“Mirror of the World”, “Garden of the Soul”, “Jewel of Islam”, “Pearl of the East”, “Eastern Rome”, “Crossroads of Cultures”… All these are laudatory names for the city. The name of it is Samarkand. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, it is more than 2500 years old. During this time, Samarkand has managed to be the capital of several states, the economic and cultural center and the key point of the Great Silk Road from China to Europe. It is located in the valley of the Zerafshan River, surrounded by the Pamir-Altai Mountains and bordered by the Kyzylkum Desert. Exactly there children from our school went during the holidays, to the historical city of Samarkand, a city that attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world. Living in Uzbekistan and not seeing the places that people from other countries tend to come to is not for pupils of the IZB school. We are happy to provide them with such an opportunity, taking full responsibility for all organizational aspects and making the trip program as exciting and useful as possible. This time the pupils went for three days, accompanied by their favourite teachers and two parents. They got to the place by train, upon arrival everyone was accommodated at the Arhan Palace Hotel, which is known for wonderful conditions, polite and friendly staff and excellent service. Every day spent in Samarkand brought the children new knowledge, new impressions and a lot of emotions, and all thanks to an excellent, rich program prepared especially for guests from IZB.
The children started the first day with a trip to the Zarafshan National Nature Park. This reserve is an area of 2352 hectares. The length of the reserve is 35 kilometers along the Zerafshan River, the width of the sections is from 100 to 1400 meters. The park is famous not only for storing hectares of untouched flora, carefully protecting the natural environment that has developed for hundreds of years, but also for representatives of flora, some of which are listed in the Red Book. This is the Bukhara deer, an endangered species, for which an aviary was built, these are rare birds, the curly pelican and small cormorant and the white shovel-nosed fish. The reserve also has its own experimental pheasantarium for the study and development of methods for the artificial breeding of the Zarafshan pheasant and for the creation of a “genetic bank” of this subspecies. The children were able to see many birds and animals live.
After the park, everyone was taken to the village of Kogonil, where the secret of making the highest quality paper was revealed to the children. Here, near Samarkand, there is a paper mill “Meros”, the founders of which are the famous masters of the Mukhtarov brothers. Thanks to their efforts, the ancient tradition of making paper using old Samarkand technologies has been revived at the local factory. It is interesting that all production is done manually and every guest of the factory can personally observe the production of paper. According to the owners of the factory, it took them 10 years to restore the manufacturing technology of Samarkand paper. Various materials were tried until it was experimentally established that the raw material for paper was mulberry bark. It should be noted that Samarkand paper has a characteristic yellow tint. It is not specially bleached with chemicals, therefore its shelf life is ten times longer than that of ordinary white paper. So, for example, if ordinary white paper of good quality is preserved for 40-50 years, then Samarkand paper is 300-400 years. Thanks to the restored technologies, Samarkand paper regains its former glory not only in Uzbekistan, but also abroad. Our pupils were able to see the process of making paper with their own eyes and make sure of its quality.
Samarkand is famous all over the world, first of all, for its architecture. Most of the ancient buildings that carry the history, traditions, culture, and art of that time have been preserved in this city. This is an invaluable treasure for the Uzbek people as the preservation of their culture, for Uzbekistan as the preservation of its origin and history, and for humanity as a whole as the preservation of those few pieces of the mosaic of our past that were saved and that add up to one whole puzzle, a picture of the entire ancient world. That is why in 2001 the ancient historical buildings of Samarkand have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List program prepared especially for the guests from IZB.nn
In the very center of Samarkand is its heart, still beating, bursting with life and almost in its original form. It is the Registan architectural ensemble, which consists of three squares and three majestic buildings in front of them: Ulugbek Madrasah, Sherdor Madrasah and Tillya-Kari Madrasah. “Registan” is not a proper name, that’s what city squares used to be called. The name translates as “sandy place”. It is said that this name came from the fact that the land here, in the center of Samarkand, was strewn with sand to absorb the blood of victims of public executions that were allegedly committed at this place until the beginning of the XX century. These three squares are the hallmark of the city and everyone who has been here must have photographs on the background of this beauty.
After a tour of the paper mill and rest, the children were offered a walk through the evening Registan. Registan at night is a another art form. Bright illumination in different colours gives the buildings a special look, majestic and mysterious at the same time. They are like something out of an Oriental fairy tale. Everyone was delighted with the fascinating view of the ensemble in the evening.
The next day, the children visited the famous observatory of Mirzo Ulugbek, an astronomer, mathematician and outstanding scientist of his time, the Museum of St. Daniel and the Shohi-Zinda Ensemble. The Ulugbek Observatory was once a place where the great minds of the East gathered, a place where many discoveries were made. It was here that the exact time of the Earth’s rotation around the Sun was determined to the minute, and the most accurate catalog of celestial bodies (more than a thousand stars and thirty constellations) was compiled for that period, and all this without telescopes! The Mausoleum of St. Daniyar (Daniel) is a unique burial of a saint revered in three world religions at once: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It is located on the high hill of Afrosiab, on the outskirts of Samarkand near the bank of the Siab River. And Shahi-Zinda is a complex of 25 ancient buildings on the slope of the settlement of Afrosiab, covered with history and legends.
Our pupils visited both the Amir Temur Museum and the Mausoleum of the first President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. Every new place that the they visited aroused their admiration and immense respect.
For a change, on the last day, before leaving, the children were at the cinema, where they watched the wonderful movie “Peter Rabbit” and went to the Family Park entertainment complex, where they frolicked heartily, jumped on the trampoline, rested and made purchases. Everyone returned home tired, but full of impressions and emotions.
During the whole trip, our children had lunch and dinner at the best restaurants in the city with a variety of delicious food and lived in wonderful double and triple hotel rooms. In organizational matters, we were helped by the travel company “Dinara tour service”, with which we have been cooperating for several years. We even received a letter of thanks from them for their long cooperation and for supporting their projects. We will definitely use their services next time.
