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I will show several digital slide shows covering visits to several different locations around the World.
In April 2008 we traveled to the Middle East and enjoyed visits through Turkey, Syria and Jordan. .
In Turkey our time was spent primarily in Istanbul before flying to Central Turkey. and spending time in the land of the Fairy Chimneys and cave houses. The chimney rocks, cave houses and underground cities resulted from volcanic eruptions several thousands of years ago. During our visit, we lived in a cave hotel
From Turkey we will move on to Syria starting in Damascus traveling around the country visiting several Ancient Sites, Desert Cities and Desert Castles including the impressive well preserved Crusader fortress - Krak des Chevaliers – with its high vantage location overlooking the valley.
In Jordan, we traveled around the country with a guide by car. We visited several Ancient Cities and the rose-red city of Petra carved into rock. The city is protected by a long narrow gorge which leads directly to the magnificent Treasury, a centuries old Temple or Royal Tomb built into the rock face and glowing in the sunlight. We then drove south across the desert into the dramatic desert wilderness of Wadi Rum where we camped overnight.
Following these three short programs we will view several short slide shows of a trip across the Silk Road from China to Uzbekistan in April 2009. We will firstly view a simple graphic of the Silk Road showing the route west from China to Venice, Italy. We have now traveled much of this route but to date have omitted Iraq and Iran because of perceived travel difficulties at this time.
We will commence our journey in Dunhuang, China, gateway to the .Silk Road. The roof-top patio in our hotel provided stunning views of the adjoining sand dunes both at sunrise and sunset. We will travel across the desert sands past a western part of the Great Wall, caravan rest stops and visit ancient cities and the Mogao Caves, a Buddhist complex with well preserved wall mosaics and cave art.
From Dunhuang we travel north by overnight train to the cities of Turpan and Urumqi. We then traveled by car across the Xinjiang / Turpan desert and visited the ancient earthen city of Jiaoche. Jiaoche is the best preserved earthen city in the world and is believed to be over 2300 years old. By contrast, nearby Urumqi is a modern city with some stunning architecture. At the end of the day we attended a cultural show and the following morning we flew across the Taklamakan desert to Kashgar, at the western end of the Silk Road in China and an important trading hub.
In Kashgar we visited Id Kar Mosque and Abak Khoja Mausoleum, the holiest site in Xinjiang as is reputed to hold the Fragrant concubine’s tomb. The ‘fragrant concubine” was a
favorite of the then Emperor. The streets of Kashgar have many interesting characters who ply their varied business right on the street . The people of Kashgar are primarily Uyghur, a Turkic ethnic minority living in Central Asia.
Kashgar is world renowned for its famous Sunday Bazaar where we spent many hours walking through the varied markets and captured many interesting scenes. Kashgar was our last stop in China before returning to Urumqi for our flight to Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and Central Asia’s premier metropolis, We visited several mosques before leaving for Samarkand, known as the “Pearl of the Islam world”.
The architecture of the many mosques and madrassahs in the city was outstanding as was the artistic mosaic work on both exterior and interior of the buildings.
Our next stop was at Khiva. With a history of more than 2,500 years old, Khiva is considered to be the most intact/ remote of Central Asia’s Silk Road cities. It has been described as s city “frozen in time”. Our hotel was just outside the walls of the old city and provided access to exploring the city .The walls of the old city, turrets and parapets provided many photo opportunities in the great weather we encountered as did the many attractive mosques, minarets and
madrassahs..
We then drove through the desert from Khiva to Bukhara, a centre of trade, religion and culture and an important crossroads on the Silk Road with connections to Iran and India. We walked through Bukhara and were impressed with the beauty of the mosques, minarets and madrassahs. We also visited the city’s citadel – the Ark – which in earlier days housed the Emir’s palace, harem, treasury, arsenals and prisons. The nearby Chor Minor with its four minarets was outstanding.
This completed our trip to Uzbekistan. We flew back to Beijing via Tashkent and spent several days touring some of the key sites in Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, with its many temples and ceremonials and then on to the Temple of Heaven, a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design, built as a Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.
Our journey across the Silk Road was awe inspiring and unforgettable and I am glad to share these memories and images with you.
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