7NNT25: Day 4 – Samarkand

Soundtrack: “Turn! Turn! Turn!” – Pete Seeger/The Byrds

A more sedately paced day after yesterday’s hustle. We kicked off with a late hotel breakfast, our Samarkand accommodation is smaller than Tashkent so the selection was scaled down considerably with only a few types of cheese, limited hot foods, fruit etc and some local options like samsa.

First stop was a traditional crafts village on the edge of Samarkand. The Uzbeks have a long history of making paper, having obtained the knowledge from the Chinese — according to some folklore by force, where captured Chinese soldiers gave up the knowledge in exchange for their lives. Like many things, the knowledge was lost in the 17th and 18th centuries, but in the late 20th century a group decided to revive the practice and it continues today. We were taken through the steps of the laborious process: mulberry branches are steamed until the outer bark can easily be removed; this bark then gets simmered for an extended period before being ground into pulp. The pulp is then spread onto a fine mesh before being pressed between sheets of cotton, and placed on boards to dry. The dried sheets are then polished to smooth using bone and stone tools.

We could then purchase some of the paper, however the price we were quoted for a handful of postcard and bookmark sized pieces was more than what you’d pay for a meal for 4 people, so we declined. We’re not sure if there was a mis-translation or the seller put the wrong numbers into the calculator, or if indeed these papers are that expensive.

We also signed up for a pottery workshop, making a small traditional vase on the wheel. L is an experienced hobby potter, and while she was challenged by working with unfamiliar clay and the instructor controlling the speed of the wheel, she managed to do a solid job only to be undone by a little too much water. Me, however, had only ever touched a pottery wheel at home helping L move hers, so I was very much a slightly involved onlooker requiring lots of guidance: my finished pot was really about 2% my effort and 98% instructor (though I feel that without they help I *might* have managed to turn an okay bowl, but that wasn’t the aim). It was good fun, just don’t tell L that I enjoyed it okay? After the workshop we bought some pottery, as it was a lot more reasonably priced.

The craft village also had an extensive canal system going on in, as the paper pulp crushing, oil making, and several other features were all powered by water wheels. It was amazing really watching how these operated, where the wheels would turn belts and spindles, which might then turn other wheels, before powering the actual tool.

From the craft village it was all about Ulegbeg, Timur’s grandson, who had a fairly challenging upbringing being forced to live with his grandparents and having a multitude of cousins who wanted to kill him. Somehow this environment produced a fairly introverted ruler, as once he got the keys to Timur’s kingdom he spent his time trying to maintain what was there, build schools and universities for studying all manner of things, and hanging with the teachers. Quite the opposite to his illiterate mercenary grandfather. Suffice to say that Ulegbeg’s shocking behaviour led to his downfall and murder, but he did manage to get built an amazing observatory, with at the time the world’s largest quadrant device used for tracking and measuring the movement of the sun, stars, and planets. The quadrant device was a long crescent shaped ditch with lots of precise graduations marked, which while enabled incredibly accurate observations and calculations, but also probably meant that the astronomers missed out on what would have otherwise been an awesome toboggan track. Sadly, the observatory was abandoned after Ulegbeg’s murder and fell into ruin, and only part of the original facility remains today.

See, that’s what happens, the folks who are too smart (Ulegbeg managed to calculate the duration of year and was out by 25 seconds, and the axial tilt of the earth to within a few hundreds of a degree, all with a big ditch and a bunch of maths): first they get murdered then it all ends up with women being stripped of their rights. Sometimes it happens the other way around, but sadly too many powerful folks seem to consider those things to be the goals: murder smart people, oppress women, and be rich.

We also visited the tomb of Daniel, and the nearby blessed spring. Legend has it that Timur was trying to conquer Syria, and wasn’t having much luck. His advisors suggested that the presence of the tomb of Daniel there was protecting the region, so he fought his way to the tomb, removed part of the remains, and brought these back to Samarkand, where they were entombed (and started growing, hence the 18m sarcophagus). Artifacts safely stored, Timur went back and did the conquering thing. When the remains were brought back to Samarkand, a spring apparently appeared nearby, and people come from far and wide to wash and drink the water due to its “healing” properties (at the top of the hill is a 600 year old pistachio tree, and some of the spring water was used to bring it back to life after it was looking poorly; I washed my hands and put some on my sunburned nose, I haven’t miraculously learned to touch type but we’ll see how the nose feels in the morning).

Our final historical stop was a museum dedicated to ancient Samarkand, with many archeological objects retrieved from excavations, including many found prior to nearby roadworks taking place that were fortunately saved and preserved. The objects show the history of the region, including customs and beliefs, from metal arrowheads, to Zoroastrian ossuaries, large amphoras once filled with wine, small carved figures, stoneworks, and remnants of a huge painted wall mural. Sadly between them pesky mongols and the passing of time the collection isn’t huge, but it is fascinating.

We said goodbye to N after she brought us to a restaurant for lunch, one that serves both tourists and locals. I’m yet to really get a feel for all of the eating customs in Uzbekistan, in terms of how to tell which places are frequented by locals, as this place had all of the decorations and trappings that made me think tourist trap, but L, who has travelled more in the middle east that I, found it just to be a slightly nice local restaurant. I think I’m more used to south east asia, where it’s easier to differentiate, not just from looking at the clientele but also the whole vibe of the place: bad service means good food. I guess today’s restaurant could be described similarly, many of the waitstaff had the vibe of being the owner’s relatives, in that they spent a lot of time doing not much, polite but quite confused as to how to take orders, bring out food, and manage multiple tables. There were a couple of good ones, but I’d hate to see how the rest function at busy times.

We went for more shashlik, wonderful meat skewers. The Uzbeks really know how to stick meat and vegetables on large metal skewers, and turn them into tasty meals with the application of heat from charcoal. Today’s selection included some that were chicken wrapped in beef, quite mazali (delicious), as well as a ground beef skewer spaced with tomato, eggplant, and a couple of chunks of meat fat just to keep everything moist. Again, muy mazali.

A quiet night in, and tomorrow is our last full day in Samarkand. We’ll hopefully do some shopping, check out some of the local wines, and do a cooking class where the wonders of plov will be revealed. Of course, typing this makes me realise combining a wine tasting and fire and sharp objects on the same day might not be the best ideal but we’ll see how it goes — I guess if our travel insurance covers riding motor scooters in south east asia we should be fine.

Below are some images from yesterday and today (I’ve been fighting with wordpress plugins to do image things and am currently losing apologies if they look weird.