The Fabled City of Samarkand
Samarkand, Uzbekistan: Registan Square 2012
The turquoise tiles of the 15th century madrassa glowed in the sun’s final rays and Torie and I photographed them using the highest ISO possible. The buildings are so huge that it wasn’t possible to get the entire complex in one shot from where we stood. I tried to find the essence of the medieval Arab world.
A note: the minarets do lean like you see in the photo above. Registan means ‘sandy place’ and the soft soil does not support the heavy minarets. The minarets were much taller when first constructed. I think they are shorter now to keep them from leaning so much so soon and to keep the tops from falling on passersby. (I’ll check this out and let you know for sure.)
I’d been to Samarkand before, in 1989. I had forgotten how huge the buildings are, how tall the minarets are. Now Registan is in a park, so are all the other important medieval structures such as the tomb of Tamerlane and the Bibi Hanum mosque. Back in the day, small homes on streets lined with mulberry trees surrounded the beautiful buildings or they were a few steps from a bustling produce market. Oh, I like the old way better!!
Torie arranged our trip with Steppe Journeys. Here’s the link:
http://www.steppejourneys.com/p/contact.html
Odil Akhmedov worked with Torie, patiently revising our itinerary until we were satisfied we would see the best Uzbekistan has to offer. Our guides were friendly and knowledgeable. Our hotels were clean and comfortable. We had time to sight-see, shop and photograph.