A silent admirer
With all the fantastic landscapes in Central Asia it is sometimes easy to forget that there is also culture, and the rich culture of the ancient Silk Road Cities is another miracle and reason for going to these countries.
Uzbekistan is in that respect the most interesting because there are at least three cities worth visiting. I already uploaded night pictures from Samarkand (www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49258431097/in/datepo...) and Buchara (www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49584591492/in/datepo...). The third night shot is taken in Khiva
(www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49727018383/in/datepo...) with a beautiful and rather well restored city center between high city walls, and numerous Mosques, Minarets, Madrassas, and here a lot of foreign mostly European tourism.
This shot is taken in front of the Islam Khoja Complex: mosque and minaret. Khiva is beautifully lit at night, offering lots of picture moments. Since i didn't carry a tripod with me during this trip, it was really an effort to keep everything sharp, but I think this result is not bad.
As you can see, not only people enjoy the spectacular buildings.
20 September I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran) before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history.
Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way. We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!
We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border.
And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.
A silent admirer
With all the fantastic landscapes in Central Asia it is sometimes easy to forget that there is also culture, and the rich culture of the ancient Silk Road Cities is another miracle and reason for going to these countries.
Uzbekistan is in that respect the most interesting because there are at least three cities worth visiting. I already uploaded night pictures from Samarkand (www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49258431097/in/datepo...) and Buchara (www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49584591492/in/datepo...). The third night shot is taken in Khiva
(www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49727018383/in/datepo...) with a beautiful and rather well restored city center between high city walls, and numerous Mosques, Minarets, Madrassas, and here a lot of foreign mostly European tourism.
This shot is taken in front of the Islam Khoja Complex: mosque and minaret. Khiva is beautifully lit at night, offering lots of picture moments. Since i didn't carry a tripod with me during this trip, it was really an effort to keep everything sharp, but I think this result is not bad.
As you can see, not only people enjoy the spectacular buildings.
20 September I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran) before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history.
Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way. We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!
We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border.
And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.