Samarkand - September 17, 2007

September 17, 2007

Samarkand, a city we’ve looked forward to for the entire trip, is just a few hours away.

Cotton fields lined both sides of the road about twenty miles outside of Bukhara, some fields were filled with pickers, and other fields were not. That would change within a day. Our bus came to a stop, and we watched while a literal caravan of mini-buses, at least one hundred in all, passed us by filled with school-aged children and escorted by police cars with their lights flashing. Following the busses were large open trucks hauling the beds and luggage. We learned that school closes during the cotton harvest, and these buses were carrying children to the cotton fields to pick cotton for the next month and a half before the rains begin. Each child is given three meals a day, works seven days a week, and is expected to make their quota of 30 kilos every day. Each cotton boll weighs approximately 3 grams, so that means they must pick about 10,000 cotton bolls to make quota. Our guide, remembering his time as a child, said that smart kids work early in the morning while the cotton is damp with dew rather than later in the morning when it tends to be drier and lighter. We don’t know if there are Child Labor laws, but the practice children working the fields may not be much different than what happens during harvest in certain parts of the US.

Pesticides, used in the production of cotton, are getting much more attention. In past years, the pesticides were applied by crop dusters, but that method of application has been stopped because the workers in the fields are contracting diseases associated with pesticides.

Entering Samarkand, we noticed a sign celebrating its 2,750 years of existence. Actually, the city just celebrated its 2,500 year anniversary a few months ago, but some carbon dating completed recently determined that the city is actually another 250 years older. Samarkand means “Fat City” or “Rich City” – a city of merchants. It is a rich city since so many tourists have visited and spent their money!

After dropping off our luggage at the Afrosiab Hotel, we headed to the Guri Amir Mausoleum, a short distance away. This mausoleum was built in 1404 by Timur, a ruthless warrior and ruler of Samarkand. An enormous fluted dome sparkled in the sun with its azure colored tiles, as did the domes of the two attending minarets. Minaret actually translates to “lighthouse” and in its day, fires burned atop them illuminating the way to Samarkand for caravans on the Silk Road. The men, who climbed to the apex of these minarets, had an excellent vantage point for observing what was going on in the city below. Believing this was not right, they began to use blind men to build the fires. Near the top of all minarets the calligraphy reads, “Allah is God, and Mohammad is His Prophet.” As in Bukhara, the mausoleum foundation was built with alternating layers of reeds and straw to help minimize damage from any tremors or earthquakes. Timur had intended this place just for his sons, grandsons and teachers, and had built a simpler crypt for himself in Shakhrisabz. However, due to the timing and location of his death, he was buried here as well. A slab of dark green jade, reportedly the largest in the world, marks the grave of Timur. In one of the alcoves there is a tall wooden branch reaching high into the air and from the top hangs the tail of a yak. This signifies the grave of a saint. The large and stunningly beautiful dome overhead lends a feeling of peacefulness and elegance to the crypt. Motifs on the ceiling are made from papier-mâché covered in gold leaf while the lower areas have motifs in stucco covered with gold leaf. The intricate designs and a huge faceted glass chandelier make the entire inside magnificent. It’s just too hard to adequately describe.

Sidebar: Our guide told us that after some radical incidents in Ferghana and Tashkent during 1999, there was a crackdown on Islamic fundamentalism. Mosques are now forbidden to broadcast the call to prayer from minarets. Also to prevent radicalism, no Islamic medressas are allowed, so religion must be taught in the home.

Our next stop was the Ulughbek Observatory. Ulughbek was a son of Timur and his discoveries as an astronomer garnered more fame than did his reign as a ruler. During the 1420’s, he built a three story observatory with a vertical sextant, rather than a horizontal one, and recorded 1,008 stars and 8 planets. His calculations for the calendar were off by only 58 seconds. Ulughbek knew that the earth wasn’t flat and that it moved around the sun.

The last stop for the day was Afrosiab Museum, displaying artifacts from nearby excavations covering eleven civilizations around ancient Samarkand. At the end of the tour, the final room was particularly well worth seeing. On all four walls it displayed the original frescoes found at the site. While large sections were missing or damaged, you could still recognize hunting scenes, a procession of dignitaries, and some local rulers. The color blue in the frescoes was exceptionally brilliant, considering its age. Renderings of what the complete frescoes possibly looked like were sketched on the wall above.

We had just enough time after returning to the hotel to have an espresso, then grab our computers and head to an Internet café. Again, we could not connect to the blogsite, and we think that it must be blocked like it was in China. Who would guess that this would be so difficult?

Take care,

Tamara, Garry and Rich

Captions: 1)Guri Amir Mausoleum 2) Ceiling at Gari Amir Mausoleum 3) Timur's tombstone 4) Partial track of sextant at Ulughbek Observatory 5) Afrosiab Museum