscow.
Everything I heard about the beauty of Samarkand is purely true - but it proved more beautiful than what I could imagine.
Alexander the Great
The most beautiful monument in Samarkand is the Registan Square ensemble of the three Madrasah below
All the monuments you will see here like Mausoleums, Mosques, Necropolis, and Madrasah are so beautiful that one would think they are movie sets, but in reality they are real antique monuments.
Registan Square : On the left Ulugbek Madrasah, in the front Tyllia-kari Madrasah, on the right Chir-Dor Madrasah.
Glorifying the beauty of Samarkand known then by the name " Maracanda " the words of Alexander the Great are still reverberating between the formidable edifices of the capital of Tamerland nearly 2500 years later.
It was both the legends of the past, and the mystic name of
Samarkand
that guided my steps to Uzbekistan, as they are guiding all the
visitors through the silk road, who wish and desire to follow the steps of "
Amir Timour
Lang " of Alexander the Great or that of the caravans of the
deserts.
Two pictures the one to the left is an old black and white photograph of the site while being restored to the right the same monument after being restored.
Faces of two Uzbek women. one invest in makeup, the other invest in gold ( teeth ).
Where in the world can one find such beautiful buildings ?
All the monuments have a kind of portals that are entirely covered with beautiful colorful ceramics, one can see the Arabic calligraphy that are part of the ornaments.
In
every corner a different portal
To the left and right
"Ismail Samani" Mausoleum , is a wonderful creation of human hands it has brought joy to the people over a thousand years. it has a perfect architecture it is all made of a lace of stones, as if made out of biscuits. It was built during the pre-Arabic epoch in the Persian period. To the right a detail of the building material wood and raw bricks .
To the right and below the interiors of different mosques.
The Islamic Art is shown in all its splendor.
Bukhara is one of the ancient cities in central Asia. Its 2500 years anniversary was celebrated in 1997.
Almost in the very center of Asia amidst the desert sands, set off by fields of cotton, pastures, and gardens is the oasis of Bukhara with its ancient legends and traditions.
Some of the many Madrasah are transformed into a multiple shops
where they sell the original well known handicraft embroideries called Bukharas or
Suzanis.
Centuries have passed since the days when Bukhara was one of the most enlightened, the richest, and most beautiful cities of central Asia, but she hasn't aged at all. For today, one can admire the originality of the architectural monuments. And the city welcomes her guests, surrounding them with beauty and serenity.
Bukhara is considered as an open air museum, it is peaceful and hospitable, gay and witty, reasonable and tolerent.
A young lady from Bukhara posing genuinely and nicely to have her picture taken
A group
of local visitors are enjoying their picture been taken, you can see the
innocence in their eyes.
It
is not everyday that someone take a picture of that old and peaceful man .
To
the left Colossal beautiful entrance of a mauselum.
To the right you can admire the beautiful complex and refined Islamic architecture it is the splendid architecture of multiple levels..
Majestic and beautiful tower " "known as the Kalian minaret" " of a mosque, also in Arabic as known as ( Muzana ) from which the fidels or ( Muazzen ) call for the prayer.
Below is "Bolo-Khauz" Mosque.
Many of the people in central Asia have contributed in many ways to the advance and progress of the science and civilization of the world.
El-khawaresmi
El-Bukhari
El-Nakshabandi
El-Farabi
El-Beruniy
Also Omar khayam
"El khawarezmi" father of the Algebra were the name
Algorithm came from.
Statue
of El khawarezmi in the province khorezm
A grand son of Temur Lang called Ulug bek was at the same time a ruler and an celebrate astronomer, we have visited his observatory ( what is left of it )
Another called Nassir Eddini Persa contributed in Geography as one can see from the document they keep in the museum
To the right is a giant Koran stand
in
the court of the Mosoleum of a well known lady called "Bibi-Khanum"
who was the wife of Tamerland, in the back ground a sumptuous portal of its
mausoleum.
Some photos of Bukhara :
One
of the most interesting monument of old Bukhara, the small Magoki-Attari Mosque
it dates from the tenth century.
Inside
the court of Bibi-khanum, Arabic inscriptions are seen under the cupolas
Girls dancing in what used to be a "Caravan Seray" , it was a show that demonstrated the oriental costumes and dancings since the khans and the sultans...
The importance of Urgensh city derives from (Khiva ) that is situated at the suberbs and contains one of the most important and beautiful collection of ancient monuments, it is a small town on its own and is preserved by the Unesco .
The
Walls that surrounds the town of khiva
Inside the town this blue tower they say was not finished it was supposed to be much higher,
Entrance
of a mosque, with the wooden work on a column.
General
view of the town of khiva showing many of the antiques monuments that were
preserved by the unesco.
A
camel left behind since the days of the caravans traveling the silk path
from China to Uzbekistan.
To
the right An alley inside the town of Khiva and another minaret
A
beautiful painting I found representing the same minaret .
Uzbek
beauty, and a smile that makes you dream of the wonderful thousand and one
night.
Another beautiful face with beautiful eyes from Khiva
You can see more about Uzbekistan and the Egyptian group by Samir Rafaat, if you click HERE