Samarkand, Uzbekistan: Who Knew?

5/20/15
Samarkand turned out to be a quite special, unique and magical place.  Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted with scarves for the women and these cute little caps for the men:

Uzbekistan is all about the elaborate Islamic style tile work on their monuments, structures and sacred places.  Our first stop was the Ulugh Beg Observatory (Click here to learn more).  It was built in the 1420s, and has a fascinating history.  Since our guide prattled on at a rapid pace in English with a thick Russian like accent, there’s certainly not much more I can tell you than the Wikipedia page could.  The first shot is of the tile work outside the building, the second is a model of what the original round building looked like, and the third is the remnants of the original trench where reflections from the sun and planets were observed and studied.

The next obligatory stop on the Samarkand rounds is of course the Amir Temur (Click here to learn more), also known as Guri Amir, which is the burial place of Tamerlane, also known as Timur.  Why these guys and their monuments have to have so many names was not explained.  But the beauty of this place needs almost no explanation.

And a portrait of the man himself, for whom all this was posthumously erected:

For those who figured out the following three pics weren't taken by me, congratulations.  Again, I thank Donald Morrison for the stunning depiction by day, and two fine views snapped on a return visit in the evening:

 We got a fresh start the next day at the Shohi Zinda, a highly sacred place indeed.  This one is not just a mausoleum, but twenty buildings in all that have been developed over many centuries (Click here to learn more) .  I won’t bother to describe the beauty of this place, but will explain a couple things.

One thing I’ve noticed the world over is scaffolding.  These guys are expert restorationists and put it to good use.

And for the impromptu-entertainment-of-the-day, our guide asked these school children to sing the Uzbekistan National Anthem for us, upon which they immediately crossed their hearts and burst into song.

And back to the fabulous tile work, etc.

The Registan (Click here to learn more) is a town square in Samarkand with, you guessed it, large buildings with plenty of the requisite elaborate tile work, etc.  It surely did not fail to astound, but about three more of these types of places and it might get a bit old.

And my submission for silly selfie of the day:

Evidently, Uzbek people love to have their photos taken, especially with tall Americans.  So who am I to deny them that small indulgence?

As notorious as they come, this is the restaurant where I ate the bread I believe made me so sick.  It’s called Platan, so avoid it at all costs!

One last mausoleum before we burst: the almighty Bibi Khanum, built for Tamir's wife.

Before my food born illness set in, I did manage to enjoy a decent meal with lovely entertainment at Noviy Arbat.

And as a special treat, our guides took us by the Registan at night to see it lit up.  Now that’s spectacular!!

Just so no one wonders why the streets of Samarkand seem so clean, they have these ladies sweeping all over the place.  And they get right out into traffic, without hesitation or flinching.  Ballsy, but it seems to work.  We didn’t get any statistics on mortality rates.

In case anyone wondered what the airport in Samarkand is actually called, it’s Samarqand Xalqaro Aeroporti.  By the way, in case you hadn't guessed, Xalqaro means international.  So now you know.

And that's probably about all I have to say for Samarkand.  It's an interesting place.  The food is hit or miss.  The people are very nice, friendly and love to smile (perhaps in many cases to show off those lovely gold teeth).  But I must admit that we were warned not to even rinse our teeth with the water.  Despite the efforts to maintain sanitation, I did get hit by the bug, which came on in full force in Mongolia.  More on that next post...   E.R.   ;-)