Silk Road Treasures: The Wild Beauty of Mangistau

Under the banner of "Silk Road Treasures", TCA's people -journalists, editors, authors - share their personal experiences of Central Asia and her people, and by listing their favorite places, literature, films, art, architecture and archaeological sites, alongside encounters and customs, provide pointers for readers wishing to visit the region. Aliya Haidar, Journalist Kazakhstan's Mangistau Peninsula (Mangyshlak) is far from fit for human habitation. Fresh water is scarce, the air is filled with dust raised by searing desert winds, huge waves roll over the turbulent Caspian Sea, and only camels can feed on its vegetation. Mangistau is a symbol of the triumph of nature and, simultaneously, a symbol of victorious industrialization. The balance between the two, however, is very fragile, as events on the peninsula have repeatedly confirmed. In 2000, the peninsula's landscape still retained its wild, natural beauty but just a decade later, it was a place plagued by social conflict. The remains of ancient nomadic sites and necropolises of Sufi missionaries illustrates that people have long been determined to tame and develop this remote and barren land but its explosive growth only occurred with the discovery of oil and uranium.  In the 1960s, geologists settled in the desert. Within ten years, cities appeared and hundreds of enterprises were established, making  Mangistau one of the gems in the Soviet Union's crown. Colossal desalination plants near the regional center of Aktau (former Shevchenko) resembling spaceships, are a legacy of the era of rapid development when the world's first industrial nuclear reactor on fast neutrons, the BN-350, was built on the peninsula. The reactor was shut down after independence in the late 1990s, but conservation is ongoing. Today, few people are allowed into the gloomy catacombs, to the heart of the reactor, but the memory of the power of the atom and the payback has remained. BN-350 is part of the Mangistau Atomic Energy Combine (MAEC), and the giant desalination plants now supply most of the peninsula with water from the Caspian Sea. But there is still insufficient capacity, and the presence of the endless row of desalination plants warns: "Beware, man. You will have to fight for every drop." Even in the regional center of Aktau, water cuts are not uncommon, and intensive farming is out of the question. In the bazaars of Mangistau, most of the products, especially fruit and vegetables, are imported and far more expensive than elsewhere in Kazakhstan where they grow in abundance.  And although salaries in the oil industry are higher than the national average, locals pay triple the price for just about  everything. Irresistibly attracted by the glitter of “black gold," the population in the peninsula continues to rise. Almost 800 thousand people currently live in the Mangistau region, making it the ninth most populous region in the country. The load on the peninsula's natural resources however, is now so disproportionate that it has become the cause of constant conflicts. But outside the cities, it is easy to forget the harsh reality of the industrial...

Silk Road Treasures: A Few of My Favorite Things

Under the banner of "Silk Road Treasures", TCA’s people – journalists, editors, authors – share their personal experiences of Central Asia and her people, and by listing their favorite places, literature, films, art, architecture and archaeological sites, alongside encounters with customs and traditions, provide pointers for readers wishing to visit the region. Stephen M. Bland - Senior Editor and Head of Investigations Architecture: Bukhara - The Kalon Trinity [caption id="attachment_21936" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] The Kalon Mosque, Bukhara; image: TCA, Stephen M. Bland[/caption]   From the ninth century Pit of the Herbalists to the Ismail Samani Mausoleum and the bird market, the old town in Bukhara isn’t really about its separate sights, it’s the sum of its parts, the timeless city permeated by an air of antiquity like a window into the past. That having been said, however, the jewel in the crown of Bukhara is the trinity of the Kalon Mosque, Minaret, and the Mir-i-Arab Madrasah. Built as an inland lighthouse for desert caravans, the Kalon Minaret - “great” in Tajik - was probably the tallest building in Central Asia upon its completion in 1127. The third minaret to have been built on this site, previous incarnations had caught fire and collapsed onto the mosque below, officially because of the “evil eye.” Also known as the “Tower of Death,” over the centuries the minaret has seen countless bodies sewn into entrail catching sacks and tossed from its 47-meter-tall lantern. Particularly popular during Manjit times, this practice survived until the 1920s. [caption id="attachment_21937" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] The lantern of the Kalon Minaret, Bukhara; image: TCA, Stephen M. Bland[/caption]   Home of the first recorded use of the now ubiquitous blue tile in Central Asia, the 14 distinct bands of the minaret are majestic in the pink evening light, its scale and intricacy remarkable. While the sense of history lingers, everyday life continues unabated at its stout base, and when the heat of the day abates, head-scarfed babushkas sat chit-chatting on the cool stone steps of the Madrassa, while kids kick soccer balls against the ancient stones.   Art: The State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Nukus [caption id="attachment_21939" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Lev Galperin - "On his Knees"[/caption]   Once a thriving agricultural center, Karakalpakstan is now one of the sickest places on Earth. Respiratory illness, typhoid, tuberculosis and cancers are rife, birth defects and infant mortality rates amongst the highest in the world. The deliberate destruction of the Aral Sea for irrigation purposes has caused toxic dust storms so vast they are visible from space, ravaging a 1.5-million-kilometre square area. Spreading nitrates and carcinogens, these storms used to hit once every five years, but now come ten times a year. Yet it is in the capital of Karakalpakstan, Nukus, that a remarkable collection of art has survived in part because of its inhospitable location. Risking denouncement as an “enemy of the people,” obsessive Ukrainian-born painter, archaeologist and art collector, Igor Savitsky spirited away thousands of avant-garde pieces banned in the Soviet Union....