Bukharan Jews Synagogue In Kokand

A bit of a confusing title for the synagogue as Bukhara is nowhere near the city of Kokand, which is in Eastern Uzbekistan, in the Fergana valley. The synagogue was built in 1904, presumably for Jews from Bukhara who wandered over to Kokand. New location, give props to home city heritage.

Humble exterior, probably a nice, garden oasis on a sunny, summer day.

Humble interior. Through the main entrance, first a relaxing, eating area with, yes, a humble kitchen.

The main temple area, bimah in the center.

View of the ark where torahs, prayer scrolls, are kept. The sign seems to be a list of exalted rabbis. Or Important Men. Prayer books of various vintages.

Prep station. Purify your hands, slap on a yarmulke and get ready for God. Key to unlock your faith.

Wandering The Fergana Valley

Road trips are fun. Especially if there are cool things to see. Which is the point of road trips.

Holy Brutalist, Socialist Monument! Right outside the city of Fergana (which, duh, is in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan) sits this impressive salute to the Great Patriotic War, otherwise known as World War II. Soviet built, full of their iconic themes of communism and military might.

Soldiers in sync under the former USSR flag. The identifying marks of the flag have been chipped away. Progress. 1941, a big year! A beleaguered yet proud citizenry gathered together. Big anvil for strength.

Moving on to the city of Kokand, visiting the famous Juma mosque and madrasa complex. Central minaret.

The highlight is the extensive portico with hand-carved, wood columns, some original ones on display. Nice capitals. Looking up, wood ceilings of the portico full of colorful designs.

You Are Now Entering An Important City. Back to Fergana, the big gate over the highway lets you know something special is ahead.

Seeing History At The Fergana Museum Of Local Lore

Small town museums in Uzbekistan are the best. No fancy, digital, laser, interactive gee-whiz displays. Just good old Soviet-era dioramas and displays about hard work, animals, the glory of building a strong nation.

Exterior of the Local Lore museum. "Should we go in and get our minds blown?"

The museum has a handful of dioramas, a mix of animal, human, and natural. Cute animals in profile, poking their big noses from the side of the frame look cool.

Drippy. It's nice to see that anything can be made into a diorama. Can't visit the Chil-Ustun caves in nearby Kyrgyzstan? Local Lore brings the caves to you!

Working with your hands never goes out of style, from stone age man to Silk Road man.

Cotton is king in the Fergana Valley. If you forget what the crop looks like or where your whole family works, the museum is there to remind you.

Hamid And Zulfiya Olimjon Museum In Jizzakh, Uzbekistan

Jizzakh is home to a powerhouse couple of Uzbek writing and poetry, Hamid and Zulfiya Olimjon. Hamid is a biggie of modern, Soviet era literature. Tragically, he died in a car accident when he was 34 years old. His wife, Zulfiya, was a writer and editor and she lived long enough to see Uzbekistan's independence. Jizzakh now has a museum dedicated to their lives.

Exterior, replicating the iconic, Silk Road era madrasa architecture.

The main gallery, a little short on enticing stuff. Book writing doesn't leave a lot behind for a blockbuster museum show. Hamid portrait. And radiator.

Books and a few personal effects. And another radiator.

Your Portrait Here. You've arrived when they put you on a vase. Gathering everything. Suzani quilt, dutor instrument, a koran, decorative plates and adorable boy painting.

Picnic preaching. Loving the cotton bale seating arrangement, a Central Asian version of the classic cowboy campfire setup in old Hollywood movies.

Hopping Aboard The Sharof Rashidov Train

Maybe the highlight at the Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov Museum in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan is a curious train car out back. It's Rashidov's own rolling party bus, a way to get around in luxury and comfort. A quick tour inside gives a good impression of how to travel in First Secretary style.

The train car. What can green do for you?

Support staff. Burly bodyguards and naughty nurses. You never know what you'll need.

The kitchen, cooking with gas. And a cute record player. Suck it, bluetooth.

Support staff bunking. Four beds, one radio, true diplomacy in station selection. Conductor bed, bright uniform.

Dining, meeting room. TV for boredom reduction. "These five year plan reports are putting me to sleep, can't we watch the latest episode of Tashkent Vice?"

The Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov Museum In Jizzakh, Uzbekistan

Kind of a Presidential library without all those dusty books. Rashidov was the long serving First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1959 until his death in 1983. He balanced the development of his home country with appeasing the big bosses in Moscow. Lots of triumphs and a cotton scandal in the biography.

Jizzakh, Rashidov's hometown, has a museum for their favorite comrade son. Not much depth on display, more like honorary gifts. The legend lives.

Big, one room gallery. Photos, swag, repeat.

Powerful painting. Rashidov in casual medal Monday, overlooking the metropolis of Tashkent. The Tashkent Metro is open! In Uzbekistan, anyone and anything important gets a commemorative orange vase. Well earned; the metro is lovely.

The gift that, thankfully, does not keep giving. A taxidermy crocodile from a dictator pal, Fidel Castro.

Space age stuff is cool, especially during its hip, 1950s-1970s heyday. Another vase and some heavy paperweights. Lots to hold down.

Picking cotton with the boys. Evidently, not enough cotton was actually picked. The scandal unfolded as a scheme to try and meet Moscow quotas. Cotton counts were inflated, environmental disasters implemented, and Rashidov's family pocketed proceeds.

Great Monuments In Jizzakh, Uzbekistan

Jizzakh is a smallish city in Uzbekistan and it has a small number of monuments. Gotta show off the hometown greats, right?

Here's Sharof Rashidov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1959 until his death in 1983. Big term, big, gold statue.

Here's a small, random red fox, maybe president of a primary school in 2024. Back to important folks, here's famous writer and poet, Hamid Olimjon and his wife, Zulfiya, a writer in her own right. "Hamid, you've read it to me 10 times now, send it to your editor!"

The biggie monument in Jizzakh, placed on the top of a hill. Say hello to the mighty, mystical hero bird, Humo. Please fix that missing tile.

Humo is great to photograph, lots of good, weird, abstract angles. That bird flies. Another unimportant primary school animal. Monuments come in all shapes and sizes. Hello, sitting Bambi. And big mushroom.

Ahem, back to Rashidov, looking all powerful.

The Museum Of Fruit

Brilliant. It's the ripe time to get fruity in Turin. Never rind the rotting puns.

It only takes one man with a wild obsession to turn a hobby into a museum. That man is Francesco Garnier Valletti. He did confectionary work and fake flowers before turning to fruit in the mid 1800s. Gardens and botany were all the rage then and Valletti was tasked/obsessed with modeling as many fruit varieties as possible. The endless cases at the museum bear this, ahem, fruit.

One of several packed room as the museum, filled with inedible and impressive fruit.

Method to the madness. Or, at least, a couple of room re-creations, a lab, and an office.

Jars of supplies, looking a little horror movie set. "It's just apples!"

Modeling details. Valletti devised a a new material to use, more permanent than the wax used at that time.

No bad apples. The detail is impressive, definitely not an assembly line of the same fruit with similar skin. Crispy!