September 17 Day 27 Arriving in Turkistan

 

We are thr blue dot and have traveled almost due west from Almaty

After a roughish night and once the sun rose, it was an interesting trip crossing the vast steppes. Before I go on, I should tell you that Turkistan is not an independent country today. It is an historical and geographical region in Central Asia lying between the Caspian Sea to the west, Siberia to the north, the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to the east, and Iran, Indian subcontinent (Afghanistan and Pakistan) and Tibet to the south. The name means ‘Land of the Turks’, referring to the traditional homeland of various Turkic peoples. We were traveling in West Turkistan which includes the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. And we were heading for the city of Turkistan which is the administrative centre of the Turkistan Region of Kazakhstan, near the Syr Darya river and on the Trans-Aral Railway. 

The vast expanse of Kazakhstan's steppes

We passed little villages ....

... and stations reminiscent of other stations in Central Asia

We rattled passed tidy quaint stations .....

 .... to arrive at the Turkistan station

Turkistan is an ancient and holy city and is known as the 'spiritual capital of the Turkic world'. It is home of the UNESCO World Heritage site commissioned by Tamerlane as a mausoleum for the C11 Sufi Sheikh, Khoja Akhmet Yassawi. Soaring skyward almost 40m and capped by the largest turquoise tiled dome in Central Asia, it is one of the best-preserved buildings of the Timurid period – we were to visit that the next day. Today, after a delicious lunch, we did some sightseeing around the city before heading out to the Arystan Bab Mausoleum. 

A dish somewhat like Uzbeki plov with horse meat on the side - delicious

Arystan Bab Mausoleum

In the prayer room

This mausoleum marks the burial site of Arystan Bab, a religious figure who lived during the C12 and who, according to medieval sources, was one of the first Turkic dervishes. The earliest known structure dates to the C14-15. Some elements of the original structure have survived from that period, but much was rebuilt after a powerful earthquake in the C18.

We then headed to the ancient settlement of Otyrar once a major trade, political, and cultural centre of the Ferghana-Syr Darya corridor of the Great Silk Road. This trade corridor spanned across Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, following the paths of the Syrdarya River and its surrounding valleys, oases, and mountain routes. The settlement dates back to the C9 BC. It was mighty in its day but after some extremely bloody diplomatic events the Mongols besieged the citadel in the C13. It eventually revived only to be abandoned centuries later due to a combination of severe droughts, the catastrophic failure of the city's irrigation systems, and the global shift from overland Silk Road trade to maritime shipping routes. 

Janna in front of a map of paths through ancient Otyrar 

We wandered for over an hour looking at well preserved and signed archaeological excavations. The settlement covered an extremely large area and so we saw only a portion of it. According to historic documents, Timur (also known as Tamerlane), the despotic conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire, died there in 1405. He is entombed in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He ruled over modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, and was the last major conqueror to emerge from Inner Asia, 

Impressive entrance gates (rebuilt)

Bathhouse

More fortified gates

Close to the boundary we were watched by a group of curious camels

There were lots of fake camels along the paths near the gates

Back in the van and glad to be heading back to town

We covered only a small area of this vast site and collapsed back in the van to be whisked back to Turkistan and a rest. That evening we wandered out to watch the sun set before sitting down to a lavish banquet.   

Our meals were lavish and the food plentiful 

September 15 - 16, Days 25 -26 Almaty then off to Turkistan, Kazakhstan

If I remember correctly, our guide claimed to be of Mongolian descent.  Be that as it may,  she did explain the breakdown of the population. There are three tribal regions each with many sub-tribes  and they are not allowed to intermarry. The population of Kazakhstan is made up predominantly of Kazakhs (~70%), 15 % Russian and a number of other small ethnic groups including Uzbeks and Ukrainians.  The country, and its history, is vast so this is just a tiny snippet.

Ascension Cathedral 

Today we embarked on a whirl-wind walking tour of Almay. First stop Panfilov Park which was cool and shaded by a variety of trees - elm, chestnut, spruce, mulberry and oak to name a few. The park is home to the spectacular Ascension Cathedral (locally called Zenkov), one of the world’s tallest wooden buildings. It was built with wood using some pretty amazing engineering technology to protect it from earthquakes – a huge earthquake occurred in 1910 destroyed most of Almaty’s buildings. The cathedral is crowned by four golden ‘onion domes’ and inside it glitters and gleams – quite glorious. 

Monument of the national hero Bauyrzhan Momyshuly 

From the sublime to the darkness of war memorialised in the ‘Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen’.  The park honours not only these 28 men who defended Moscow in WWII but soldiers who fought in other wars. It was very sobering and was topped off by a special visit to the war museum (closed to the public) before we were taken to inspect a line of historic war machines - cars, trucks, tanks, cannon-carriers and rocket launchers. We breathed a sigh of incomprehension at the suffering experienced by the Kazakh people over too many decades (and usually fighting someone else’s wars). It is worth remembering that for seven decades or more Kazakhstan was part of the USSR.

This monument honors Kazakh soldiers who died in Afghanistan and other conflicts

Glory Memorial depicting the heroic defense of the city during World War II

Honouring the soldiers of the Guards Rifle Regiment who died in the Battle of Stalingrad in WW II

The defence building

A monument to the 'Golden Man"

After lunch we had a fleeting visit to the National Museum. We had visited this in 2016 but today we saw new exhibits. It houses wonderful displays showing the life of the nomadic people as well as the Golden Man (or ‘Golden Warrior’). He was an ancient Scythian nomad who lived around 400 to 300 BCE. He and a load of golden treasure were found in burial mounds 30-odd km east of Almaty.  

Not ready to rest – huh! we boarded a cable car which took us up Kok Tobe, the highest hill in Almaty, with a recreation park on top which allowed panoramic views over the city and out to the surrounding Alatau mountains. The park had expanded considerably since our visit nine years earlier.

Part of the cable car superstructure - I love cable cars!

A view over Almaty from Kok Tobe

April, one of our group, holding a Golden Eagle - very big birds

That evening we were to board a train which would take us west overnight to Turkistan both a city and region of Kazakhstan.  The evening started with another large meal and then a mad dash to the train station. It was raining heavily so the traffic was horrendous.  We finally got to the station, tumbled out of the bus, grabbed our luggage and made a mad dash to the train through ankle-deep water and pelting rain. No one knew what carriage we were supposed to be in, but the train was waiting to leave so we all piled in with our luggage and then had to drag our stuff through six carriages under the scowing  looks of passengers already on board. We were the cause of the delay it seems - they had held the train for us. In the end, we sat for another half hour or so before the train left the station. We were rather sodden and had to lay our clothes out to dry. But in the end, we were finally enroute to Turkestan on a very bumpy overnight train ride.

We were treated to the best Kazakhstan could offer

The sun finally dawned after a dreadfully rough night. On the positive side, our clothes and shoes were pretty much dry and the sun was shining. We breakfasted on an egg and bacon sandwich which I’d cobbled together from the breakfast table the morning before, plus yogurt and some wasabi broad beans - self-catering on the road can produce some interesting combinations (fortunately most of our meals were provided and usually we only had to cover one, or just occasionally two, meals ourselves). Along the way we would just get our head around interpreting what the food items were in the shops before we are whisked off to another country and new food ID challenges.  All part of the adventure.

We rushed through a deluge

Horse meat pate which I longed to taste but didn't but the shelves were quite an adventure

September 14, Day 24 Arriving in Kazakhstan and Charyn Canyon

 

Sheep and cattle still in their night pens

Still in China and passing fertile land

Wheat crop almost ready to be harvested

After a long night through the mountain passes from Urumqi in the westernmost province of China, we arrived on the eastern edge of Kazakhstan.  In the train arrival lounge, I met a group of young students just returning to study after the holidays. One lovely young woman latched on to me. Her English wasn’t good but 200% better than my Chinese or Kazakh! We chatted as best we could and did the photo thing and finished with hugs.  I think I remind the youngsters of their grandmothers and Australia seems to fascinate many of them. I ran into my young pilot again and it was like we were long lost friends. People have been so friendly and welcoming.

The bustling railway station at Khorgos in far west Xinjiang, China

A little bleak but the rain had stopped as we waited for the bus

Once we unloaded ourselves off the train at Khorgos (Huo'erguosi) near the Kazakh border and were bussed to the border where we spent the next 4-5 hours negotiating our way through two sets of immigration controls points to get out of China and into Kazakhstan. It was extremely slow but incident-free. Then we were finally in Kazakhstan. Callooh callay!

Our local guide met us after we had navigated through the border palaver and took us off to lunch about 2pm (some hadn’t even had breakfast at this stage!). Once fed and watered, we were bundling us into a small sleek bus for a 5-hour journey that would take us to Almaty via the Charyn Canyon  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charyn_Canyon . From the border, we travelled further westward to the eye-popping Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan. (And importantly once we left China we were able to reconnect with the rest of the world!) We were ultimately bound for Almaty, once the capital of Kazakhstan where we spent a short couple of days.

Approaching the canyon 

After almost 7 hours we arrived at the canyon

Finally we arrived at Charyn Canyon. We were pretty bushed after a long rattly ‘sleep’ so Lindsay and I decided against tackling the 200-odd steps down into the canyon but walked instead along part of the canyon rim - 5 km. After 4 hours ‘sleep’ and hours dealing with border control, we figured we didn’t do too badly!

You can google Charyn Canyon but just briefly. According to our guide ‘Charyn’ means ‘crack’ - formed by an earthquake. It is located close to the current Kazakh–Chinese border and is an ancient land feature with rocks dating back up to 100 million years. There are a number of canyons formed by the Charyn River as well as eroded by wind and ‘atmospheric’ erosion; we were visiting one of them - the ‘Valley of Castles’. The rim walk was really interesting. We saw a Great Gerbil and some of its burrow entrances and a Golden Eagle, but the area is teaming with wildlife – river otters, weasels, foxes, hares, wild boars, Long-horned Ibex, ermine, falcons. Persian gazelles, manuls (a small wild cat). And not far from the canyon is a relic forest of ‘Sogdian Ash’ (Ash Tree). This species is said to have survived since the last ice age.

Far below you can see most of our group in the canyon floor

There were no barriers so woe betide anyone getting too close to the edge

We walked as far as we could on the rim - to a shelter not visible (indicated by the red arrow)

The end of the rim walking track

There are yurts and cabins to stay in overnight

People go out to the canyon to camp and raft through part of the canyon 

The sun had slipped below the horizon before we left the canyon so didn’t get to our hotel in Almaty until 10pm. It had been a long tiring day particularly after our overnight train journey and poor sleep. Nevertheless, we sat down and did justice to quite a banquet at our hotel.

Kazakhstan promised to be a big experience! The next day we were to explore Almaty, Kazakhstan’s former capital. Incidentally Kazakhstan is basically a tribal land with three historic ‘tribes’ which are not distinct ethnic groups but rather three large confederations of Kazakh clans. The history of this region is long, complex and to me almost bordering on mythical.