Class from the past
Geoff Hill delves into Samarkand’s beautiful history and rebirth “Everything that I heard about Samarkand is true, except for one thing: it turned out to be more beautiful than I could imagine.”
Alexander the Great
Samarkand: a short history
329BC: Alexander the Great captures city, declares it more beautiful than he could imagine, torches citadel and gets so drunk he accidentally kills close friend General Cleitus. 323BC: Alexander dies, becoming Alexander the Late. City later captured by assorted Turks, Arabs and Persians. 2nd century AD: One of the key stops on the Silk Road, the great trade route between the East and West, on and off until the 15th century. 1220: City destroyed by Genghis Khan and his revolting Mongols. 1365: Revolting citizens throw out revolting Mongols and rebuild city. Local hero Timur makes it economic and cultural centre of Central Asia. 1720: City abandoned. 1868: Russians arrive. 1991: Uzbekistan independence. Locals happy, apart from election fraud, suppression of dissent and sporadic terrorism by Islamic fundamentalists. 2016: Uzbekistan courts foreign tourists and governments again. Samarkand remains beautiful.
Since Samarkand has such an exotic history, I turned up at the airport dressed appropriately with a turban, cloak and large sword.
Sadly, security didn’t see it that way, and confiscated my sword – the spoilsports.
Still, to make up for it, Turkish Airlines gave us an upgrade to business class and a chance to relax in their fabulous new lounge at Istanbul – it’s the size of Texas, but with better food and wine.
Anyway, Samarkand, the secondlargest city in Uzbekistan, has probably had enough of swords after being invaded by everyone from Alexander to the Soviets.
So in 2016, new President Shavkat Mirziyoyev decided that being invaded by tourists was much better.
As a result, fellow local boy Bakhtiyor Fazilov, who’d made