Visiting The Home Of Sattar Yerubayev

Central Asia loves its house museums. In Turkistan, Kazakhstan, the writer, Sattar Yerubayev's house is now a museum, semi-filled with a random collection of family artifacts and mementos. Yerubayev was active in the 1930s, writing socialist poems and a novel, My Peers, focusing on working class Kazakhs in the coal industry.

The humble house, built in the typical Tsar era brown brick style. Welcome.

Inside, some words, some objects. How about a random yurt scene? Note to self, don't stack the table so high you can't see your dining companion.

Dueling portraits and a landscape. And some theater chairs.

Boy toys, tools to produce various media.

Another room, another mishmash of artifacts. Textile portraits are always impressive.

The Silk Road (Sort Of) Comes Alive At The Citadel In Shymkent

The citadel complex in Shymkent is about what one would expect, all big outer fortress walls, an expansive complex of buildings within. Me ladies need room to rule. The condition of the place runs the gamut from sites not yet explored, old, original foundation walls as active digs and all the way up to Disney worthy period/new structures.

To add a little life to the place, period diorama genre scenes are placed throughout the tour. Alive, the Silk Road is alive!

Mother and daughter doing some shared sewing. Life before Tik Tok.

More knitting. The message for women, never stop crafting. Bed chamber, not holding back on color.

At the market, poppa's got to sell a brand new vase.

Heavy metal, heavy smacking. The blacksmiths and their manly hands.

A meal at home, waiting for the rest of the big family. Count those wooden bowls.