A travel to Aeolian city, Uzbekistan

Hello! Last weekend, I finally went to the Aeolian city - I planned to visit this place for a long time and now I did it! The place is very beautiful and unusual. I saw photos of the Aeolian city in the announcements of "Mysterious Uzbekistan" and I was fascinated by these rocks of an unusual shape, reminiscent of leaking candles. Usually people go there in spring or autumn, when it is not so hot. Therefore, as soon as "Mysterious Uzbekistan" announced a trip, I immediately signed up.

The Aeolian city we traveled is a little-known place to, despite all its beauty and mystery and there is very little information about it on the Internet - a couple of photographs and all. Rather, there are many places with same name - in Kazakhstan, Dagestan, China and Mongolia. Even here in Uzbekistan, I found two locations with this name. It is curious that they are located relatively close to each other. Actually, “aeolian cities” are called rock formations of an unusual shape formed by weathering processes.

So, although the name is beautiful, it is not unique and not entirely official and it does not mean anything to most tour operators. In the guidebooks on Uzbekistan there is almost no any information about it. What is strange, because “Mysterious Uzbekistan” has been carrying groups there for several years. Well, it's for the best! The place is unprompted, and therefore not yet polluted by tourists.

That "Aeolian city" that I visited is located near the town of Jizzakh (by the way, the small homeland of our current president) near the settlement called Kurpa. Kurpa translates as “bedding, mattress” - apparently, local residents make such bedding from goat hair. I do not know exactly. Frankly speaking, Uzbek place names are sometimes very interesting and unexpected.

The Aeolian City itself, in spite of its picturesque, is small. Therefore, the organizers added a visit to the cave and gorge located nearby.

During the trip, I clicked a lot of photos. I added a part of them to this post, and a part I posted on my instagram

Fortunately, the departure was scheduled for 6 o’clock in the morning, and not at 3 or 4 o’clock, as it usually happens, so I even managed to get enough sleep. We loaded into the minibus and set off. After a couple of hours, the railway crossing blocked our way and we literally didn’t have enough minutes to get through. I had to stop and wait for the high-speed “Afrosiab” train to pass by.

We had to wait about 10 minutes. After the train swept through, we drove on.

After about another hour, we reached the starting point of our trip. So that people would not get bored, the guide decided not to go directly to the cave by car, but to climb a hill and go down to it on foot. An excellent solution, by the way. We stretched our legs and admired the area. The grass has already burned out and acquired a golden-brown hue. Very beautiful.

I dare to suggest that in the spring it is even more beautiful here, when the hillsides are decorated with green, newly emerged grass. So, I decided to come here again in spring.

On the hillsides, local residents graze cattle and some representatives of artiodactyls are not averse to taking pictures.

We went around the hill, went down.

And then raised to the cave.

I must say that the cave did not particularly impress me - small and narrow. Under the ceiling of the cave lives a whole colony of bats.They live there for a long time, judging by how densely covered the floor of the cave with their droppings. Additionally, the smell here is specific. We didn’t sit too long and, after making a couple of photos, went on to “Aeolian city”

As I said, the Aeolian City is located near the settlement of Kurpa. We can say that in the backyard of local residents. I was a little surprised when we drove almost to the center of the settlement unloaded and the guide took us to a place directly through the courtyard of one of the local residents. But the owner of the courtyard did not pay much attention to us, he only politely greeted.

Going around the house of a friendly resident, we saw the same "Aeolian city". Indeed, a very unusual place, a similar I have not seen.

It's amazing what bizarre shapes the wind can create. Millions and millions of years ago the sea splashed here, then it left, leaving blocks of limestone and sand. Well, the wind and constant temperature changes created bizarre figures.

In the photo below you can see the fenced area at the foot of the cliff. According to the guide, it has some cult significance among local residents. In general, it seems that in Uzbekistan any sights which are somewhat different from the rest, are going to be declared as a holy place. There will certainly be a legend about how some local saint performed a miracle here. Most likely, there is a similar story here too - there are no more such aeolian reliefs nearby, therefore, probably, the ancestors of local residents came up with some beautiful legend explaining the appearance of the “Aeolian city”.

We climbed the whole "Aeolian city" from top to bottom and went to the final part of our track - to the gorge. But to which gorge, I forgot unfortunately :(. There we had lunch, got water from the spring. We walked a little deeper into the gorge and set off on the return trip.

This weekend, my friends and I plan to visit such cities of the Fergana Valley as Kokand and Margilan. We will see how they make world famous Rishtan ceramics and visit the silkworm factory in Margilan, as well as various historical places. I think I'll get enough material at least for a couple of new posts :).

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