We drove down a rather narrow street called Termez Street (Termez is the Uzbek town on the border with Afghanistan) and over the Kitob Pass (1,665 metres) past dozens of roadside restaurants with hundreds of cars parked outside them. This was Sunday and it seems that the Uzbeks like to drive out of the heat of Samarkand into the hills where it is slightly cooler to have a nice traditional Uzbek meal of different types of lamb or chicken dishes. At the top of the pass there were dozens of stalls selling spices, nuts, cherries (we bought some) and saffron (Jennifer got some for a present for someone who likes cooking) and white balls which are solidified yogurt, Shakhrisaz was where Timurlane was born in 1336 and he wanted to be returned to his native village when he died. However the pass was snowed up so a mausoleum was built for him in Samarkand. There is a massive statue of him in a beautiful park.
Originally called Kesh (“heart-pleasing”) the city arose in the 7th century BC and was an important centre on the Silk Road. Alexander the Great met his wife Roxana there in 328 BC. We saw the ruins of the Ak Saray Palace started by Timur in 1380. We also saw the Kok Gumbaz mosque with a beautiful blue dome. It was built by Ulugh Beg the Samarkand astronomer (who built one of the madrassahs in Samarkand’s Registan) in 1437. We decided to sleep in the van so set off from Shakhrisabz in th afternoon and had an excellent meal of cold chunks of lamb with a lovely salad on the way up to the pass. We spent the night at the top of the pass and managed to get some sleep despite a huge number of lorries rumbling and crashing their way past in the night.
The Kok Gumbaz mosque
Tamerlane statue a Shakhrisabz
The Ak Saray Palace
Stalls of spices and nuts at the Kitob Pass