The Samarkand Train Station

Most of the train stations in Uzbekistan are generic in design, modern, white cube looking things that have been repeated throughout the country. Make sure you read the city sign to confirm where you are. Not so for Samarkand, which has something of a modernist statement. You have arrived!

The station is kind of monumental. Big clock tower, powerful columns with funky, splayed tops.

Funky, diamond shaped designs and an overhang that really hangs.

Columns are repeated in the main waiting area.

Interior details, round, stained glass inserts and a round opening for a stairway leading down to the tracks.

Looking a bit like a cathedral for transportation.

Remnants Of Afrasiyab In Samarkand

If the Silk Road heyday of the 15th or so century seems too new for you, head way back to 500 B.C. to the ancient town of Afrasiyab, part of present day Samarkand. The place was occupied until the Mongol invasion around the 13th century. It was the center of Sogdian culture.

Today, there's an Afrasiyab museum next to the location of the city and the city itself is a largely un-excavated open space of eerie silence.

The museum. Simply known as MUSEUM.

Inside the museum, a loose collection of artifacts, models, detritus.

Outside, the still city site.

The highlight of the museum is a set of murals, uncovered in 1965 when a road was being constructed. Good find. Shelf of skulls. Long head.

Back at the site, a small sign of development. A sign.