Adventures in Asia: Konye Urgench, Turkmenistan

Late this morning we left the Karakum Desert behind and entered Daşoguz province. At the village of Ruhybelent Etrap you can turn east to go to Daşoguz city, which is where my guide Ishan lives, but we are headed north.

The already poor highway becomes much worse as you continue north. Really, in most places, it is just a dirt road.

At this service station Ishan pulled in to fuel up. 

I decided to walk along the road while he queued for gas.

I made it a kilometre or so . . .

. . . across this river . . .

. . . before Ishan caught up to me on the other side of the bridge. 

We continued driving on to my final stop in Turkmenistan, the historic site of Konye Urgench. Eight hundred years ago Konye Urgench (Gurganj then) was the capital of the Khwarazmian Empire that dominated Central Asia prior to Gengis Khan's conquest. 

There is not much left of the city, but there are a few impressive buildings spread out over the otherwise empty plain. 

Most of these buildings do actually date back to prior to Gengis Khan destroying the city in 1221. Ishan dropped me off at one end and I was able to walk along a little road through the caravanserai gate . . .

. . . past the 60 metre high Kutlug-Timur minaret . . .

. . . and various mausoleum.

Besides a historical site, Konye Urgench remains (or maybe has become) a place where local folks practice sufi rituals, which in some ways is even more interesting to see than 800 year old mausoleums. Of course, I was hesitant to photograph people engaging in religious practices, but I did take this photo of these two people who are in the middle of walking around this shrine in a ritualistic way.

Once I was back in the car with Ishan, it was time to leave Turkmenistan and so we headed northeast to the border with Uzbekistan.