Today we went for an early last stroll through Khiva. The sun was making her way through the clouds and before eight in the morning the city is empty besides a handful of merchants readying their stalls for the day and women sweeping the streets. We let ourselves drift through the centuries old town, thinkig how different those very streets and buildings must have looked in the 16th century.
We liked the architecture and fassades very much, still Khiva as a city we found not as vibrant as Samarkand or Tashkent where tradition and normal life is mixing much more.
After a hearty breakfast we left our lovely hotel in Khiva around ten AM and set out to drive into the desert in Karakalpakstan or Republic of Karakalpakstan. Karakalpakstan is an autonomous province inside Uzbekistan and was a thriving area living in a great river delta of the Amudarja river that orinigated in Tajikistan but also flows through Afghanistan and Turkmenistan and ended in the Aral sea. Nowadays only a third of the original water level still flows into Uzbekistan, as their neighbours already siphon off 2/3 for agriculture. Of the remaining third, Uzbekistan needs most of it for their cotton industry. Today nothing flows into the Aral sea anymore, the great river nowadays ends in the desert sand.
During the two hour drive we saw all the gigantic canals that were dug to ensure the enormous quantities of water that were needed for the cotton fields. Cotton is a plant that needs huge quantities of water exactly right before the harvest, in the driest times of the year.
This is one of the environmental desasters that the Soviets have created. Huge canals and water reservoirs were built in the 1940 to ensure that in September the cotton fields can be flooded in time to make the cotton buds burst open so they can be picked.
The soviets and then later the Uzbek government forced the concentration on cotton as the number one export good regardless how harmful this plant for the harsh Uzbek environment. Cotton not only needs huge quantities of water in a desert state, it also depletes the soil and needs large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides. Even today the soil quality in Uzbekistan is damaged by the toxic substances that were used to grow cotton. Slowly things are changing and the country is less dependent on cotton, but grows more fruit and vegetables as well as other raw materials like oil, gas and minerals. And tourism is starting to make a difference.
The lack of water dried up the thriving fishing community in Karalpakstan and citys became more and more deserted. It‘s quite a depressing place nowadays. The Aral sea has all but disappeared. Ground water levels have sunken and salt content of the remaining wells and streams is high.
The roads to our final destination in the desert deteriorated the further we drove. Although not as bad as in Zimbabwe, they became quite rough at a certain point. We had the impression that our driver sped up just to avoid his tires falling into a pothole. Fun fact, we drove through a town called Bo‘ston on our way to Elliq Qala, meaning fifty castles.
Between the once green river delta and the desert areas were a large number of now abandoned castles dating back to 200 BC. We stopped at a hill that had ruins of a mud walled castle on top.
Going up a steep path we saw a flock of beautiful bright green birds with red underwings and a black and white stripe on their face. They had a pointy black beak We identified them as the green bee eaters.
Built by the early settlers and rulers of the Oasis to protect themselves against marauding nomad tribes those fortresses are fairly large in size ( easily 10×10 meters square) but only a vague outline of the inner walls could be made out.
The rain and constantly blowing sand are eating away at them every year. Tuprak Qala was one such fortress dating back to 200 BC until 600 AD but lies abandoned since. Many walls had fallen down or been washed away. We nearly were washed away too when a fast moving thunderstorm caught us by surprise in the middle of our visit on top.
Making our way down as fast as we could we saved ourselves into the car before the big deluge started. Other visitors weren‘t that lucky and literally got not only drenched but also slid down the fast developing mud slides due to the torrential rain.
Heading on through the thunderstorm we made our way to the Ayaz Qala yurt camp, right on the foot of two former fortresses Ayaz Qala one and two.
We had a nice lunch in our yurt served by the woman owner of the camp. We still saw a number of tour busses and cars despatching their passengers onto the forts and decided to wait until all but the camp overnighters had left. By 5 PM we had the place to ourselves and magically the weather had cleared up and the sun came out.
We made our way up the first fortress and similar to Tuplak Qala, Ayaz Qala one consisted of a large square surrounded by high walls. Some still visible, other parts had vanished or fallen down. The walls must have been hollow as arches supported a covered walkway originally. Some were still preserved, after a tour through the upper fortress, we made our way down to the lower one.
We saw a strange looking little tree that grew out of the sandy and rocky soil. This plant is used by locals to treat diabetes. After spring rains, it can grow up to a meter in a day, store a lot of water in its trunk and it‘s flesh can also be eaten when still growing. We saw no plant taller than a meter.
The lower fortress was much smaller and originally housed the soldiers that protected the fortress. From there the view onto the upper fortress was great.
Making our way back to the yurt camp we saw cute littel ground squirrels and little lizzards dashing away from us. Dinner was served on a large carpeted platform and we met our fellow travelers who also stayed overnight at the camp.
The sunset bathed the fortress in golden light and a chilled glass of wine and good food rounded off a very pleasant evening in the desert.