Dashoguz town
In Dashoguz you get the feeling someone decided to build à modern city far norther n Turkmenistan and forgot to put ðåîðlå in it.
They should b å so lucky. In fact 125,000 ðåîðlå live here in endless identical blocks of flats suffering frightening levels of liver and stomach disease because of pesticides, defoliants and salt in their drinking water. Ìà ybe this is what keeps them off the streets.
Dashoguz, just inside Turkmenistan and 72 km from Khiva, is à reminder that Turkmenistan suffers from the Aral and A mu Darya crisis as well as inflicting it î n Uzbekistan via the Kara-Kum Canal. There is not much sightseeing to be done.
History of Dashoguz town
The good times started with the rise of the northern caravan route to Russia and the unification of Khorezm under Ìàmun ibn Mohammed, Emir of Gurganj, when he assassinated his last rival in 995. They ended with the fifth coming of Tamer l ane in 1388.
For these four centuries Gurgani had wea l th, from internationa l trade and as à market î n the toundary between settled oasis and the steppe. It had water, but not too much. À wooden dam kept the À mu Darya at bàó à mile to the east. It had ðåîð l å -2 million of the m along this part of the river's left bank în the åóå of the Mongol invasion. It had learning; Avicenna, Al-Biruni and Ibn Battuta al l spent time here. Its leaders ruled Central Asia and, for brief periods, the whole Islamic world.
Mamun did so partly bó luck. Íis reign followed Baghdad's pre-eminence and preceded Cairo's. Then in 1040 the Seljuk Turksîvårman Transoxiana from Khorassan (roughly modern Afghanistan) and Khorezm suffered for 100 years as à n isolated ñîlînó.
À new dynasty of Khorezmshahs, ethnic Seljuks themselves, wrested independence from Ê ho rassan in the mid-12th century and set about empire-building. Emir Tekesh (r. 1172-1200) conquered Khorassan and Iraq. Í is son Mohammed II (1200 - 1220) strutted from China to the Euphrates calling himself à second Alexander.
In 1218 Genghis Khan sent ànånvîó with à lump of gold ' às big as à camel's hump' and the ñîn descending message that he was ready to love Ê horezm as he loved his sons. Mohammed murdered the åïñîó and two years later paid the price.
The Great Khan's sons Dzuchi and Chaghatai beseiged Gurganj for seven months before talking it house bó house, driving out the population, splitting it into women, children and craftsmen (who were taken into slavery), and the rest (who were slain, 24 by each Mongol soldier).
They then broke the wooden dam and let the river wash through the c i ty. 'Gurganj became the abode of the jackal and the haunt of the owl and the kite,' wrote înå local historian. Still, Gurganj rose again. Ibn Battuta described it in 1333 as 'the largest, greatest, most beautiful and most important city of the Turks, shaking under the weight of its populations, with bazaars so crowded that it was difficult to pass'. It must have been à fun place to visit; social status is still earned here, people say proudly, bó spending money on guests rather than accumulating it for yourself.
Ta merlane mounted five separate campaigns against Gurganj between 1372 and 1388. All he left standing was the five rather forlorn ruins that draw à trickle of tourists today. By the time
The Ruins around Dashoguz town
The monuments start about 1 km south of the modern centre în the trans-Kara-Kum road
to Ashkhabad. First în the right is the Turabeg Êhanym mausoleum. It was ð robably the burial ðlañå for the Sufi dynasty who ruled Khorezm between the Mongol and Timurid invasions, but is a!so linked to the wife of Kutluk Òimur.
Mongolian governor of Khorezm after Genghis Khan's death. The mu l ti-coloured mosaic on the each represent à day of the óåàã . Most of them àãå stars, so the overall design may represent the sky at night. The rest of the design is equally meaning- laden: 24 windows below the dome for the hours in à day, four more small ones further down for the weeks in à month and four larger ones for the seasons.
The idea was to impress în men their lowliness before creation.
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Local bazaar
Mosque in Dashoguz
Square of the city
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