My guide for the day, Dilshod, below, personally refurbished this madrassa and turned it into an educational museum that hosts school tours almost every day. He gathered photos, documents, and artifacts of all sorts. Honestly, he was cheerful and seemed to be enjoying himself telling stories about this place.
The museum focused on the life and mission of Ibrat Muzeyi.
I learned something today. I thought all the Russian I was seeing was actually Russian from the Soviet days. It is from the Soviet days but not necessarily Russian. From 1940 to 1993 Uzbekistan used the Cyrillic alphabet for the Uzbeck language and in 1993 began transitioning to the Latin alphabet. Before 1940 they were using the Arabic script.
These designs were made with paint.
How the building looks from the outside.
The property includes a large park and a language school.
Next stop was the ancient and destroyed city of Axsikent.
“Before its destruction, Axsikent was a major, fortified city with a citadel, residential and handicraft areas, and a deep moat surrounding it. It featured important buildings like mosques, a palace, and a caravanserai, and was known for its skilled artisans, particularly in crucible steel, glassmaking, and ceramics. The city was strategically located at the confluence of the Kasansai and Syr Darya rivers and was a thriving trade center along the Silk Road.”
The government has embarked on a major project to turn this important and historic excavation site into a tourist attraction.
There are signs up now and so many steps and boardwalks to see what’s happening.
Entering this building you can’t help but think about the Terracotta Warriors in Xion and that’s a very successful tourist attraction as well an important and historic excavation site.
Another excavation on the same site.
Development plans.
Looking across to the river Syr Darya.
And across the street there was a nice fried fish spot…
…much like the fried fish place where we ate in a yurt. Here you eat under the trees. Notice the platforms and tables and cushions. It’s how they do.
As long as I can still do this, I can travel wherever I want to go.
Back in Namangan, Dilshod wanted to show me where he grew up, in one of the Soviet blocks that are still completely occupied.
Then we took a little stroll through the amusement park that was there in Dilshod’s youth. So little was electrified and the kids were enjoying themselves entirely.
We swung by a market to admire these breads and buy one to eat right now, which was very good, fresh so a little crunch on the outside and soft on the inside. It a few hours you can play hockey.
There was a madrassa on the street with the market, and interesting because of the designs in the bricks.
We dropped off the guide and headed out for our many hours drive to Kokand and the hotel “Silk Road Kokand”.
