Out n' About

The one thing that seems to have dominated the history or Tashkent, Samakand and Khiva is mass slaughter with hundreds of thousands being killed by Stalin, Talermane, Ghengis Khan and various lesser known historical figures. History also includes terrible suffering from medieval tortuous deaths from such things as being sewn into a sack full of wild cats (there to tear you apart) or getting tossed from the top of a minaret. Here in Khiva the minaret is short so people were tossed off several times before dying. Still it is the learning and culture that has left traces in this steppe country. Here studied the guys who invented algerbra and modern mendicine, and the one who first figured that the world is round. I do have photos of blue tiled mosques, minarets and madrassas but still have not worked out how to load them up for you to see. Tommorrow we are going over the border into Turkmenistan. I think of this part of our trip as the loony adendum as that country is reportedly very trange. However I am surprised how isolated from the stangeness of this country we are, protected by an itinary and tour guides.