GLOBAL ATTRACTION

Uzbekistan is famous not only with Bukhara, Samarkand and Khiva; it has a vast Cart Blanche for tourist operators in the field of setting up new tourist routes, which will turn Uzbekistan into an even more interesting and attractive country for the greater number of foreign tourists. At the same time it has to be admitted that new routes spring up with every passing day, which are interesting for Uzbekistanis themselves and provide them with an opportunity to get acquainted with their own country and discover its unknown sites.

Not only tourists will benefit fr om the introduction of new routes, specialists fr om different sectors of economy and entrepreneurs are also getting involved in the implementation of new projects. For example, today specialists of the State Committee for Geology also take part in the birth of a new tourist route fr om Tashkent to Kitob.

Activities are being carried out for preparation of all necessary documents, but very soon the Kitob State Geological reserve may be entered into the network of UNESCO global geological parks. If that happens, then it will be the first geological park on the territory of the CIS countries. What is this part of the globe attractive with for development of geological tourism? The Uzbekistan Today correspondent looked for an answer to this question.

“The major attractions of the reserve are the paleontological and stratigraphic sections,” says Director of the State Geological Museum, the working group expert Akhmadjon Akhmedshayev. “These are the objects, where one can observe the sequence of formation of mountain rocks and see for oneself the ancient flora and fauna fossilized in rocks. We can study the theory of evolution of life in these places. Traces of these processes during the Ordovician - Lower Silurian periods are clearly visible on the Shahriomon mountain pass, in the Novobak and Ghorlisoi mountains rivers; those of Upper Silurian - Lower Devonian – in the Obi-Safit mountain river; Devonian traces can be seen in the Zinzilban and Khoja-mound rivers; those related to the Upper Devonian and Carboniferous periods – in the Kul river. The abundance and diversity of fossil organic residues turn the reserve cuts into extremely valuable objects.”

“The Kitob State Geological reserve is the owner and custodian of the global stratigraphic benchmark - the standard lower lim it of the Ems tier of the Lower Devonian period, or the point of a global stratotype of the border located in the Zinzilban cut. The sratotype was sel ected by the International Subcommittee on Devonian stratigraphy in 1989 and ratified in 1996 by the International Union of Geological Sciences. Thus, the Zinzilban section is an object of the World geological heritage, which secured international status to the Kitob reserve.

“By the way, while working on the project with the UNESCO experts and due to the fact that he reserve was relatively small in size, it was proposed to set up a Geological park on the entire territory of the Kitob district of Kashkadarya region. Overall, the area has everything that will make this direction the most attractive site.

“Tourists will be able to see so many interesting and informative things on the way to this attraction of global significance. Moreover, this can be done while travelling the “Afrosiyob” bullet train, it will take slightly more than three hours to reach Qarshi from Tashkent.

“The road from Qarshi to Kitob lies through Shakhrisabz – the tourist gem of Uzbekistan. It makes sense to stay for a while here to get acquainted with the historical monuments, including the famous “Oqsaroi” palace, built by Amir Temur.

“Shakhrisabz may serve as a starting point to discover the nature reserve, because its office is located there. In addition to administrative building, the facility houses the Geological and Biological museums, the visit to which may become a prelude to what is expected to be seen later.

“Having had a good rest and charged with positive emotions, you one may continue his/her journey. Next step is going all the time up the mountains. And finally one is there. Believe me, being here guarantees a lot of positive emotions.

“The picturesque nature is just a small part of the beauty that will charge one with positive emotions. One gets lots of impressions on the climate: spring and summer, autumn and winter - all in one bоttle...

“If one visits the reserve in autumn – one may be offered a visit to a huge pomegranate garden: a garnet ripped with one’s own hands is doubly tastier and sweeter than the one bought at the bazaar... And there are also vineyards here.

“And now it’s the right time to remember also a gastronomic tourism. Here is the place wh ere people eat only organic food and wh ere there is a unique technology of cooking. One of the most famous ones of the local cuisine is a cauldron kebab or lamb baked in the tandyr.

“To put it short, one has to see all this by himself and fell all the beauty and uniqueness of this part of the globe.

“Located here is also the village of Jowuz, the resident of which are the custodians of the ancient customs and traditions. Having cropped in here one can get acquainted not only with hospitable villagers, but also with their way of life. Never ever even think that life here has come to a standstill - almost every household has at least three vehicles. But, despite the realities of life, the locals have managed to preserve their traditions and customs, even in the construction of their houses.

“Would you like some more exotics? Discard the movement on Jeeps fr om one site to another: it’s much more interesting to ride donkeys ...

“And all this is by far not everything we could tell you about this tourist route. There are many places here which are associated with different legends and stories. A whole issue will have to be published for us to be able to elaborate on every one of those legends and stories. But we will tell you about them individually in the following issues of our newspaper.”

Jahon Information Agency