Our group stopped in Abarkooh on our way from Eghlid to the caravan-serai at Zein-o-din. From the description, it didn’t sound like much. According to our trip notes: “Abarkooh is (a historical town) located in the desert valley beneath the Zagros Mountains.” Things we would see there? An ice house and an old mansion. After exploring …
desert
Six Things to See in Shiraz
Many people, myself included, associate the name ‘Shiraz‘ with the wine. I think of vineyards and rolling hills. I guess I think of a Persian Tuscany. That’s not too accurate. Shiraz is no Tuscany, it is its own place. It is a place of poets, a lush oasis in the desert, and a thriving city …
The Necropolis of Naqsh-e Rostam
Over 3000 years ago, the Middle East was experiencing a time of change. The Elamite and Assyrian empires were on the decline, and several Aryan tribes ventured down from what is now Russia, drawn by the prospect of new territory. These groups were the Medes, the Parthians, and the Persians. After a period of subjegation to the …
Sunset in Khiva
The sun was setting on my first full day in Khiva, and I was sitting on a ledge watching it sink behind a horizon punctuated by minarets and mosques. The day had been a full one, wandering through the Ichon-Qala fortress which encompasses most of the remaining Old Town. Now, merely sitting and watching the …
A Walk Around Khiva
I almost didn’t go to Khiva. Deviating from my planned Bukhara to Samarkand route to the tiny, northern desert oasis meant enduring a 10 hour shared taxi ride from Bukhara and a 14 hour overnight train onwards to Samarkand. It wasn’t until I read ‘A Carpet Ride to Khiva’ by Christopher Alexander that I decided to …
Ten Things to See in Bukhara
For centuries, Bukhara was a critical hub on the fabled Silk Road. Controlled by the Russians, the Bukharan Emirate, the Timurids, the Sogdians, and even the Mongols; it has long been caught up in the ebb and flow of power in Central Asia. Fortunately, many architectural legacies of its past have been preserved and/or restored, …
Gobi Tour: Part Two
So that last post was kind of a beast. This next one won’t be nearly as long. That’s mainly because we went through the rest of the tour at a more leisurely pace than those first two days. It’s also because I didn’t keep very good notes about what happened each day, so I’m having …
Gobi Tour: Part One
This may have been the most difficult entry for me to write, not because of the subject, but because of the environment I’m writing in. I am back home in Washington state, my travels (for now) ceased. There’s something about being back home that seems to suck the inspiration away, the desire to reminisce about …