A Bukhara street scene, ca. 1905-1915, by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, showing the Kalyan Minaret in the background (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAfter the conclusion of the conference on Tuesday, a number of us \u2014 including the Iranian contingent \u2014 boarded a bus for an added-on optional excursion to Bukhara, which, like Samarkand, was an important place along the Silk Road. \u00a0We arrived very late at night in Bukhara and were up rather early. \u00a0(Which was fine, because our hotel here in Bukhara was, to put it mildly, several rungs of the ladder down from the M\u00f6wenpick Samarkand.) \u00a0Cole Durham and I \u2014 and, at the very first, Peter Petkoff of Oxford University \u2014 shared a tuktuk<\/em> (an \u201cauto rickshaw\u201d) for a tour of Bukhara\u2019s Old City with a driver and a guide.<\/p>\nI only have time (and energy) right now to mention just one of the many sights that we saw. \u00a0One was the Kalyan Minaret, which belongs to Po-i-Kalyan mosque complex in Bukhara. \u00a0Rising 48 meters (nearly 160 feet) high, it dates to the early 1100s, and it so impressed Genghis Khan when he saw it about a hundred years after its construction that he ordered it to be spared while decreeing the destruction of everything around it. \u00a0According to our guide, the Mongol leader killed the imam of the adjacent mosque (before destroying it) because, Genghis having ridden into the mosque on horseback, was incensed when the man persisted in praying rather than in doing obeisance to him. \u00a0She also told us that, in the courtyard of another nearby building, a madrasa, Genghis Khan gathered up two thousand randomly chosen boys and had them killed in order to send a message to his new subjects and to ensure that, \u2014 they would never fight against him when they grew up. \u00a0In such actions, of course, which were replicated throughout his bloody career, Genghis Khan was fundamentally no different than George Washington. \u00a0Such, at least, is the view of one of the readers of this blog. \u00a0(I don\u2019t share it.). Oh, one more thing:\u00a0 Up into the twentieth century, the Kalyan Minaret was used for executions.\u00a0 Convicted criminals were tossed from it.<\/p>\n
I hope that I can get back to this subject, but the next few days are going to exceptionally difficult for me in that regard.\u00a0 Suffice it to say for now that I\u2019ve been very impressed by Uzbekistan and that the Old City of Bukhara was, in my opinion, absolutely beautiful.\u00a0 Clean, well preserved, very nice.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking for a slightly unusual, rather exotic, travel destination with lots of historical interest, I would recommend Samarkand and Bukhara.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been very pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n
Posted from Bukhara, Uzbekistan<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Tuesday was the last day of the \u201cDiplomacy of the Heart\u201d conference. \u00a0The morning began with a \u201cbreakfast conversation\u201d led by Brent Bishop of the Sharetix Foundation on \u201cPurposeful Planning: Aligning Values, Vision, and Action for a Fulfilled Life.\u201d The first morning session was chaired by Gregory C. Hill, who is the Chief Administrative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":110137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38644,19205,38647,38650,38638,38632],"class_list":["post-110125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bukhara","tag-genghis-khan","tag-kalyan-minaret","tag-po-i-kalyan","tag-silk-road","tag-uzbekistan"],"yoast_head":"\n
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