Having crossed the border from Uzbekistan into Turkmenistan we enjoyed a rather good lunch at the Dashoguz Hotel, before driving 30km to the south-west of Dashoguz for our first sightseeing in the country.
The Silk Road Sites in Turkmenistan are a collection of 29 sites falling along what were 11 routes which have been on the UNESCO tentative list since 2010. We visited the remains of Yzmykşir Fortress, an adobe-walled fort, located on the final route between Dekhistan and Khorezm in the Karakum Desert.
An information board at the entrance, in both Turkmen and English, explained that the original fort had turned into a town in the 10th and 11th centuries and because of its strategic Silk Road location, the inhabitants ‘were compelled tens time to battle the robberies and robbers’ (sic).
We followed a sloping path marked with white stones at the sides through what appeared to be the gate into the fortress. The walls had arched niches, where dishes and household utensils would have been kept, although one contained what appeared to be a pile of human bones. But with midday temperatures over 40 degrees, we didn’t linger long.
One of the notable people born in the area in 1075 was Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari, a medieval Muslim scholar, linguist, poet and interpreter of the Quran. Although he spent many years abroad, he died and was buried in his birthplace and having walked through the fortress, we spotted a large brick mausoleum with blue tiles on the walls and dome. It looked rather out of place with seemingly nothing around it but desert.
Having taken shoes off, and stepped inside, we were amazed to be greeted with air conditioning blasting out, which provided a much needed welcome relief from the stifling heat. The large tomb was draped in a dark green velvet cloth with a small tomb at the side. Even our guide agreed that despite little to look at, apart from a few Arabic pictures on the walls, this was definitely the place to linger especially as we were the only visitors.
As we left, several rather mundane questions were left unanswered: how many visitors does the fortress and mausoleum get? How much does the AC cost and who pays for it? Is it ever switched on and off and if so, who does it? I suspect we will never know.
