FarewellFire
IMG_9548
A fortress in the historical area of Merv, Turkmenistan.
A short car ride from present Mary lies Merv, an impressive area that once used to be a major city on the famous Silk Road route. It is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and if this would have been found anywhere else in the world I bet that it would´ve been crowded by tourists. During the visit we pretty much were the sole visitors on the site.
Our guide told us that the fort above used to host students and next to it another one used to lie that hosted students of the other sex. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century when the son of Genghis Khan, Tule, showed up in Merv and butchered most of its citizens. This thanks to a dispute three year earlier when Khans runner who approached the city with a list of demands in order to spare the city (yes, this involved access to female virgins, what did you expect?) was killed.
Published in UNESCO World Heritage Magazine (2014) - whc.unesco.org/en/review.
IMG_9548
A fortress in the historical area of Merv, Turkmenistan.
A short car ride from present Mary lies Merv, an impressive area that once used to be a major city on the famous Silk Road route. It is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and if this would have been found anywhere else in the world I bet that it would´ve been crowded by tourists. During the visit we pretty much were the sole visitors on the site.
Our guide told us that the fort above used to host students and next to it another one used to lie that hosted students of the other sex. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century when the son of Genghis Khan, Tule, showed up in Merv and butchered most of its citizens. This thanks to a dispute three year earlier when Khans runner who approached the city with a list of demands in order to spare the city (yes, this involved access to female virgins, what did you expect?) was killed.
Published in UNESCO World Heritage Magazine (2014) - whc.unesco.org/en/review.