Day 3

 

Today was the 3rd day of our practice. This time Feruza and me take our group to a tour.

Today we have studied the history of the great building Ark.

There are many legends about Ark. They say that her Siavush grew up, expelled because of the intrigues of the ruler's son's stepmother. Once, while walking around the base, he saw a beautiful girl, whom he fell in love with with all his heart. However, her father, the ruler of Afrosiab, did not want to marry his daughter to Siyavush. His father set conditions for him: Siyavush had to build a palace on the skin of one bull. The task seemed impossible to everyone. But the young man did not lose his head, he cut the skin into the necessary strips, which he connected together, and built a castle inside this whole line.
We also saw there many historical objects. For example, Samovar which came from Russia as a gift in XX century and lots of ancient coins, clothing, armor, tools and utensils.













At the very top of the castle there is a special fence where women climbed and looked down at the event. Thus, the men could not see their faces.
There is a Red Stone in the Arch. It is so called because people were executed on it and the stone was soaked with blood.
Zindan is divided into two parts: zindani bolo - the upper zindang and zindani poyon - the lower zindang. The first part consists of several courtyards with rooms for prisoners. The prisoners of this part of the zindan were taken out of the dungeons bound in chains on the square twice a month. They usually went barefoot, regardless of the weather. The second part consists of a deep pit, 5 meters in diameter and 6.5 meters deep, the criminals descended to its bottom on ropes, as well as food was passed to them in the same way. The imprisonment of prisoners or those convicted of serious crimes in a deep pit was used in many Muslim countries of that period.