Today we will explore the humble beginnings of Timur by visiting his birth town of Shahrisabz. Yesterday Olga arranged a driver who will pick us up at 9.00. Sadly Cleo hasn’t adjusted to the new time zone yet so our rest was less than ideal. Another problem for our freshness this day is the still not working running water. So we make due with bottled water, eat breakfast and meet our driver for the day.
It’s an 1,5 hours drive to Shahrisabz which crosses the Zerafshan mountains. We expect a flat and dry landscape, but as soon as we leave Samarkand the scenery is lush with green mountains and pink blossoms. The road is in better than expected condition, but it’s still a bumpy ride. Luckily our driver doesn’t seem to be too crazy so we enjoy the views and once we reach the top of the pass we see the town in the distance in a green valley. The name Shahrisabz means green city.
We are dropped of at the city gate and have two hours to explore the place. The first thing you see, and impossible to miss, are the giant remains of the Ak Serai (White Palace). Although Timur made Samarkand the capital of his huge empire, he didn’t forget his home town and commissioned several buildings here. The Ak Serai was meant as his summer Palace and was huge, the entrance alone was two 65 meter towers with a 40 meter high portal arch. Although most of the building is destroyed, the remains of this huge entrance give a good impression of the scale.
All the sites are situated in a long stretched out park with electric golf carts riding around looking for passengers, we decide to walk to the end of the park first to stretch our legs. At the end is the Dorut Tilovat Madrassah with the Kok Gumbaz mosque built by our friend from yesterday Ulegh Beg. There are also some mausoleums for Timur’s sons.
Opposite the complex is Dorus-Saodat complex which includes the intended mausoleum of Timur. It was never used as he was buried in Samarkand and was only rediscovered in 1943. We’re also seduced to buy some items from a tourist stall, to ensure our children blend better with the Uzbek surroundings.
Since our two hours are almost over we look for a golf cart and take in the several sights from the comforts of our seats. Our driver is on time and asks us if we are hungry, we are starving so we say yes.
We drive back towards Samarkand, once again crossing the mountains. The weather has cleared, providing us with even better views of the snowy mountains. At the top of the pass we stop at the busiest restaurant. We follow our driver and are immediately cleared of any illusions of a vegetarian meal. There is no menu, only a counter where the cooked lamb’s meat is weighed, the driver makes sure that we only have good meat and we are taken to a private box over looking the mountain pass. We sit on the floor and the meal is completed with raw onions and a tomato herb salad. Cleo devours the lamb while Zeno has more fun running round the table.
After lunch we are driven back to our apartment and the children enjoy themselves in the playground as we edit our photos and write the blog. We have a major shock as all the pictures of today are cut in an odd way. Tim almost wants to order a taxi and go back to Shahrisabz to take the pictures in the right way, but luckily it’s just a strange setting in his photo software and as you can see, the pictures turned out fine.
Leave a Reply