Sprague Photo Stock: Uzbekistan, Central Asia

Uzbekistan Photographs

Lying along the fabled 'Silk Road' which connected China and Europe for thousands of years, Uzbekistan today is a remarkable and welcoming place. I recently spent a couple of weeks enjoying the ancient cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, as well as the modern capital at Tashkent.

The name Timur the Great, (Tamburlaine), struck terror in the minds of many, 600 years ago when he conquered much of Asia from India to Turkey. But the ruthless, Moslem leader was also a patron of the arts, building some of the finest mosques and madrassas ever seen. These stand to this day, thanks to careful restoration during the early 20th century when Uzbekistan was incorporated into the Soviet Union.

The country has been independent since 1991 when it broke away from the USSR. While proud to be independent, the country struggles economically, no longer artifically protected by the Soviet Union. Unemployment and poverty led to demonstrations in May 2005, which were brutally supressed by President Karimov, an ally of Bush and Blair in the 'war against terror.'

Against this backdrop, I made an independent journey through Uzbekistan's ancient cities ending up at the Arral Sea, the world's most famous environmental disaster. Almost dried up by decades of irrigating cotton fields upstream, it is a sober reminder of Man's power to wreak havoc on the planet. Fishing trawlers in the 'port' of Moynak lie on a 'seabed' of desert, passed nonchalantly by camels.

- Sean Sprague, Photographer