Trips

Sun., 10/7/18 - Tashkent

Yesterday the high temperature was in the upper 80s. Today it is raining with a high of 56°, but we toured the city of Tashkent anyway.

The first stop was at the 1966 Earthquake Memorial. The city was demolished and 300,000 were homeless. It took three years to rebuild and Russia even accepted foreign aid from the French to help rehouse the population. The city was rebuilt with many green parks and wide streets. From the 1960s to 1980s Soviet block buildings were put up by Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev. They are all ugly. The new buildings are very much prettier with anti-Soviet influences.

We entered the Barack Khan Madrassa Complex with a 16th c. madrassa and mosque and 19th c. mosque with the “tallest” minarets in Central Asia. We looked at more beautiful blue tiles and blue domes - one was ribbed and would make a beautiful hot air balloon. We entered the museum displaying the world’s oldest Koran, 1640. It was written 15 years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed by a writer who gathered the scholars who had memorized the words of Mohammed. It is written on deer skin. Tamerlane brought it from Baghdad to Samarkand; it then went to Moscow and back to Tashkent when Uzbekistan became independent. The museum had other rare Korans, some written on Mulberry bark paper, several miniature ones only one inch square, and Korans in various other languages. No photos allowed of these wonderful books.

Restaurant sign	\ 1966 Earthquake Memorial
Barack Khan Madrassa Complex	Barack Khan Madrassa Complex
	Barack Khan Madrassa Complex
We warmed up on the bus ride to the very large Chorsu Bazaar. It is a huge indoor domed building with sections for butchering meat (including horse), eggs, cheese, and a second floor balcony with nuts and spices. Another building had fresh fruits and vegetables and a third one baked bread. There were other shops around these selling everything else. I finally bought a bread press which I want to try on top crusts of pies.
Chorsu Bazaar	Notice all the white and light colored cars
For screening or sifting	Baby cradle with a hole to use a tube, like a catheter.
Mattress has a hole for the potty tube as well	These are attached to the baby
Market sign	A very big place
	To the nuts
	Looking down from above
Meat counter	Horse meat
	Sheep
	Ready-to-eat prepared dishes
Cow tongues	Sign to the horse meat counter
Cheese
Eggs of all kinds: quail, chicken, etc.
Spices	More eggs
	Tomatoes
	Candy
Birds, covered so they will lay eggs	Bakery
On the oven walls	Flat-breads of Uzbekistan
More on the oven walls	Finished product
Sweets	Yummy
More sweets	More bread
Outdoor food area
Corn-on-the-cob and kebabs	Plov
Sign for the national dishes
Bunches of the herb Rue (on the marble horse head in Ashgabat)

Continue on next page