Uzbekistan trip

[Kasia]

I wanted to share with you some impressions from my recent trip to Uzbekistan.

We went there at the turn of March and April and therefore everything was still green and fresh (I don’t know what it is going to look like in a few months, when the temperature rises to 40 – 50 degrees C), but for the time being, Uzbekistan is covered with blooming cherry and mulberry trees, and omnipresent poppy flowers.

 

 

 

There are of course places still covered by snow, like the Kamchik Pass – yes, there are a lot of stones, but no fossils whatsoever (I stopped in a few places and checked  ).

 

 

When it comes to sightseeing, Uzbekistan does not have a great variety of historical monuments – you can visit mainly mosques, medresas (islamic schools) and mausoleums. No offence to Uzbekistan, but they all look kinda …. same.  Take a look and judge for yourself

 

Tashkent

 

Khiva

 

Bukhara

 

Samarkand

 

Take my word for it – these are REALLY four different towns

[Kasia]

The unique and interesting stuff is definitely beyond the routes that most tourists follow – and I want to show you a few of such places. If you want to reach these destinations, you need to be a truly determined traveller, because the roads leading to all of them look mainly like this:

The first one is the former Aral Sea, which has almost disappeared because of an irresponsible water management related to the cotton cultivation in the 20^th century. Nowadays the reservoir is only app. 24 metres deep and has shrunk from 69k km2 to 13k m2.

 

 

We visited Munyak village, where you can see the so-called cemetery of the ships – abandoned, rusty boats of the former Aral Sea fishermen.

 

 

In the sand you can still find Holocene molluscs (of course I took some with me  )

 

 

 

 

Another place off the beaten track (literally, not figuratively) is the so-called Stone Forest (Tosh Urmon) in the Kyzyl-Kum desert.

 

 

We spent almost 10 hours in the car (!!!!) driving with an average speed of app. 30 – 40 km/h, because the road is a nightmare – there used to be some asphalt in the past, but I guess nobody cares what has been happening to the road in the last 50 years. So – like in the case of the Aral Sea – a place only to the truly determined fossil lovers

 

 

Apart from the missing surface, you can also encounter other obstacles on the way

 

We managed to find the place with the help of a local resident, who got in the car with us and showed us the way.

[Kasia]

This is the Stone Forest:

 

The individual in red to the right is myself 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kasia]

 

As you can see, these are mainly fossilised tree trunks – the information I found online says it dates back to Miocene (Tortonian). As the fossils are not protected in any way, their pieces are scattered all over the area – you practically walk on them. I took with me these few below:

 

 

 

 

A little higher there are also some marine deposits – these are the pieces I found:

 

Another place definitely worth visiting is the Nurata Pass with fantastic Mesolithic petroglyphs. Again – only if you are able to persuade the driver to enter the road of this kind

 

and then walk a few kilometres, because at some point the road turns into a river

 

 

However when you get to the place, you can admire not only beautiful rocky landscape

 

 

but hundreds of figures of humans and animals carved on the surface of rocks:

 

 

[Kasia]

 

 

 

 

 

Again, as the rocks are not protected in any way, I’m sure dozens of the petroglyphs have been destroyed and lay shattered on the bottom of rocks.

 

 

A rocky area – but no fossils, again J I wanted to show this place to the FF members anyway, because for me it is really cool.

 

[FossilDAWG]

That is very cool.  It reminds me of some petroglyphs I saw in Arizona.  Do you know how old they are, and what culture produced them?

 

Don

[Kasia]

Another on the list was the Kitab Geological Reserve, which you can reach throughout the most picturesque (and winding) road in Uzbekistan:

 

 

 

In town we stopped to pick up an officer of the local Geological Institute, who accompanied us to the reserve. I know I have already said it a few times, but I will emphasise it again (just in case anyone felt inspired and wanted to go there) – the road is really dramatic, we could drive only up to a certain point

 

 

and then we left the car and walked for app. 3 km more to the gate of the reserve.

 

 

In the reserve we visited a tiny museum – it is only one room, but filled with various fossils you can find in Kitab

 

 

 

Here are some of the specimens presented:

Corals

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kasia]

 

 

Crinoids

 

 

Brachiopods

 

 

 

Trilobites

 

 

Afterwards we set off to the reserve itself.

Unfortunately the place, where the shales with Devonian trilobites are located is 7 km up the river – and it is accessible only in August, when the water level gets low and you can walk in the river bed. Now it would be impossible to get there, so we only walked 1 km along the river and found a rocky place, where I could look for fossils (and made the rest of the team to look as well

 

 

 

 

 

[Kasia]

 

 

This is the team – starting from the left: the local geologist from the Reserve, the official from the Geological Institute (presenting a publication on Kitab Geological Reserve) and yours truly

 

And here are some of our finds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kasia]

 

 

I was intending to visit another fossil place in the Ugam Chatkal Park, but the evening before my sister ended up in a local hospital because of a super heavy food poisoning, so I had to stay in Tashkent with her

 

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this report and the pictures

 

 

[Kasia]

15 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

That is very cool.  It reminds me of some petroglyphs I saw in Arizona.  Do you know how old they are, and what culture produced them?

 

Don

It is indeed cool - I loved it, especially looking for them on the surface of rocks. Our guide was not the most informative person ever, so here you have a link to the more detailed description: http://uzbek-travel.com/about-uzbekistan/places/nurata/

[Heteromorph]

Lovely trip. I never knew Uzbekistan’s natural scenery was so stunning. Even the (similar) architecture is quite beautiful. Nice fossils to top it all off.

 

I hope your sister is doing well.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Wonderful report and photos, Kasia.

Very beautiful and interesting. 

It can be a bit samey, but I love the people and the countryside.

Glad you managed to get some fossils too, i didn't. 

Very much hope your sister got better quickly and enjoyed the rest of the holiday. 

 

[Fossildude19]

Excellent report, Kasia!

Thanks for posting it.   

[Troodon]

Very nice report and what beautiful country and they have some great fossils including Dino's  Thank you for posting. 

[PaulK]

This is a very interesting thread. Thank you for sharing your posts, Kasia.

[Mark Kmiecik]

Czesc. Dziekuje bardzo, Kasia.

[Kasia]

2 hours ago, Heteromorph said:

Lovely trip. I never knew Uzbekistan’s natural scenery was so stunning. Even the (similar) architecture is quite beautiful. Nice fossils to top it all off.

 

I hope your sister is doing well.

I wonder how much the landscape changes when the dry season comes - maybe some other member will venture in summer to compare

 

My sister is OK now, thank you - continues treatment in Poland.

[Kasia]

2 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Wonderful report and photos, Kasia.

Very beautiful and interesting. 

It can be a bit samey, but I love the people and the countryside.

Glad you managed to get some fossils too, i didn't. 

Very much hope your sister got better quickly and enjoyed the rest of the holiday. 

 

The people are very friendly, I liked them too. They expect however that everyone from Poland should speak Russian (God knows why) and it is very difficult to communicate in any other language. So if anyone wants to go - a fair warning that a local guide/ translator is necessary.

Fortunately we were coming back home the day after my sister got so sick, so she is now home trying to regain the balance  Thanks.

[Kasia]

1 hour ago, Fossildude19 said:

Excellent report, Kasia!

Thanks for posting it.   

Thanks - my pleasure

[Kasia]

1 hour ago, Troodon said:

Very nice report and what beautiful country and they have some great fossils including Dino's  Thank you for posting. 

They do indeed - I wanted to go to the Bissekty formation after the visit to the Stone Forest, but it turned out that the local agent misjudged the time needed for travel (as I mentioned we spent 10 hours to get to the Forest), so we had to skip it and head to the nearest village to sleep - which is another 100 km further. 

[Kasia]

50 minutes ago, PaulK said:

This is a very interesting thread. Thank you for sharing your posts, Kasia.

Thanks

[Kasia]

31 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Czesc. Dziekuje bardzo, Kasia.

Another Polish member - great!

Cała przyjemność po mojej stronie (the pleasure was all mine).

[Mark Kmiecik]

3 minutes ago, Kasia said:

Another Polish member - great!

Cała przyjemność po mojej stronie (the pleasure was all mine).

Easy to find in the Chicago area. Second largest Polish city? 1.5 million.

[Darktooth]

Great report Kasia! The pictures are fantastic! Cool finds as well!