Fly to Nukus, Drive to Khiva, Uzbekistan

John at the Uzbekistan Avante-Garde in the Desert Museum.

Some of the art work inside.

This one was done by Igor Savitsky, the man who recreated the museum.

Two paintings I really liked.

Me from the overlook of the Toprak Kala.

The arid desert.

The fortification of the Ayaz Kala...

And the smaller fortress from the top of the first.

Our local guide Adana on the very windy hilltop.

 

The tunnel that lead between the two walls.

Camel available for tourist riding.

John on the other side of the complex, showing the little fortress in front of the larger one of the hill.

Sunday, April 21st.   Danny’s 39th birthday

We were up at 4am to finish packing for our flights to Nukus, the capital of the autonomous region called Karakalpakstan. Karakalpakstan is considered to be autonomous due to their ethnic and cultural similarities with neighbouring Kazakhstan. The Soviets once included Karakalpakstan within the boundaries of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic but transferred it to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936 as part of Stalin's divide and rule strategy in Central Asia. Everything went well and the flight was only 90 minutes. We arrived at 9am and were picked up by our local guide for this area and a new coach, and were driven directly to the Uzbekistan Avant-Garde in the Desert Museum. The concept for the creation of this museum was an idea that a Russian artist named Igor Stavitsky dreamed up. He decided to gather up art for a community of like minded artists of the 1920-50’s. He liked this area of Central Asia and set it up in Nukus, which is about as far from the centre of any Soviet centre as you can get. I’m not an art critic and really have no knowledge of art history or art movements, but I’m not sure why it is called Avant-Garde. There were a few paintings that I would call that, but most appeared pretty realistic. Anyway it was an interesting place and we spent an hour with a guide and then another by ourselves. Then we boarded the coach and headed out into the desert. In the course of the last 2000 years there have been about 50-60 known city forts built out here as part of the Silk Road caravan route. Apparently over the years the river that ran through the area periodically changed course and caused some cities to die out or relocate. We visited two of the fortresses or qalas. These ruins date as far back as 2,000+ years ago and they represent the varied settlements of the famed Khorezm empire. We began with Toprak Qala (4th-5th century A.D.), now left as a series of mud walls and excavated rooms. We took a short hike up to the top of the complex for great views of the surrounding area. Nearby is Ayaz Qala, commanding a great view over the arid plains surrounding this promontory. Sadly both have been left to the elements and the trample of peoples feet after being excavated by archeologists and are degrading. They were built on hills commanding views of the area to protect themselves but also to be seen by the caravans. We spent about an hour at each and spent a total of 7 hours driving across the desert on very rough roads. It was hard to understand if they were constructing or deconstructing them. Most of the desert along the highway also looked to be being deconstructed as they mine road gravel, gypsum, and marble and there was a huge cement factory too. Lots of big truck on the road too. We finally arrived at our destination, Khiva, back in Uzbekistan by 7:30. We checked into our hotel quickly and then walked into the centre of this walled city for our dinner. John and I are still a little fragile so we ate sparingly of a meal of several little salads, creamed pumpkin soup, dill flavoured noodles with piece of meat and potato and a piece of honey cake. Then we went back to the room to sleep as we’re tired from a long day.