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Saturday 2004-06-12 - Aşgabat, Turkmenistan
Running through the museum
When we arrive at the hotel in Aşgabat I immediately see it’s the same (nice) Kopetdag hotel where we were two years ago — nearly at the end of the row of hotels on the ‘hotel street’ (all new hotels built along the same street!). That means we’ll have a good breakfast tomorrow! Shortly before four we’re all checked in, and I run off to the National Museum at the end of the street which I missed last time but closes at five — one hour will get me at least an impression this time.
Downstairs are various exhibits about the country’s history, independence from the Soviet Union and economics, as well as as small geological and natural history departments. At the latter I recognize my favorite Yellow Souslik (a kind of ground squirrel) of which I saw so many in the desert here last time. But the most curious exhibit on this floor must be the collection of editions of the “Holy Ruhnama” written by president Nyazov: one copy of every language it has been translated into. I don’t see a Dutch one…
Upstairs are the ethnological and archaeological departments. The archaeological department is interesting particularly because it matches up nicely with the archaeological exhibits in the Historical Museum in Tehrān, illustrating how several cultures lived all over this area. I was also pleased to see the objects found at excavations at the Old Nisa site, a city from Parthian times to the south of Aşgabat now being restored, where we paid a visit last time I was in Turkmenistan (2002). After having seen the walls there, it’s quite interesting to see here what was inside: an obviously very refined culture. Later I hear from Bava that the best of what was found at the site is now at the museum in Moscow and not likely to be given back. What they do have is still beautiful, such as the 18 intricately carved “rytons” (drinking horns), with finely sculpted mythical beasts such as gryphons at the end; also interesting are the furniture parts (probably legs of chairs or tables) made from horn: they look like they have been turned on a lathe. There’s also a lot of nice pottery and jewelry, as well as good plans and models of how the various sites must have looked originally.
The ethnological department has (apart from carpets, which I’m planning to admire at the Carpet Museum tomorrow) superb samples of weaponry and traditional costumes and jewelry from all five provinces of the country. Just the costumes would be worth an hour’s visit!
The evening is spent with a nice dinner of kebabs, salad and the excellent local Berk beer at the nice open-air Aysberg (“Iceberg”) restaurant which I’m amazed I’d completely forgotten but am pleased to find back.
Wednesday 2006-09-06 - P’yŏngyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Korean culture
Next on our program for today is a visit to the Folklore Museum in P'yŏngyang which turns out to be very interesting. As at every tourist site in North Korea, we get a local guide - a good thing since all the explanatory texts with the well-presented exhibits are in Korean. Many murals, paintings and schematics explain the use of containers, agricultural instruments and fishing gear -- from prehistoric times to the present.
The section on clothing is also very interesting, showing how the traditional style we see now evolved from simple tunics worn over trousers or a long skirt. When a child turns one, it's dressed up in new clothes with rainbow colors, and presented with a table with various toys and implements; what the child chooses to play with (say, a brush) is supposed to predict what the child will grow up to be (a brush would represent an intellectual). This custom is still alive -- the rainbow colors worn on every birthday, not just the first -- and later on we actually see a little boy proudly skipping around dressed up in rainbow colors.
Friday 2006-09-08 - P’yŏngyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
King Tongmyong
Our first stop on the way from P’yŏngyang to Wŏnsan today is the (reconstructed) tomb of King Tongmyong who founded the Koguryo kingdom (lasting from 277 BC to 668 AD) and the Tongmyong dynasty. King Tongmyong was the most powerful and most worshiped king of Korea. In this area, only some 22km south of P’yŏngyang, there are actually 15 tombs in all, made for the burial of kings, members of the royal family and the aristocracy, but this tomb is is the largest, and obviously most important one. The site has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004; the listing includes more similar tombs near Namp’o.
We visit a small museum on the grounds where a series of beautifully done murals depict the life story of King Tongmyong and Korean life and culture at the time showing games and contests at celebrations but also scenes of village life. Our (inevitable) local guide tells us these paintings are based on murals found in the tombs — that seems a bit of a stretch to us, the style looking too modern, but we reason it is of course possible that the actual themes of the paintings were indeed depicted in the original murals. However, the UNESCO justification for listing the site specifically mentions the “beautiful wall paintings” and the description states:
“These paintings offer a unique testimony to daily life of this period.”
One rather moving story depicted in one of the paintings is that of the reunification of the king with his son: the king had been married, but divorced; many years later, a young man came to visit the king and presented him with the tip of his broken sword, thus proving he was the king’s son. When the king died at the early age of 40, his son, just 19 then, succeeded him.
Friday 2007-04-06 - Marib, Yemen
Under escort
It seems there has been some unrest in the Marib area for years (not that there was anything in the news about that). In spite of the (supposed) situation, we got a permit to go there — in a long row of jeeps with tourists, under police escort. We all gather at the checkpost on the edge of the city at 9:00 and soon find out it all sounds a little more serious than it is (at least for now): there seems to be only one police car at the head of the row, no one behind. We soon spread out a little. Still, we’re not allowed to stop and take photographs, or even take photographs of the road (as if it has military value) except at a few (apparently designated) photo stops. There are also lots of checkposts along the way.
One thing we note immediately is that they are building a power line: at first, still near Sana’a, we see only the lower halves of pylons, further on they have heads and arms, and close to Marib they have actually started drawing cables. There is an oil field near Marib, so it looks like this will be used to supply power to the capital. In fact, oil has been found at several places, but there is not a whole lot of it: just about enough to cover the country’s own energy needs for several decades, certainly not enough for export. However, natural gas has also been found, which they plan to export in the form of LNG: a pipeline is being built, a well as liquefaction plant near the coast.
The landscape is beautiful, with at first rough mountains of a loose sedimentary structure, quite bare except where there is irrigation and it’s suddenly green. But as we travel it changes around us constantly; the loose sedimentary mountains make place for enormous exactly horizontal slabs of stone, in several layers, all of equal thickness: it looks as if they are huge paving stones. Later, we see sand dunes of warm golden sands, set off by black hills and here and there a layer of little black pebbles, a beautiful contrast. Then the gold-and-black is behind us again, and we’re suddenly in a valley with a lot of greenery.
We stop for tea at a junction. There are two places next to each other, one where the tourists go, one for the locals. Of course we go to the latter (we don’t need plastic chairs, we can do as the locals do and sit on the floor on a mat). The tea is delicious, made with some cardamom for a nice aroma; it’s always drunk with sugar here. The men here are very photogenic, beautiful faces, elegantly clothed in robes with matching head scarves, their weapons (jambiya, rifles) proudly on display. They are also willing subjects, so we end up making a lot of portraits.
Just inside Marib we (just our group) stop at a local restaurant for lunch: rice, flat bread, vegetable stew, a quarter chicken; mineral water on the side, and tea afterwards. Then, still under police escort, we go to our hotel, inside a walled garden, with guards at the gate. Now our drivers get a little well-earned rest — and qat. Once inside our room, I try to call my parents, but although the signal is good, I never get an international line. Strange…
At three we leave for a tour of the local sites. All tourist cars in a row under police escort again (more police now), and strictly regulated with groups distributed so there are never “too many” tourists at the same site at the same time. Is this really for our benefit or are they just nervous when so many strangers are on the same spot? Our group goes to the new dam first. Two big raptors circle overhead — a kind of buzzards (Buteo) probably. Our police escorts happily pose for us on their car with a biggish gun in the back of the pickup truck; along the mountain on a little ridge a row of men is sitting, chewing their qat: this is Yemen!
On the way to the old dam, an unauthorized photo stop for a view of the south building of the dam gets us a reprimand from the police. We go to the north building, from where we also have a nice view of the south building, but of the actual dam in-between nothing is left; both buildings were a kind of sluice, this one lovingly restored. We do see remnants of one of the canals leading from the north sluice. It’s all quite impressive, all this water engineering at such an early time.
Next we visit two temples from the Saba era (the queen of Sheba!): the “moon temple”, named the Almaqah temple of Bar’en or Baran temple, is nicely restored, and you get a good overview of the whole complex. Of the original six square pillars at the center, five are standing, of the sixth only about a third is left. There are also some stones with inscriptions in the original Yemeni script. We need to pay an entrance fee of 200 YR, but it’s worth it, and you can freely roam around. The next site is called “Bilqis Palace” or “throne room of queen Bilqis” (of Sheba), but it’s actually another temple, still in the process of being uncovered from the sands which seem to have preserved it beautifully. But you cannot visit the actual site (yet), and have to pay 100 YR just to get a somewhat closer view. That’s not worth it, and I take some pictures through the gate.
We want to be in time to see the old city of Marib in the light of the setting sun, but can’t leave — we have to wait for another group taking their time at the last temple; the police won’t let us go alone. When we can finally go, our drivers pull a nice stunt: they take a shortcut along a trail, and we arrive ahead of the crowd that left before us. Old Marib is a ghost town now, but still impressive with its huge buildings built of clay, a lot still standing. We can freely roam around (provided we stay on the paths — and we are being watched), but the evening light is disappointing: the sun quickly sinks behind a thick bank of clouds, leaving only gray twilight.
There is “curfew” in Marib, for tourists at least: we’re not allowed outside the hotel after 7:00. Unfortunately, only quick look at the hotel menu convinced everyone that we didn’t fancy eating there: western food at western prices. But our drivers have a solution: they manage to persuade (hmmm…) them to let us go out to eat at a local restaurant! They escort us, of course, so we invite them to have dinner with us. They also happily agree to have their pictures taken, sharing a table with our drivers. After an excellent dinner we head back to the hotel (escorted) but we still need to buy water for tomorrow’s trip through the desert. The shop is on the left side of the road, so our drivers smoothly switch to the “wrong” side of the road, heading in the wrong direction, to stop at the shop and buy water — under police escort, of course.
We never quite understand what the “curfew” is for, but have a suspicion it might be just to keep the tourists at the hotel so they send more of their dollars there.
Tuesday 2009-05-19 - Khuzestan, Iran
Petroglyphs
Around Izeh, in the The Natural-Historical Landscape of Izeh (on Iran’s “tentative list” of World Heritage sites), we admire Elamite petroglyphs at two different sites: Narsi Na (Koul Farah) and Tarisha (Ashkoft Salman). Amazingly hardly any tourist comes here, but the location is away from a little-traveled road and a long distance from Esfahān. At the second site we’re guided by a local herder who guided scientists exploring this site many years ago. Although it’s little-known, there is a lot to see, and even though the reliefs are partly badly damaged by erosion (rain, probably acid rain) they are quite impressive. We can see lines of people offering gifts to the king, quite similar to the scenes depicted at Persepolis.
Unfortunately I´m stuck partway through with an empty camera battery, with the backup far away in the bus — there´s no time to walk back and up to the rocks again.
