In the tourist Samarkand, where hundreds of foreign voices are heard everywhere, it seemed that you won’t be able to find something abandoned. But abandoned sights are everywhere! We were convinced in this for one more time.
We go around the old city, where only local residents live. Surprisingly, in the heart of Samarkand, the Uzbek city, there are … Tajiks who are locals. Local around us are able to speak four languages at once: Tajik, Uzbek, Russian and English. As we look like foreigners – everyone around us happily shouts “Hello!” (to which we, of course, answer “Assalomu Alaykum!”).
Slowly we pass through the mahalla, houses around do not cause any interest: most of them are new, but there are also old ones made of clay and sand.
Of course, the most interesting thing is inside, in the houses of hospitable Tajiks. But it is not so easy to get inside unless you know someone…
Suddenly the ruined building attracts me. Islamic forms, ancient architecture … my companion and I stayed here for a while to find out more about this place.
We go through the open gate, which leads us into the inner courtyard of the building. Inside on the benches sit elderly Tajiks, who lazily throw to each other words and drink soda (here in Central Asia it is especially popular). Of course, when they have seen foreigners, they happily tell us the whole history of this place.
So we learned that infront of us is a hujra, a school in which children studied the Koran. It was built in the late 18th century, but for 50 years now it has been abandoned.
Inside there are three small rooms, in which there are a lot of junk. It seems that now this place is used as a warehouse. On the other side was a mosque, but now it is completely destroyed.
