With all the fantastic landscapes in Central Asia it is sometimes easy to forget that there is also culture, and the rich culture of the ancient Silk Road Cities is another miracle and reason for going to these countries.
Uzbekistan is in that respect the most interesting because there are at least three cities worth visiting. I already uploaded night pictures from Samarkand (www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49258431097/in/datepo...) and Buchara (www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49584591492/in/datepo...). The third night shot is taken in Khiva
(www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49727018383/in/datepo...) with a beautiful and rather well restored city center between high city walls, and numerous Mosques, Minarets, Madrassas, and here a lot of foreign mostly European tourism.
This shot is taken in front of the Islam Khoja Complex: mosque and minaret. Khiva is beautifully lit at night, offering lots of picture moments. Since i didn't carry a tripod with me during this trip, it was really an effort to keep everything sharp, but I think this result is not bad.
As you can see, not only people enjoy the spectacular buildings.
20 September I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran) before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history.
Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way. We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!
We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border.
And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.
Tags: Uzbekistan culture beauty bright colors color colours colour light Outdoors Outdoor panorama Sony scenic Wimvandem mosaic tiles calligraphic inscriptions Unesco world heritage madrasahs minaret Islam Khodja Minaret Khiva dome blue turqoise Central Asia cat ABigFave GoldDragon “flickrTravelAward” COTH coth5 pinnacle
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This is the Selimye mosque in Edirne. It is a wonderful construction and has many resemblances to the blue mosque in Istanbul. I used my ultrawide lens to get into this frame, and I used the vertical
transformation function in Lightroom to point to minarets towards the sky.
More than a year ago, I already posted this image (www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/49326169058/in/datepo...), that shows the interior of this splendid mosque .
20 September 2019 I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran) before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history.
Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way. We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!
We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border.
And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.
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For me the absolute cultural highlight of my Denmark trip was this wonderful castle in Hillerød, the castle Fredriksborg.
Inside the castle is the national historic museum. I was particularly impressed because of the quality of what was shown. The quality of paintings was amazing, and there was a lot of wonderfully restored old furniture. You get a good impression of life of the nobility from the middle ages until now. The building itself as can be seen on this picture is equally impressive.
More info see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederiksborg_Castle
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There is still so much to share from my Central Asia trip that I probably can post for the next ten years. Besides the wonderful landscapes there are the cities, and the cities in Uzbekistan are very special because of the many monumental buildings from the past, that show the amazing art and skill of the people that built it.
Samarkand was in that respect the superlative of all, with an enormous amount of buildings all around, (of which I showed a few already). This is the Bibi-Khanym mosque. I took this at sunset from a distance with my 200 lens and stitched them afterwards.
The construction of the mosque started at the end of the 14th century, and was initiated by the famous Timur Lenk.
20 September 2019 I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran) before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history.
Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way. We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!
We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border.
And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.
Tags: Uzbekistan culture beauty bright colors color colours colour light panorama Sony scenic Wimvandem mosaic tiles calligraphic inscriptions Samarkand medrasses Unesco world heritage madrasahs Bibi-Khanym Mosque mosque sunset cityscape City cities GoldDragon “flickrTravelAward” ngc coth5 SuperShot pinnaclephotography
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