Turkistan

30 may 2012

We have had the first rain for days and its poured down in Turkistan

- flooding the roads and causing everyone to run around with plastic bags over their heads. I went to visit an old ruined city at Sauran this morning. This is one of the best preserved and most atmospheric of all the many ruined silk road cities in the Syr-Darya valley north west of Turkistan. It was incredible to envisage this bustling city surrounded by its city wall and occupying a space out in the middle of the desert up until the 18th century. There was no-one there and the rain clouds were dark over head. Really atmospheric and an archaeologists dream waiting to be open up. There were broken pieces of pottery every where and the outlines of streets and buildings with the clear remnants of the city wall still outlining the area.

Have spent the rest of the day in and around Turkistan and sorting out train tickets to Aralsk, the next destination out on the edge of what was once the Aral Sea.

I have been staying at hotel Sabina. It is owned by the man in the photo and named after his grand-daughter Sabina. She works at the hotel when not at school and will take over when old enough. Her grand dad was always joking about how he had been put in change of making sure she didn't have a boyfriend and how he kept a very close eye on her!