{"id":5670,"date":"2025-08-06T11:45:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/?p=5670"},"modified":"2025-08-17T09:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:55:23","slug":"uzbekistan-day-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/uzbekistan-day-six\/","title":{"rendered":"Uzbekistan – Day Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samarkand.<\/p>\n

Really, probably the name that most drew me to thinking about Central Asia back some forty years ago now. As many who know me, I read almost exclusively first-person narrative travel – Travel Lit, and reading about this region has been foremost in much of the library I have built up over time. I have some 300 books of this genre – spanning travel around the globe.<\/p>\n

One such author, that I\u2019ve chosen to bring along on this trip, is Philip Glazebrook and his account of travel here called \u201cJourney to Khiva\u201d – one of the places we\u2019ll visit in a few days. He writes *beautifully* with subtle and surprising turns of phrase that make you stop and look out over the top of the book at the middle distance and smile, nodding your head in understanding and admiration.<\/p>\n

It has still been hot here, no surprise there. In direct sunlight it is easily 40C, but somehow entirely tolerable in the shade with a few sips of water to hand. Our fixer in Tashkent (hereafter, TK) arranged for a guide for today. Dennis is Uzbek-born, but Russian Orthodox. He spoke quickly, knowledgably, and with a thick Russian accent. My reduced hearing is definitely a drawback on this trip. I lost much of what he \u00a0related today and ended up just wandering off and shooting photos while he regaled Harold. That was actually quite fine with me and I am averse to being lectured on things that are A) right in front of me, B) in a thick accent difficult to understand at the best of times and C) being party to the guide’s personal opinions on this and that, which had the ring of opinion vs fact. Plus, quizzing us on factoids now and then that he\u2019d related earlier in the day was a little awkward because I either couldn\u2019t hear him at the time or I felt like I was put on the spot to know something and perhaps verify his job? Not sure.<\/p>\n

At any rate, buckle up. There are quite a few photos I\u2019ve chosen to post here from the day.<\/p>\n

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Just around the corner from our really quite nice family-run guest house.<\/p>\n

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The fellow welding was just closing his eyes during the actual weld as a method to preserve his sight.<\/p>\n

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Part of the Astronomical observatory of Ulug Begh.<\/p>\n

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Guide getting sleepy. It\u2019s a pretty boring job after all.<\/p>\n

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Near the burial place of (part of) Daniel from the Old Testament. One of his arms is buried nearby.<\/p>\n

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Religious sanctuary (Islamic) near the Daniel site where Sufis who follow separation worship can take time (40 days at a time – family brings food and leaves outside the door).<\/p>\n

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Near the entrance of the Shah-i-Zinda Necropolis. There is a narrow street of these mausoleums, most decorated with tile. Despite the crowds, it was quite a moving place to visit.<\/p>\n

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Inside one such mausoleum:<\/p>\n

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Broader view of the Necropolis from the back end.<\/p>\n

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Chinese tourist.<\/p>\n

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Street kitty (mother) accepting pats and small scratches under the chin and along her cheek.<\/p>\n

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I sat in this room for a good while. It had AC.<\/p>\n

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Antechamber seen to the right in the above photo. The light was amazing and the scatter of denominations in the foreground made for a great composition.<\/p>\n

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Russian women Instagramming each other.<\/p>\n

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Harold trying to figure out why his camera was shooting so dark. A close look later showed the lens failing and then ceasing. Fortunately he has a second lens.<\/p>\n

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Chinese women Instagramming…<\/p>\n

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Construction just outside the Registan – the large collection of Madrassas and Mosque that you\u2019ll see in a minute. I liked the play between the warning tape and the lines on the wall.<\/p>\n

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One minaret at the corner of the Registan.<\/p>\n

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Asian tourist who amused me. It looks like he\u2019s waiting while the power cable on the ground is charging him up.<\/p>\n

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The maidan between the two mosques (Shia at left, Sufi at right) and the Madrassa at centre. A madrassa is basically a religious school.<\/p>\n

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Sufi mosque (pictured at right, above). Sufi because that sect is less strict than Shia and allows for the depiction of animals and human faces – seen on the facade here above the doorway. Depictions of animals and people is otherwise forbidden in Islam.<\/p>\n

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The Registan Madrassa.<\/p>\n

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Steps to the second floor of the Madrassa<\/p>\n

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Harold getting the shot within the courtyard of the Madrassa.<\/p>\n

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Prayer spot just inside the Shia mosque within the Registan<\/p>\n

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Mea Culpa: I used Lightroom\u2019s AI component to remove Harold and guide Dennis from this photo:<\/p>\n

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Looking straight up under the arch in the above photo<\/p>\n

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Inside the mausoleum of Amir Temur – lionized leader of historical Uzbeks<\/p>\n

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Cell phone light showing the translucency of the quartz used along one wall.<\/p>\n

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Ceiling above Amir Temur\u2019s mausoleum<\/p>\n

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No idea which mosque this is. I just like the composition<\/p>\n

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Rear of Gur-i-Amur mosque complex next to our hotel<\/p>\n

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Tourist wares at the rear of Our-i-Amir<\/p>\n

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Samarkand. Really, probably the name that most drew me to thinking about Central Asia back some forty years ago now. As many who know me, I read almost exclusively first-person narrative travel – Travel Lit, and reading about this region has been foremost in much of the library I have built up over time. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,22,82],"tags":[83,80],"class_list":["post-5670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-samarkand","category-travel","category-uzbekistan","tag-samarkand","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5671,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions\/5671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}