"Demons Plateau", thousand-year-old plane trees and stone idols of Kara-tepa, Uzbekistan

Good day! Today I would like to post about my second trip to the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan. Two years ago I was already here and it was my first trip with the team of "Mysterious Uzbekistan". I already posted about that trip here here, here, here and here. The "Demons Plateau" made a strong impression on me that time and I really wanted to return here. In addition to the plateau, I wanted to climb 1300 steps again to the cave of St. David. Last time I barely mastered the climb and was the latest one, but in two years I improved my physical skills and wanted to check how much :).

I think there is no need to repeat that we left Tashkent early in the morning before dawn :). Do you remember how I “adore” the early climbs? But every cloud has a silver lining and I made the photos of landscapes and beautiful fields of sunflowers.

As last time, the cultural and entertainment part of the trip began with a visit to the holy place called Chor-Chinor - “Four Chinaras” (Chinara tree is a kind of Central Asian plane tree), located in the city of Urgut on the border with Tajikistan. The age of these plane trees exceeds a thousand years! According to one of the legends, the Arab commander Khoja Abu Talib invaded here with the army, became the ruler of this region and was buried near one of the plane trees planted by him. True or not, these plane trees are really very old.

In the hollow of one of them is even a small natural room. There used to be a school here. Yes, right - the lessons were taught in this hollow. Dervishes (wandering monks) stayed here to rest. At the dawn of the formation of Soviet power in Uzbekistan, in this hollow were held secret meetings of the Bolsheviks. So, it is very interesting place! And pretty cool.

Later, in the early twentieth century, a mosque was built here. This mosque at different times was used as a school, hospital and warehouse. During my previous visit, the building was being renovated and now there is a functioning mosque.

Over the centuries that Chor-Chinor has existed, the number of trees has long exceeded from four chinaras to over than one hundred. This is a beautiful shady place - very quiet and calm. A couple of months ago, I saw news that the local administration decided to "improve" Chor-Chinor to turn it into a center of tourism and cut down almost all plane trees. Fortunately, this was not the case. The plane trees stand still, although it seems that some are missing. Need to find my old photos and check.

In addition to the plane tree, there is also a spring with clear water. There is a legend that one of the ancient heroes stuck a millstone in the ground and scored a source from the ground. When geologists conducted their research here, the millstones were removed and the water disappeared. They stuck it back and water appeared again. I don’t know how true this story is, but the millstone stands still and the water regularly beats from the source.

After Urgut and Chor-Chinor we went to the mountain pass. There are very interesting places here - Kara-tepa with its stone idols and the Demons Plateau.

First we stopped near Kara-tepa.

Perhaps the most popular here is a stone called "Heart". Although it all depends on the imagination - someone sees two diplodocuses joining their heads, someone hands in boxing gloves. Some see the card suit "spades". So, what do you see?

Locals say that this place (however, like the Demons Plateau, located nearby) has poor energy. Trees do not grow here, cattle try to avoid these places and people settle a little further from here.

After Kara-tepa, we went to the Demons Plateau. Quite a popular place described in the popular in Russian fantasy roman "The Last Watch" of Sergey Lukyanenko. According to his version, there was a grand battle of the Others and the Light magician Rustam applied some terrible spell that turned the dark Others into stones. They are imprisoned here forever, but they see and hear everything.

Although, this is just the result of erosion and rains, but sometimes seem to frozen figures...

For example, this resembles the head of some brushfish

And this one reminded me of the head of a seal with an open mouth, trying to bite something off ...

And this stone looks like a turtle ...

And this one is on the skull of some animal ...

It is believed that this place has powerful energy, so local residents tie ribbons to the trees, which should making wishes.

Crossing a stone ridge, we saw a wonderful panorama. I see her for the second time, but still it makes a strong impression!

After the Demons Plateau we went down through the man-made forest Aman-Kutan to the ancient caravan route connecting Samarkand and Kesh (now Shakhrisabz city). Ever since Tamerlane, trees were planted on the local slopes of the mountains. Over the past centuries, they have grown into a real forest.

When preparing a post two years ago, I was looking for information about this tract and according to the information that I found, this tract is older than I thought. Here trade caravans and military convoys went long before Tamerlane (XIV-XV centuries). Here walked the Persian and Greek warriors and the Mongols were also in this place. The tract continues to exist and car tire prints are added to the tracks of horse hooves. At one time, by order of Tamerlane, the tract began to be paved with stone - paved sections are still preserved!

The descent was easy and short-lived. Probably, an hour later we came to the foot of the mountain where cars were waiting for us.

We arrived in Samarkand and stayed in a rather comfortable hotel.

Having rested and freshened up, we went for dinner and a little walk around the city. If you will be in Samarkand, please visit Registan two times – day and night. It is especially beautiful at night!

Next time I will post about of the second part of my trip to the cave of St. David - the biblical David who fought with Goliath.

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