Travel to Samarkand, Uzbekistan with Bob & Wilma

Samarkand was an important crossroads on the ancient Silk Road with much trade goods and many bazaars probably much like the ones there today. 

It was contemporary with Rome and Babylon and was inhabited up to 40,000 years ago by Paleolithic man.

A great Sogdian fort was on this site from the 6th century BCE as attested to by the ruins of Afrosiab and the beautiful art found there.

Though Uzbekistan is Moslem and at one time had one of the largest number of madrassahs in the Moslem world and, even now, has the mausoleum of one of Muhammad's relatives.

It was a crossroads of many faiths -- ossuaries of Zoroastrian society have been found, Buddhist tradition mentioned it, and...

the tomb of "Daniel of the lion's den" which is uniquely important in the three great Middle East religions, is found and revered here.

The discovery in 1908 of the observatory of Ulug Beg, verifies the importance of science in Samarkand before the west began to embrace it. The stealing of technology is not a new or unique problem of our time because the people of Samarkand stole the 'paper making' technique  from the Chinese centuries ago and even now continue to capitalize on it in the tourist industry.    

Photos and story courtesy of Bob & Wilma.

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