The Registan Samarkand

In the middle of the middle of the world

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September 17th 2008
b]After Tashkent we travelled to Samarkand . The actual countryside in Uzbekstan is quite boring - lots of cotton fields and not much else. The irrigation of the cotton is putting pressure on the water supply in rural Uzbekistan and they are also going through a long drought. The extra problem for the Uzbekis is that it is a country rich in natural gas but the source of the major waterways is ... read more

Asia » Uzbekistan » Samarkand

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Russia conquered Uzbekistan in the late 19th century. Stiff resistance to the Red Army after World War I was eventually suppressed and a socialist republic set up in 1924. During the Soviet era, intensive production of "white gold" (cotton) and grain... ... read more