Description of your home town

Description of your home town
Khorezm region is situated in northeast part of Uzbekistan. It occupies 6,300 km2. The climate here is continental, with a moderate cold winter and a hot dry summer. The region is inhabited by 1.2 million people, 80% of whom inhabit rural areas. The Khorezm region includes ten administrative districts with Urgench as its capital. Khiva abd Juma is another large town and tourist center.
Khiva is included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO's) list of the cultural treasures to mankind. It is one of the ancient cities of Central Asia that has saved its unique architecture formed in the last two centuries. However, the real age of Khiva goes deep, breaking the time-borders of our epoch.
Khiva is like a fairy-tale town. The capital of the Khiva Khanate state in the 17th century, it has still retained the exotic flavor of a medieval town, which time has not destroyed.
There is a legend that says that Khiva was founded when Shem, the son of the biblical Noah, found wealth here. People started to call this place Khivak.
Khiva the pearl of the Khorezm oasis impresses one with its beauty. Khiva represents a complete immersion into the past, concentrated and compressed into a comparatively small space, enclosed by fortress walls. Here, you can almost hear the sounds of past centuries: the shouts of traders, the negotiations of buyers, the noise of crafters' workshops, the calls for evening prayer.
In modern Samarkand, amongst a wealth of historical monuments, visitors constantly “fall” from the past to the present; in Bukhara they cross the streets of history from century to century; but in Khiva they are transported to the past in a way that may seem permanent. They leave behind the massive walls of the Ichan-Kala, “a town within a town.”
The Ichan-Kala, surrounded by fortress walls, with four gates facing in all four directions, is the center of the city. Here you may walk through the narrow streets touching the roughness of the old walls, passing under arches of buildings into the cool shade of ancient trees.
People who are lucky enough to climb up the Akshi-Bobo bastion, which is used by guards to patrol and protect the city, can see all of Ichan-Kala.
About 20 madrassa high schools are preserved in Khiva. Madrassa Mukhammad Amin Khan is the biggest one. Really remarkable peculiarity is that it contains khudjars, special cells for students to live in. The Juma-Mosque is very beautiful. The date of its construction is still is clearly written on the entrance: 1778 to 1782. The 210 columns supporting the roof are very old: from between the 12 and 15th centuries. These columns come from other ancient constructions. They are admired because of their intricate ornamentation. There are many wonderful buildings outside the walls of the ancient town. The whole oasis of Khorezm is rich in memorials. Deep in the Karakum Desert, scientists found a large town, Kuzeli-Gyr, dating back 2500. A canal flowed towards the town and a deep moat surrounded the fortress. As the water disappeared, life in the town died and today only sand dunes and the grief of past centuries remains. There are so many madrassas and mosques, big and small, located in the limited territory of the town that it is hard to believe, while walking through the labyrinth of the oldest past of the town, that a modern city churns with life just a few yards away. Urgench is the name of two cities, one of which is located in Uzbekistan and second one is located in Turkmenistan near the village of Kunya-Urgench and is the ruins of ancient settlement. Ancient Urgench today is located on the territory of Turkmenistan, close to the state border. The exact time of origin of the settlement is not known, however according to some records it is considered that the city had already existed in the 1st century AD.
It was quite large trade and industrial city with developed irrigation system. In the 10-11th centuries it was the capital of Khorezm, but in the 13th century the city was destroyed by army of Genghis Khan and century later it was ruined to the ground by Amir Temur. The city had being struggled for its existence untill the 17th century, but then it was left with all its mosques, minarets, fortresses and irrigation systems. Today ruins of ancient Urgench attract a lot of tourists from all over the world.
Modern Urgench is located on the territory of Uzbekistan close to the Uzbek-Turkmen border. So both cities are divided not only by time but also by state border. This city was founded in the beginning of 20th century. There is almost no any historical sightseeing in the city. Being the administrative center of Khorezm region of Uzbekistan, Urgench plays role of transport nodal point in the region.
There are railways running through the city and connecting south and north of Central Asia. Within the city there is the international airport “Urgench”, which is capable to receive aircrafts of any type and serves flights from Tashkent, Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and other cities of the world. Also Urgench is connected with Khiva by unique trolleybus line with 35 km of length. By the way, all major sites and monuments of Khorezm region are located in Khiva. So Urgench is the perfect place for start point to tours to Khiva and Kunya-Urgench.
Geographically Khorezm lies in the east and the south of the Aral sea, on both sides of the lower reaches of the Oxus (Amudarya) river and around its delta estuary in Turan. It also comprises the formerly inhabited areas between the Amudarya and the Syrdarya rivers as well as the southern parts of the arid plateau Ust-yurt, southwest of the Aral sea. Politically it is within modern day Uzbekistan and constituted a great portion of the ancient Great Silk Road.
The name Khorezm appears in the Avesto, a Zaroastrian religious text, which illustrates the course of events in Eastern Iran and Central Asia, during which time the society comprised of different classes of economic disparity. Avesto informs the functions of clergies, army, farmers, craftsmen, and slaves altogether which formed the first statehood. The events in Avesto occurred in a land “Arianam Vayja” as the translation confirmed by scientists as Great Khorezm.
This empire included Praurata (Parfiya), Mouru (Marv), Gava (Sagdiana), and Khveyrezm (Khorezm).
So the first statehood developed in Central Asia in the first millennium B.C. Bactria in the IX- VIII century B.C and in the lower reaches, south of the Aral sea (Northwest of Uzbekistan, North west of Turkmanistan). Khorezm developed in the VI-VI century B.C. as kingdoms. Bactria and Khorezm shared frontiers in the middle Amudarya river delta. The first artificial irrigation construction in Khorezm dates back to the VI-V century B.C. Population was mainly occupied with agriculture in the villages, and craftsmanship and trade in urban areas.
The archeological excavation confirms that Khorezmians were not only occupied with trade and agriculture but also with science. Khorezmians had sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. They invented angle measuring equipments and used them in their scientific researches. Astronomic and many natural sciences developed in ancient Khorezm.
The constructions of such equipment survived until this day.
One of these constructions and cultural heritage of Khorezm is Koykyrilgan Kala. It’s located few kilometers north of the Amudarya river. The construction dates back to the IV century B.C. The fortress functioned as a burial-ground for the rulers as well as observatory for astronomic studies. During the excavation the archeologists found another interesting document that supposed to be the calendar of Khorezmians dating back to the III century A.D.
The Khorezmians, for instance, based their prosperity exclusively on their trade with the Turks, and became chief representatives of the merchant class throughout the country, especially in Khorasan.
They could be found in considerable numbers in every city of Khorasan, distinguishable from the local inhabitants by the high fur caps which are worn in present-day Khorezm. The development of material prosperity was accompanied, not coincidentally, by that of intellectual pursuits. Almost every teacher at that time could number some Khorzmians among his disciples. This stands in direct relation to the high level of learning in Khorezm itself, particularly in Kath and Guganj, at the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries.
Khorezm was one of most important lands in Central Asia with its commercial, political, and cultural development from the VI century B.C until the XIX century A.D. Thanks Khorezm’s strategic location on the Great Silk road from Iran to India, it actively participated in fostering relations among various cultures and kingdoms. Therefore traders, craftsmen, scientists and architects visited here as an important destination. So the Great Silk Road was not merely a caravan trade route but it also played an instrumental role in the development of civilization of Central Asia.
Between Central Asia and the Great Steppe (the territory of Kazakhstan), as if at the junction of two worlds – nomadic and settled-agricultural – the territory of the northernmost center of civilization – the Ancient Khorezm – was located, which is why all the violent conflicts that occur on the one hand, and on the other.
The abundance of water, fertile land and temperate climate attracted here from ancient times huge masses of people who settled here, mastered this fertile land and turned it into a beautiful oasis, which became the center of the ancient culture, which Academician S.P.Tolstov called “Khorezm civilization”. One of the many monuments of this ancient world culture is Toprak-kala, a fortress city that emerged in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and represented the might of the rulers of this region, the colossal achievements of its creators and the boundless diligence of its builders, simple toilers. It was a genuine building and architectural masterpiece of antiquity!
The most important treasure of Toprak-kala, S.P.Tolstov wrote, were monumental murals and a monumental clay sculpture. In the halls of the fortress, many sculptures and images of people and animals were found. Stressing the richness of colors and the realism of images of sculptures, SPTolstov concludes that there exists an independent Khorezmian art center. The compositional solution had much in common with the drawings of contemporary Khiva carpets, Uzbek and Tajik suzane and Karakalpak patterned felt mats. This shows the deep continuity of the traditions of folk art. About this “speak” bright colors, rich colors of numerous complex ornaments and entertaining subjects of wall paintings.
Toprak-kala had a majestic appearance and struck its scale, which indicated the growth of the political power of the state, which occupied a huge territory and enjoyed influence far beyond this oasis. But his life was short, as well as the age of the state, which he represented. The city-fortress existed, beginning from the I to the III centuries ad. This was the time when Khorezm was part of the Kushan kingdom.
After a while this clay giant was abandoned. Next to him appear in the V century fortified castles. By the time of the Arab conquest (VIII century), there were tens of thousands in Khorezm. There were allocated large fortified settlements, which were communal-clan houses, which spoke of the preservation and strengthening of communal-clan relations.
Life in Khorezm was concentrated on relatively narrow bands (several km wide) along separate canals, and irrigation structures were created with high art for that time. At the sources of these canals was a large fortified point for protection. The total irrigation area in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya at that time was 1.3 million hectares, which is 4 times the current irrigated area of ​​the Khorezm region. All life, all the well-being of residents depended on the development of irrigation and irrigation facilities. Their preservation required enormous effort of hundreds of thousands of people. There were no slaves from anywhere, and their work under these conditions was unproductive. Therefore, the community was the only means of attracting peasants to work on the construction of irrigation facilities and their maintenance in a permanent working regime.
Irrigation – the community – the state – that was the main basis of the established economic mechanism of ancient Khorezm, where the community played a key role. In its preservation, the entire society was interested – rulers, farmers and the community members themselves.
Agriculture was focused on growing cereals – millet, barley, wheat. Widespread gardening, melon growing, and viticulture were widely developed. Grapes were grown in huge “specialized” farms and most of the harvest was used for wine production. An important role was played by cattle raising with the predominance of small cattle.
Metallurgy played a significant role in handicraft production, where the leading branches were iron casting and processing, the production of small items. Pottery production was also developed, and in some settlements the individual quarters of potters are clearly visible. In addition to ceramic dishes, terracotta (burnt clay) figurines were also produced. A number of powerful centers of ceramic production were located on the border with the steppe, which gives reason to assume a purposeful work for nomads. Archaeological finds indicate the presence of bone-cutting workshops, where bone and horny patches for complex bows, pins and needles were made. Weaving of cotton and woolen fabrics became widespread. Glassware also developed, but most likely it was limited to the production of dial-up belts, beads and inserts in the rings.
In the I century AD. in Khorezm begins to mint a copper coin (exchange), which indicates the development of commodity-money relations in society. The Parthian and Iranian copper was taken as a model of the copper denomination. A large number of coins were of Kushan production. At the same time, silver coins of Khorezm coins were also minted, which repeated the tetradrachms of Eucratides, the ruler of Greco-Bactria. The appearance of coins was associated with the growing revival of trade relations on the Great Silk Road, the northern branch of which was passing through Khorezm.
The dominant religion was Zoroastrianism, but, apparently, Khorezm preached its special “Khorezm variant”, rooted in local primitive beliefs. Prevalent asuric (asusuria – cancer) rite of burial. Discovered fortifications (for example, Koy-Krylgan-kala), associated with the funerary cult and funerary sanctuaries testify to the great influence of religion on society.
Khorezm in the ancient period represented a more geographical concept than an independent – political. He was a member of various state associations until the eleventh century. Beruni claimed that Khorezmshahs are descendants of Persian kings and conduct their genealogy from the Achaemenid era. It is known that the Achaemenids proclaimed themselves “shahinshah”, “Kings of kings”, and all territories under their control were administered on their behalf simply by shahs, i.e. kings. So the shirvanshahs appeared (rulers of the territory along the western coast of the Caspian Sea), so Khorezmshah appeared. This title was retained by the rulers of Khorezm until the beginning of the XIX century before the formation of the Khiva Khanate, although only a short period (1097-1231), Khorezmshahs were rulers of Khorezm, in all other times they were the nominal rulers of a vast territory, where the owners of individual fortified settlements (kala) were ruling. These settlements became the basis of small political associations that divided Khorezm into small states. They represented provincial princedoms with a city, a district, settlements of artisans, irrigation and defensive structures and tsars of local significance, carrying magnificent titles.
Famous scientists Beruni, Al-Khorezmi, Zamakhshari, and Ogakhi worked in Khorezm. Here was founded the first Academy of sciences in Central Asia, called "Mamun Academy".
"The land of a thousand fortresses" – this is how Khorezm is called for the huge number of ancient monuments located on this territory. Ancient settlements with a thousand-year history, palaces, mosques, minarets-here literally every stone breathes history.
The heart of the region is Khiva - a unique open-air museum city, with more than 2,700 years old history. The historical center of Khiva is decorated with the famous Ichan-Kala fortress and the Dishan-Kala complex, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The pearls of Khiva are the Kalta Minor minaret, the Juma Mosque with 218 carved columns, the Islam Khoja minaret with a height of 56 meters, considered a symbol of Khiva, the Tash-Khauli Palace, the Kunya Ark fortress and the mausoleum of Pakhlavon Mahmud, the Nurullabay Palace, the Muhammad Aminkhan madrasah and many others.
Geography
Khorezm region is located on a flat area, adjacent to the Karakum desert in the south-west and south. The region borders Karakalpakstan in the north, Turkmenistan in the south, and Bukhara Region in the south-east.
The desert territory of Khorezm is rich in oil, gas, gold, silver, molybdenum, tungsten, iron, marble and granite