Mongol Rally Update

[fred]

Do you have any idea on the age of the open backed towers? The walls look very thin. But there are post holes for floors - so they at least look in part original?

[Emir of Askaristan]

Wow - it does look so much cleaner than my last visit years ago. And I'm not talking about the restoration either!.

Great trip lads, well done!!!

[smirnoff]

Do you have any idea on the age of the open backed towers? The walls look very thin. But there are post holes for floors - so they at least look in part original?

AFAIK the part reconstuctions are accurate and original designs. Age is 11th-12thC.

[fred]

Thats interesting - so quite different style to what I am used to seeing in the UK, with very thick walls to defend against siege engines. Though with all the re-use its hard to know when the walls were built and if they were thickened later.

So these walls are probably more designed to protect against arrows rather than siege engines.

[smirnoff]

Thats interesting - so quite different style to what I am used to seeing in the UK, with very thick walls to defend against siege engines. Though with all the re-use its hard to know when the walls were built and if they were thickened later.

So these walls are probably more designed to protect against arrows rather than siege engines.

The walls of Khiva and Bukhara are different; huge wedge shaped things tapering to the thin battlements at the top. The walls at Baku are about 10-12 feet thick with the battlement stuck on top.

[OSHIROmodels]

The walls of Khiva and Bukhara are different; huge wedge shaped things tapering to the thin battlements at the top. The walls at Baku are about 10-12 feet thick with the battlement stuck on top.

Please say you have pictures 

cheers

James

[smirnoff]

Khiva, Uzbekistan

There is debate over the age of Khiva. Its first recorded in Arab sources in the 10thC but archaeologists insist on a 6thC date. Some say Noah’s son Shem discovered it in 2500BC.
It was an important silk road city and grew rich on the trade and it has a brutal history as a slave trading post sandwiched in between the vast Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts.
It also was a target and was destroyed by various invaders: Alexander the Great; the Arabs, led by Qutayba ibn Muslim; Genghis Khan & Amir Timur plus others.
However it was the capital of Khoresm for centuries.

Present day crenelated walls date to the 17thC.









Some internal detail



Various buildings inside the old city

[OSHIROmodels]

Stunning 

cheers

James

[Ignatieff]

The walls of Bukhara.

On a much more impressive scale than Khiva, these were mostly built in the 17th century.  The two photos near the bottom are very instructive.  I took the pic of the ruined tower on my visit there in September last year, and the fully restored one this month.  I think they've done a very good job






Bukhara's infamous prison, where Connolly and Stoddart were kept


this ruined section shows the internal filling


The Arc, or winter palace of the Emir.  Under this canopy bands would play popular Victorian melodies as prisoners were executed in the Rajistan square below




Young Rory Langan on a Bactrian camel shows the scale of the walls.


Massive bases that narrow dramatically towards the top


this pic taken in September 2013


the same tower in August 2014


the largest minaret in Uzbekistan still shows the scarring from General Frunze's artillery ranging in 1920

[Ignatieff]

One of the things that was very noticeable about Siberia was the prevalence of really stunning silver birch trees.  The trunks stood out for miles, almost white, and made for a very distinctive look.  Anybody know if anyone does good ones in 28mm?

[OSHIROmodels]

Even more stunning 

I have a link at home for some trees that might suit (at work today) but they would probably need the trunks painting afterwards. Did you take any photos of them?

cheers

James

[smirnoff]

More Bukhara
Bukhara enters the written historical record as a satrapy of the Persian Empire in 500BC, however the Shahnama founds it in legend in the Pishdadian dynasty.
Whichever the Bukaran oasis had existed for millennia and the city was founded in an around it. It’s situated at the crossroads between Merv, Heart and Samarkand and became a major Silk Road city. The evident wealth of Bukhara would in many ways prove a curse, attracting the unwanted attentions of Alexander the Great in 329BC, then the subsequent invasions of the Seleucids, Graeco-Bactrians and the Kushans.
Later it fell to the Arabs and then became the heart of the Samanid Empire in the 9thC. The Karakhanids invaded in 999AD, the Karakhitai attacked in 1141, the Khorezmshah in 1206 and, most catastrophically of all, Genghis Khan and the Mongol horde rode into town in 1220. Every one of Bukhara's 30,000 troops was slaughtered, the city was torched, the civilian population killed or enslaved.


‘The Ark’ fortress: the city within a city that was the Emir’s Palace. Built on ancient foundations the first mention of it is in th 9thC AD. It’s age is undetermined but it was occupied C 500AD by local rulers.
It was badly damaged in the Russian assault in 1920.









The white structure at the top allegedly held the Emir’s band who would play whilst multiple executions were performed in the area in front of the fortress.



The audience chamber inside the Ark



The white wall you see was there so that visitors could walk backwards from the presence of the Emir and when their backs touched the wall they were allowed to turn and leave.



Lion sculpture (created from verbal descriptions of the beast) in the audience chamber, date unknown (by me).



The ‘Bug Pit’ at the Zindon prison that housed Stoddart and Connolly before their executions in front of the Ark in 1842.



The minaret that still bears the attentions of Russian Artillery during Frunze’s assault in 1920.





Various other sites in the city





After the Russian assault 1920

[smirnoff]

Siberian Birch

[fastolfrus]

Steve
Could you put all the architectural pics etc onto a CD?
Possibly as an add on for the next book?

[smirnoff]

Situated just outside the modern city of Samarkand on a plateau these are the remains of the original city of Marakanda that was taken by Alexander in 329BC. The walls themselves are older than the Alexandrian period.
Marakanda is the Greek name, the original name may have been derived from the Sogdian asmara, "stone", "rock", and Sogdian kand, "fort", "town".
Oddly this was not a protected site was accessible from a main road that runs through it.