I was glad to put the white city behind us. It was time to move on to Merv, and get back to the border with Uzbekistan.
Merv was considered one the great cities of the world. At its height in the 11th and 12th centuries, it housed the Persian Sassanians and multiple religions lived in the same area peacefully. Merv was attacked over and over again, as all decent cities would be in those days. As it was destroyed, or taken over by other conquerors, parts were abandoned, and new sections were built. So really it is about five cities in one.
Genghis Khan demanded a substantial tax in 1218 - grain and women. The city resisted by killing his tax collectors. In 1221, Genghis Khan's brutal son Tolui arrived along with his army, accepted their peaceful surrender and then murdered every last one of them - estimates range up to 300,000 people. This is a dynasty that took their scorched earth policies very seriously.
Today, however, there are no invading tribes. Just invading archeologists.
We paused at the Mosque of Yusuf Hamadani, a Sufi leader. The tradition is walk around the tomb three times, counter clockwise, while asking for guidance or for blessings. I never miss a chance for a good blessing - goodness knows I could use it!
The most impressive (probably because it has been rebuilt) building is the Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar. He reportedly died in 1157 when he returned from Khiva to find that his beloved Merv had been sacked by Turkic nomads.
Another, far more interesting story about him is his wife only agreed to marry him after he agreed to three things: never watch her feet when she walked, never watch her comb her hair, and never try to hug her. He readily agreed because she was so beautiful. But he couldn't resist wanting to do these things, so one night he walked behind her and watched her feet - but he saw that she didn't have any! Then he spied on her combing her hair, and he saw her take her head off to comb it! Then he finally tried to hug her, but his arms went right through her because she was just air. Then she said, "Because you have done these things, I must become a pigeon and fly away." He died of a broken heart, but the architect left a little square hole in his mausoleum so that his wife could fly in to visit him.
The architect of this deceptively simple structure had his name etched into the upper part of the east wall. Rumor has it that the sultan had the architect executed after he built this, so he couldn't build anything to rival it. Probably not the compliment the architect had hoped for.
We ran into many families and groups of friends who wanted to take pictures of and with us. When I saw a woman with the same color eyes as me, I smiled at her and pointed to my eye. She was embarrassed, but all the women in the group laughed and patted us both on the back.
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