The Treasures of the old "Seidenstrasse"

Who in Europe has not heard of Samarkand?

But where is it ? Does it still exist? What country does it belong to?

Peter is currently working in an organization called "EECA - Eastern Europe & Central Asia", which includes most of the territory of the former Soviet Union, i.e. today's CIS (GUS)-Countries. Uzbekistan is one of them. So the management team of this region had one of its regular meetings in Uzbekistan. A team building activity besides the usual management talk gave more possibilities to experience the country side, including the fabulous city of Samarkand.

Some history: Samarkand used to be a central trading point on the "silk road" over may centuries. Its roots go back to long before Christ, and in the islamic world its mausoleums for relatives of the prophet and mosques are well known as the ones with the "blue domes".

Cutting it short: If you ever find an opportunity to visit Samarkand, do so! We were visiting this city with a professional guide who tried to make us knowledgable about a city and country we had not known before. I will not repeat the numbers ... it were many! Such as the 1018 stars that Ulug Bek identified and registered in the 15th century.

Most impressive were not only the mausoleums that were built sometime between the 10th and the 17th century, with a peak round the 15th century when Samarkand was the capital of an empire reaching from India to Egypt, from Mongolia to Central Asia, Iran, Irak and even the European parts of Turkey. Some touristic highlights : Mausoleums of various chiefs (Tamerlan, Ulug Bek, and his decendants - there are at least 2 names for each of them, so don't worry about the names at all), the shrine of Ulug Bek(supposedly the biggest single piece of Jade around the world), the astronomical observatorium (Sextant) he built, the mosque that was devoted to Ulug Bek's most loved wife, the "City of the living King" and last but not least the 3 big mausoleums on the central square (see picture above).

In today's life Peter was impressed with people's positive approach to life, their ubiquitous drive for trading and most of all - the strong emphasis that the (seemingly straight forward authoritarian) government put on education in this remote place. Even a farmer whom Peter met in the mountains round Samarkand, spoke as "foreign" languages Russian and even some words German which he claimed he had learned at school. Almost everybody speaks Uzbeki, some sort of Farsi and in many cases Turkish as the basis of life.

Food in Uzbekistan: get ready for some basic, but fresh vegetables, followed by Pilaw and lots of grilled meat from lamb, beef and chicken. Those who know the tradition of shashlik in Ukraine will find the same also here, in similar quality but without pork. Peter and his colleagues had a fantastic evening when cooking Pilaw from lamb and beef at a semi-private house in Samarkand. An unforgettable experience!

Also unforgettable: the local currency "Soum" is only available in such small notes that if you want to pay for a dinner for a couple of people, you literally need ot bring a suitcase of cash with you (and they usually don't accept credit cards), and the Soum is not convertable. So before changing Dollars - think carefully how much money you might need, but also think about how much you can carry at a time!!