Day 55. Mary

This morning we traveled about 40km to the ancient city of Merv. This 2000 hectare world heritage site was a major city in the silk road. Different rulers, cultures and religions had their day. It dates to the 7th century BC and survived until the 1300’s when once again the great Ghengis Khan razed it to the ground. There is not too much of the original left to be fair except the remnants of the wall fortifications and towers.

.This hawk was sitting right at the top in one of the alcoves of the mausoleum 

It is amazing to see though, a mausoleum and a temple have and are being faithfully restored. What Ghengis didn’t demolish, time and the elements have weathered the mud brick construction to almost oblivion. It is amazing to stand in this place of history and the crossroads of so many civilizations and to think of the blood that has been spillt here. 

There are traffic police absolutely everywhere, not only at the usual checkpoints but stationed along the roadside and at every major intersection. Today our van was pulled over and the cop suggested there were irregularities with our paperwork. The cop, driver and our guide adjourned to the back of the van, but within clear mirror view of me. An animated discussion took place and it was suggested to him that pulling over a tourist van with special govt. plates might be a bad career move. The cop was unmoved by this. The driver called someone and handed the phone to the cop. The cop was suddenly not in the frame and we were on our way. It is possible we may see him sweeping the gutters tomorrow. Speaking of which they actually do this, mainly older women with straw brooms. How they can do this in this heat is beyond me.

We returned to Mary and visited a very nice Russian Orthodox church. During the Soviet times it was used as a warehouse for ammunition.

A nice lunch followed and as the temperature is 41 we adjourned to our hotel. We probably will not venture out again as we have decided on a 5:30 start tomorrow.

The government machine must be huge and if the paperwork at the border is anything to go by it is manual and cumbersome. For example we had considered changing our entry point when we were debating about Iran, to do this was several hundred USD and 10 days minimum. We have been asked by our guide not to leave the hotel without him. Adherence to the party line is absolute and there seems to be little dissension. Although as I have mentioned earlier many people have voted with their feet, and left.
People here are not outwardly friendly, it is a unique place for sure. Very pleased to have seen it.

The local library - the roof opens up so it can be an observatory