Today after breakfast in our very quaint hotel we set off touring and the first place is the Labi-Hauz plaza which is actually less than 50 mt from the hotel.
Not so much to see these days as it is surrounded by people selling stuff but there are a few cafes which might be useful later on. It is indeed a pool and shielded from the sun by lots of trees with a few fountains to keep the water moving helping to keep it cool.
Onward to the Mausoleum of Ismail-Samani the resting-place strangely enough of Ismail Samani – a powerful and influential Amir of the Samanid dynasty, one of the Persian dynasty’s to rule in Central Asia, which held the city in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The place is in an old cemetery which has been converted into a park and has lots of fairground types of rides and kiosks so it sort of looks a bit out of place.
The building made of brick is quite unique in its style and even though its only about 20 mt square I need a ticket to take pictures so another $1 gone from the funds.
Lots of interesting features even though the place is a little crowded as a group of Germans join us which makes it all a bit of a crush.
Something does hit me and it is quite a surprise which is these are the first tourists we have actually seen for about three days. Now where can you go in the world without seeing another tourist well “Turkmenistan” seems to be the answer.
Ever onward and we next see The Mausoleum Chashma-Ayub («The Source of Holy Iov»). It is one of the religious monuments of architecture, which includes mausoleum and “holly source”, “chashma” means “well”.
There is an inscription near the well, which says that the mausoleum was built in 1379-1380 by experienced masters from Khorezm.
The monument has the connection with prophet Iov (Ayub) who once travelled here during drought and helped local people dying of thirst. When he struck with his staff, there was a source of crystal-clear water, which remains clear and healing. Now somewhere I seem to have hear this story before unless it was commonplace to hit things and have water spring out. The water is supposed to have healing properties ???
There is a little museum with some old pictures which are very interesting some local girl in their traditional costume and the original water butt
