Buddhist Fayaz Tepe

Uzbekistan isn't just a Muslim country with Muslim archeological sites. There are pockets of Christian remnants and in and around the southern city of Termez, a bit of a Buddhist past. The ruin of Fayaz Tepe is a nice oasis.

Lovely and desolate. The main stupa. The dome is a modern, larger, protective cover of the original stupa.

Next to the stupa temple is a monastery complex. A complicated, multi-room layout and a little column decoration.

Stupa, alt angle. Closer in.

The central courtyard of the monastery and looking back toward the temple.

Stupa, alt angle. The mighty steps.

The Mausoleum Of Al Hakkim Al Termezi

Al Hakkim Al Termezi was a Sufi saint, a jurist and writer, who died in AD 859. The current mausoleum is the latest version to be built on the site, starting around the 10th century. The place is now a holy pilgrimage site.

The devotees trickle in.

Design-wise, the mausoleum is standard Silk Road era fare, tan brick, central dome.

The mausoleum is divided into chambers, an intimate side room devoted to Termezi's tomb.

Interior view of the central dome. The grounds around the mausoleum are expansive and include a modern entrance gate with a bit of an Arabian Nights fantasy wall.

Noted! The complex is right on the Uzbekistan country border. A sign on a fence behind the mausoleum reminds visitors of territorial limits. Good notice. Beyond the sign, Afghanistan.

Curious Kyr Kyz

You can't go wrong with a site called 40 Girls Fortress. The place near Termez is a mud castle and to wander through it with the name in mind conjures up all sorts of strange imaginings. Who were the girls? Protected from whom? Wives, daughters, virgins, some sort of ikat sewing circle?

Regardless of the legend, Kyr Kyz is a unique and impressive structure. Wales? No, southern Uzbekistan.

Great curves to the place, from arched doorways to the corner battlements.

Inside the fort, a maze of half-ruined rooms.

Another look at the layout and a special wishing tree, full of donated scraps of ribbon and other detritus.

Back to the exterior, evidence of restoration and what Kyr Kyz looks like without a little shine and polish.

Swanky Sultan Saodat Complex

Or nifty necropolis, depending on your allegiance to alliteration obsessions. This group of understated mausoleums belongs to the family Sayyids. There are about 120 graves, mostly from the 9th to the 16th centuries. The lack of decoration is due to the site being reserved for holy men only, not family members who might have wanted a bit of tile bling. Brown is the new black.

Heading in, a straightforward layout of buildings.

Depending on the play of light, looking a little like a Native American Pueblo complex. OK, some tile work snuck into the place.

A small, simple mosque is included.

The graves in the various mausoleums have a nice symmetry.

Building for the future. Just outside the complex and random ruins, a large mosque is under construction.

Treasuring The Archaeological Museum In Termez

Little city of Termez, nestled way down by the Amu Darya river and Afghanistan, has one of the better museums in Tashkent. It's all about location and Termez is in the center - a sort of intersection crossed by multiple religious movements - all at the whims of Silk Road peeps.

Welcome!

The museum concentrates on ancient history, mostly the time leading up to the Silk Road era. Like this fella. Or foot.

Legends of The Silk Road, kind of a Superfriends group of the 13th century.

Lovely Khalchayan terra cotta statue. 1st Century BC. Round bling, commonly called coins.

A little landscaping on a model of a Silk Road madrasa.

Digging The Dancer Tamara Khanum

Finally, a house museum dedicated to someone other than a broody writer. Swing it, baby! Tamara Khanum was a famous dancer, daring to frolic on stage without donning the traditional, body covering robe, a paranja. The Madonna of Uzbekistan in the 1920s.

The main room of the house museum, now a hall of fame for her various costumes.

Many portraits are at the museum, each one more flattering than the last. Khanum could strike a pose. The music section.

Her dining room, pulling back the curtain from the fantasy of the costumes in the other part of the museum. Cute.

ID cards. One is always a Comrade. The top one is for being in the theater union. The bottom ID is her employee card while working at the ministry of health back in the 1970s. Another portrait, now a Grande Dame.

The sure sign of making it in Uzbekistan: your likeness on a plate.

A House Sergei Yesenin Visited

Why stop at making museums out of houses where writers lived? Visited is good enough, right? Behold the Sergei Yesenin museum in Tashkent. Why? It seems the acclaimed Russian poet, Yesenin, visited his buddy, Alexander Shiryaevets, there in Tashkent in May 1921. Boom, museum to you!

Perhaps Yesenin gets a museum due to his fame as one of Russia's most beloved poets, a writer of lyrical works of village life in the face of urbanization, industrialization. Comrade, tells of the olde days. And then there's the untimely death at age 30 in a hotel room in Leningrad, ruled a suicide, perhaps political murder. Four wives by then. The James Dean, Oscar Wilde of Russian poetry. Scandal!

Portrait of a rebel poet as a young man.

If only the humble Tashkent museum was as exciting. Some blah exhibits in a few rooms.

There's a period sitting room re-creation. From the Tashkent house? Not really. Did Yesenin sit on the furniture, have a raucous party, host the creme of cultural Tashkent? Doubtful. The room is there to give a visitor a feel for the time period. Done.

Old pictures offer a more direct connection. School chums and past loves?

The final end: a death mask.

Visiting The House Of Russian Writer Sergey Borodin

Another day in Tashkent, another writer's house to visit. How about Sergey Borodin? Born: 1902, Moscow. A childhood in Belyaev. Most famous for writing the historical works, "Dmitry Donskoi" and "The Stars Over Samarkand." Moved to Tashkent in 1951 and died at his home in 1974. The End.

Big Dining Room, perhaps also used as the Living Room.

Room for endless tchotchkes. In the library, taking the phrase, "shot of whiskey," to its literal end.

The cozy library.

Writing study. The daily paper calendar, stuck on June 22, 1974, the day Borodin died.

In the front courtyard is a statue of Borodin. At least the upper section.