The Tomb of Ahmed Yasawi, Turkestan, Kazakhstan

THE TOMB OF AHMED YASAWI (Turkestan, Kazakhstan)

Sufi saint, poet, and mystic Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi died in Turkestan in 1166. Over 220 years later, in 1389, the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (sometimes called Tamerlane) replaced his modest 12th-century mausoleum with a magnificent structure in the Timurid style, featuring vault-and-dome and glazed tiles. It remains uncompleted since the death of Timur in 1405, but continues to draw pilgrims.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

BUKHARA (Uzbekistan)

Bukhara was the name of an ancient oasis along the Silk Road, and became attached to the city, perhaps in the 10th century. Occupied for over 2,000 years, the city was besieged by Genghis Khan for 15 days in 1220. The medieval center, with about 140 architectural monuments, is largely intact, and has long been a center of trade, and of Islamic scholarship, culture, and religion.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Silk Roads: Chang'an-Tianshan - China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

SILK ROAD: CHANG'AN-TIANSHAN (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan)

The "Silk Road" was actually a network of roads and sea-routes that linked SE Asia and China to (ultimately) Europe from c. 200 BCE to 1450 CE. This "site" is the 3,000 miles between China's capital, Chang'an (Xi'an) and Central Asia. It links capital cities and palaces of various empires as well as trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, beacon towers, and more.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)