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Thursday 2004-06-24 - Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan
River valleys
Our trip today takes us through a variety of beautiful river valleys. The valley where we camped soon widens; this river is a tributary to the Naryn river which we follow east (upstream) after crossing it over a long bridge. The Naryn valley is very wide here and fertile; mountains on each side are of sandstone and thick packs of sediment, with colors ranging from a pale sandy to dark red.
We make a stop to shop on the market in Naryn, capital of the province of Naryn, both named after the river. Naryn is a regional center, and the only decent-sized town in a large area. There’s a lot of unemployment here though since the factories that employed a lot of inhabitants were closed when the Soviets left after independence. Still, the town does look a little less depressed than two years ago, with buildings clearly in better repair — maybe the economy is picking up a bit? I notice the trolley busses are still going: they have one for each direction on the long central road in this longitudinal town streched along the river (and keep a third one as a spare). But people at the market look sombre and aren’t as friendly as I remember. Others in our group notice the slightly unfriendly atmosphere as well - it’s not just me. We never find out the reason for this atmosphere, but this isn’t Naryn as I remember it. Strange.
After Naryn we turn south again and pass yet another mountain range over the Kyzyl Bel, called “Red Pass” because these mountains consist completely of red sandstone and clay. Soon after the pass, we turn into another wide river valley, first with a lot of agriculture supporting Naryn (we see a lot of fields with bright pink flowers again, which I think must be buckwheat) but later turning into sparse meadows where nomads herd their flocks. Constantly accompanying us on the left now is the long At-Bashi range with snow-capped mountains. Finally we reach the side track which takes us into another narrow valley where — at the end of the 15 km road and the end of the valley — is the building called Tash Rabat.
What is Tash Rabat?
The Tash Rabat building, located at 3100 m height not far from the Chinese border, is somewhat of a riddle. It’s often called a caravan serai in the tour guides but looking at the structure that actually sounds rather unlikely: there’s no place to stable animals here; and usually at a caravanserai there’s a large open courtyard inside the outer walls but this smallish building is completely covered and has a large domed central hall with lots of rooms around three sides of it. Other theories are it could have been a mosque, a prison, even a Buddhist monastery. Unfortunately, no real scientific investigation or excavation has ever been done here; until that happens (if ever) it’s all guesswork.
It’s quite cold up here (again) but luckily we can sleep either in a yurt, put up for the purpose by the family living across from Tash Rabat, or inside their house (for which they free up their own living room and kitchen and sleep in a small side building). Although it costs a little extra, I’m quite glad to be able to sleep inside where it’s warm tonight: last night in the tent it was so cold I didn’t sleep well.
