Tashkent

Tashkent -- Capital of Uzbekistan
Tashkent -- One of the oldest cities in the Central Asia
Tashkent -- The most beautiful city in the Central Asia

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2006 was 2.1 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.




At first, you may be disappointed that Tashkent is not the Arabian Nights fantasia that its name suggests. But once you have got over the initial shock of the Soviet architecture, you realize that there is much more to this city than meets the eye, with plenty of its heritage still intact at the same time as being the cosmopolitan capital of 21st century Uzbekistan.

Tashkent started as an oasis on the Chirchik River, near the foothills of the Golestan Mountains. In ancient times, this area contained Beitian, probably the summer "capital" of the Kangju confederacy.

Tashkent, like all the Silk Road cities, has a romantic and turbulent history. From the time of the 8th century Arab occupation, it grew to be an important trade and cultural centre The city was flattened by Ghengis Khan and his Mongol hordes but its fortunes revived under Tamerlane (Timur) and it went on to become the richest city in Central Asia.

In the 19th century, it fell into the hands of Tsarist Russia, and a European quarter was built to the east of the old city. However, almost the whole city was destroyed either in the 1917 Russian Revolution or in the devastating earthquake that shook the entire region in 1966.

Today the remnants of the eski shakhar (old town) in the west of the city are well worth seeing - a maze of mud brick houses with mosques and madrassahs (schools) that have been spared by Soviet planners. Khasret Imam is a 16th century square with the Bharak khan madrassah, the Kaffa Shashi mausoleum and two mosques.

The Eski Juva bazaar at the 9th century Chorsu (crossroads) is a huge, colourful market that has been operating from the same site for 2,000 years. The 15th century Djammi Mosque and 16th century Kukeldash madrassah are nearby.

The government has poured money into Tashkent's infrastructure and it is an impressive place to visit, with tree-lined streets, pleasant parks and fountains, and excellent public transport.

Kaifeng

Kaifeng is one of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China

One of the ancient capitals of China, Kaifeng sits south of the Huang He (Yellow River), to which it is linked by the Grand Canal. Its most famous monument is the Iron Pagoda (Tie Ta), which is in fact built of bricks and covered with glazed brown tiles.

It was built in 1049 and has survived remarkably well. Po Ta is a six-sided pagoda, covered in tiles with images of the Buddha. It dates back to the Ming Dynasty. The Shanshangan Huiguan is an ornately decorated guildhall, built in the 18th century with stone carvings, brickwork and woodwork.



The Da Xiangguo Si is among China's most famous Buddhist shrines and is best known for its statue of Avalokitesvara. Longting Gongyuan (Dragon Pavilion Park) sits on the site of the former Imperial palaces. It has two beautiful lakes and a pavilion which dates back to the late 17th century.

The attraction destined to put Kaifeng on the tourist map is the Qingming Shanghe Yuan. It is based on a scroll in the Forbidden City in Beijing that depicts Kaifeng in the 12th century and is full of reconstructions of bridges, shops, restaurants and other buildings. Dancers and musicians perfrom rituals of that era and there are also embroidery demonstrations.

Another well-known sight was the astronomical clock tower of the engineer, scientist, and statesman Su Song (1020-1101 AD). It was crowned with a rotating armillary sphere that was hydraulic-powered (i.e. by waterwheel and clepsydra clock), yet it incorporated an escapement mechanism two hundred years before they were found in clockworks of Europe, and featured the first known endless power-transmitting chain drive.

Bukhara

Historically the holiest city of Central Asia, Bukhara is the fifth largest city in Uzbekistan, populated mainly by Tajiks. If you only go to one place on the Silk Road, it has to be the top of the Kalyan Minaret (Tower of Death) to gaze down on this mesmerizing city of subdued desert hues and sublime blue domes.

Bukhara has perhaps the most romantic past of any city of Central Asia. Originally founded in 500 BC, conquered by Alexander the Great, destroyed by Ghengis Khan, rebuilt by Tamerlane, and admired by Marco Polo, it became the intellectual and cultural heart of the Silk Road. Bukhara produced many of the world's greatest historians, scientists, writers and thinkers, including the great mystic Bahautdin Nakshbandi - the founder of the esoteric Sufi philosophy.






The city also has a history of violence - during the 19th century "Great Game" between Russia and Britain, Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly were forced to dig their own graves at the foot of the massive walls of the Ark Citadel brfore being executed as spies of the British Empire in 1842.

The winding mud streets of Bukhara were built around open pools which provided the water supply for both drinking and public washing. These were a terrible health hazard and most of them were filled in during the Soviet era. But Lyab-i Hauz has survived, a wonderfully romantic spot surrounded by mulberry trees, with a khanaka (Sufi lodging house), and madrassahs (school) at either end. Nearby is the 14th century Kukeldash madrassah - the largest Islamic centre of learning in Central Asia.

This city of browns and blues, with its dazzling markets and mosaics, has an unhurried, dreamy atmosphere about it, the new has been assimilated into the old with the relaxed ease of a city confident of its place in history.

The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia and the city itself has existed for half that time. Located on the Silk Road, the city has long been a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion.

Kathmandu

Kathmandu is the capital and the largest city of Nepal. The city is situated in Kathmandu Valley that also contains two other cities - Patan and Bhaktapur. Nepali is the lingua franca of the valley and is the most widely spoken language. Nepal Bhasa/Newari is the language spoken by native people, the Newars. The city stands at an elevation of approximately 4,500 ft (1,400 m) and is inhabited by about 700,000 people. Kathmandu is the most developed city in Nepal.



Kathmandu, the gateway to the Himalayas, is set high up in an emerald green valley, surrounded by terraced hills. The beating heart of Nepal and totally cosmopolitan, it was the home town of the Newars, the country's master craftsmen and super tradesmen.

Trade created Kathmandu - for a thousand years the city controlled the most important caravan route between Tibet and India, so not surprisingly it has easily embraced the tourist business.




In many ways the city is seemingly unchanged since the Middle ages and indeed it contains no less than four UNESCO World Heritage Site (Durbar Square, the Swayambhu and Bauddhanath Buddhist stupas and the Hindu temple of Pashupati).

Yet in some parts of the city it appears to be just another polluted concrete jungle. Kathmandu has one of the highest rates of inflation in Asia and although there is more money around than before, most of it remains with the upper class.

Popular with westerners since the 1960s as a key stop on the hippie trail, Kathmandu has an enchanting old town, the area between Kantipath (the main north/south road), west to the Vishnumati River - a visual feast of rose brick and ancient wood-carved temples and palaces.

Durbar Square is a non-stop carnival, with temples and monuments as well as the former Royal Palace, home of the ancient Malla kings.

Varanasi

Varanasi, the holy city of India


On the banks of the River Ganges in northern India, the colourful holy city of Varanasi (Benares), has been an important cultural, historic and religious center for more than 5,000 years.





Presided over by Shiva, Varanasi is the most important Hindu pilgrimage site in the world. Described by Mark Twain as older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together, this city offers a spectacle visitors never forget.

The ghats (stone steps) along the river banks are the main focus of religious activity. Here the pilgrims have a ritual bath in the water and perform puja to the rising sun, in accordance with centuries of tradition.

It is believed that bathing in the sacred waters results in the remission of sins and that dying here circumvents rebirth. This is why many old and sick Hindus come to the city to die, surviving their last days on alms given to them by the faithful. Their funerals take place on the river banks, their bodies are burnt on funeral pyres and the remains are tossed into the water.

One of the largest, the Dasashvamedh Ghat offers good views of the river and all the hustle and bustle along its banks. This is believed to be where Brahma sacrificed ten horses to pave the way for Shiva's return to Varanasi after a period of banishment. Other special ghats are the Asi, Barnasangam, Panchganga and Manikarnika.


The Kashi Vishwanath Yemple, on the banks of the sacred river, was built in 1780 by Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore. Home to the shrine of Lord Kashi Vishwanath, it is one of the twelve revered Jyotirlingas of Shiva, the shrines where he is worshiped in the form of a phallus of light.




This temple is the place of pilgrimage for millions of Hindus every year, and is the most sacred shrine in Varanasi. Its original structure was destroyed by the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. The gold plating of the dome was done during the nineteenth century by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab.

Close by this important Hindu pilgrimage site is Sarnath, a place of great meaning to Buddhists. Lying 12 km (7 mi) from Varanasi, Sarnath is where Buddha preached his first sermon and revealed the eigh-fold path that leads to the attainment of inner peace, enlightenment and the ultimate, nirvana.

Ashoka, the great Mauryan emperor, erected magnificent stupas here, including Dharmarajika Stupa at a staggering 33.5 m (109 ft) high, to honour Buddha's presence. Today, the Archeological Museum at Sarnath displays many ancient relics, among them countless images of Buddha and Bodhisatva.

Travel Guidebooks in India

Delhi

The crowded, colourful and unruly heart of India.

The capital of the largest democracy in the world is also one of the oldest cities in the world. There is evidence of continuous human habitation from at least 2000 BC, and the remains of seven major cities have been unearthed. Delhi has not only seen empires rise and fall but has been the capital of several of them.






Delhi is two entirely separate cities: the city of the Mughals - Old Delhi: and New Delhi - an inspired grand design by the great British architect, Lutyens. Two broad central boulevards bisect each other.

The Rajpath runs from the magnificent presidential palace, Rashtrapati Bhavan, to India Gate, a spectacular 42 m (140 ft) arch commemorating the 90,000 or more Indian soldiers who died fighting British wars.

The Janpath leads to the main shopping district, Connaught Place, a series of elegant colonnaded terraces in concentric circles, modelled on Royal Crescent in Bath. It is all splendid and indeed familiar, with the road congestion typical of all major cities.

Old Delhi is altogether another world. Chandni Chowk, the main thoroughfare, leads you into a compelling web of mysterious dark lanes and teeming bazaars, a maelstrom of traffic and people, and pariah dogs and flies, and everywhere the smell of dust and incense, spices and sewage.

After weaving your way through the street hawkers, mendicants, naked vagrants, wandering cows, bullock carts, snake charmers, cycle rickshaws, bedraggled women, waif-like children, the Red Fort is a soothing place to recover from sensory overload - a magnificent 17th century Mughal seat of power, with walls 2 km (1.25 mi) long, acres of garden and Chatta Chowk covered bazaar.



Nearby is Jama Masjid India's largest mosque with two 40 m (130 ft) tall minarets. The 13th century Qutab Minar is even taller at 72.5 m (238 ft). Delhi is a complex, challenging city - infuriating, fascinating, baffling, loathsome and wonderful in equal measure. It has to be seen to be believed. And having been once, you want to go back for more.

Mumbai

This megalopolitan monster - India's largest city - was originally an island archipelago, inhabited by fishermen and Buddhist monks. The islands were acquired by the Portuguese who gave them to Charles II as a dowry for marrying Catherine de Braganza. In 1668, the Crown offered the lease to the British East India Company for a mere $10 per annum.



They rapidly established their west coast headquarters here, carried out massive land reclamation and building projects, and transformed seven muddy islands into the colonial city of Bombay, the most important port on the Arabian Sea. Since then the city (which changed its name to Mumbai in 1995) has never stopped growing.

Traditionally, the first thing a visitor to Mumbai is shown is the Gateway of India, an Indo-Saracenic monument on the waterfront. The last British troops left India via this gateway in 1948 in a symbolic gesture of renunciation of this great city that had been the trading hub of their Empire.




Overlooking it is another of the city's most famous icons, the magnificent Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, built in 1903 by the "father of India industry", Jamsetji Tata, after he had been refused entry to a hotel because he was a native.

Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment centre of India, generating 5% of India's GDP and accounting for 25% of industrial output, 40% of maritime trade, and 70% of capital transactions to India's economy. Mumbai is one of the world's top ten centres of commerce by global financial flow, home to such important financial institutions as the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies and numerous multinational corporations.

The city also houses India's Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood. Mumbai's business opportunities, as well as its high standard of living, attract migrants from all over India and, in turn, make the city a potpourri of many communities and cultures.

Mumbai is the most westernised, cosmopolitan and frenetic city in India. Day and night, its streets teem with people of all complexions, cultures and creeds. It is a city of contradictions and extremes, where phenomenal wealth rubs shoulders with heart wrenching poverty. Migrants come from all over Asia, lured by dreams of Bollywood-the largest film industry in the world - and the promise of material success.

People continue to flock to this "city of gold", because whatever else about Mumbai, one thing is certain - it is a city of chance, where both dreams and nightmares are spun into reality.