OHANGARON

This weekend I went to the area of Ohangoron city. It’s not so far from Tashkent, about 80 km or 1,5 hour by minibus. I found out about this excursion from Facebook, group Excursomania. There are different guides who periodically organize tours around Uzbekistan in this group. It can be religious or historical places, famous traditional buildings or old architecture, topical tours etc., you can find it here https://www.facebook.com/groups/excursomania/

Of course all the information in Russian but I think if you write message to guides you will be answered.  

The name of our tour was ‘Spring in the valley of the Ohangaron river’. The cost of the tour was 11$, consists of road expenses and guide fee. Lunch’s cost is at your disposal, mine was 1,5$. So, total trip expenses are 12,5$. We met in front of Uzbekistan Hotel at 8:30 in the morning and returned at 19:00; number of group members was 10 persons. Istana minibus was comfortable and speedy transport.

While we were going to poppy fields the guide told us historical facts about Ohangaron region. Since ancient times it was place of inhabitance of vagrant tribes. Khans or kings of these tribes performed the coronation ceremony on the bank of the Ohangaron river. There are three places in Uzbekistan where the earliest signs of human-beings’ life were found. And one of them is near modern Ohangaron city, territory named Kyzilalmasay. The remains of Paleolithic Neanderthal were found in this territory which means it was 60,000 BC. Even the remains of mammoth were found here but it is big discussion about existence of mammoths in this territory. Some scientists affirm that it was not mammoth but something between mammoth and elephant. And on this interesting topic we arrived to watch poppy fields.

It was very bright and beautiful to walk through high grass and enjoy vivid colors of the nature. After it we went to see petroglyphs (rock paintings). It’s not so easy to climb all the hills to find them but after 20 minutes of walking we saw it and it was worth our efforts. Amazing how ancient people did it. They draw the things which were important for them, they draw hunting and animals. Interesting, that paintings become clearer after pouring some water on it. So you can enjoy enough the paintings after the rain. We were told that petroglyphs also have sacred meaning but now we will never know for sure what exactly people of that time wanted to express through the art.

Before the rain

After the rain

On the way to lunch we saw archaeological excavations. Scientists explore and study the earth layers to know when the first human being life was here. We had lunch in local Uzbek road café, delicious, simple and cheap. The last stop was mosque, sacred place – Gumbaz bobo and Paygambar ota in Susam village.

Inside the old mosque

Tired but happy we went home. Ohangaron area is interesting place to visit because it’s like faceted stone: historical and sacred places from the one side, wild and beautiful nature from the other side. You can kill two birds with one stone ;)