Salt Storm hits Nukus

A strong salt storm enveloped large areas of Western Uzbekistan covering the city of Nukus in a layer of salt and dust and reducing visibility to only a few meters. The storm also blocked flights departing from Urgench airport. Strong gusty wind brought salt dust from the Aral Sea shores (and the Aralkum) following warm weather and rain. According to Uzhydromet, in Nukus after a 40-degree heat on Sunday 27th May the temperature dropped to + 20-22 ° C.  The salt laden forcing residents of Nukus to use masks when venturing outdoors as the storm made it difficult to breathe. 

Road Trip Tashkent to Nukus

Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara: It is a 625km from Tashkent to via Qarshi. Generally able to drive at 80 km/h average except in built up areas with lower speeds and greater caution required on the Samarkand Qarshi sector due to winding hilly roads. Alternative route from Samarkand via Navoi a shorter distance around 440km and faster speeds possible than going through scenic route via Shahrisabz and Qarshi.

Bukhara – Khiva - Nukus:  It is a 460km drive to Khiva from Bukhara and a further 200km onto Nukus. The first 70km is slow however after that there is a new road all the way to Turtkul followed by more slow conditions onto Urgench and Khiva. The road however is being upgraded over last few years, and so now I expected to be much better. Sand drifts in desert sector however always an issue. Can drive at around 60Km/hr on average most of the way.

(ED: Any comments on current road conditions or other relevant information welcome below).

Nukus Street Posters

 

 

 

Nukus - City Planning

 

Uzbekistan Airlines has restarted flights from Moscow to Nukus

Uzbekistan Havo Yollari (Uzbekistan Airways) has restarted passenger flights to Moscow from Nukus. The flights on A320 airliner once a week on Mondays.

Nukus airport operates more than twenty passenger flights to the cities of Uzbekistan and CIS daily

Schedule: 29 March 2016 - 31 October 2016


Nukus (NCU) - Moscow Domodedovo (DME)

Operational days	Departing Nukus	Arriving Moscow	Duration	Aircraft	Flight
Monday	10:45	12:25	3:40	320	HY 625

Moscow Domodedovo (DME) to Nukus (NCU)

Operational days	Departing Moscow	Arriving Nukus	Duration	Aircraft	Flight
Monday	13:55	19:20	3:25	320	HY 626

.

Lilac Road by Ural Tansykbayev Savisky Nukus Art Museum Masterpiece

Ural  Tanyskybayev

was a renowned Kazakh artist born in Tashkent (1904-1974). He attended a Russian-Uzbek school from 1916-1919 and subsequently worked at a tobacco factory and a winery between 1919-1924. In was in this period that Tanyskbayev first started to make sketches and small drawings in his tattered sketchbook. His paintings were shown in the club of the plant. In 1924 in the newspaper "Turkestanskaya pravda" there was an article about the young artist and he came to the attention Nikolay Vasilyevich Rozanov (1869–1940) and was invited to study with him and a number of other of renowned painters and followers of the Peredvizhniki ("Wanderers") in their studio at the Tashkent Museum of Art where he stayed until 1927. From there he went to study for two years at the Art and Pedagogical Technical School, Penza under the great Ivan Silovich Goryushkin-Sorokopudov (1873–1954) and Nikolay Filippovich Petrov (1872–1941). Visiting a number of museums and studios in Moscow during 1929, he started to became interested in Fauvism and the works of the French Expressionist's, which had a major impact and from that time on there was a noticeable increased decorativeness and heightened sense of colour in his work. From 1929 he started to participate in art exhibitions and in the year 1932 became a Steering Committee Member of the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan. In 1938 he was the stage and costumes designer at the Kazakh State Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Alma-Ata. He worked on the first national Kazakh ballet based on the poem "Kalkaman and Mamir" by the historian and poet Şekerim Kudayberdiulı (1858–1931) This famous production by the leading Kazakh ballerina and choreographer Shara Zhienkulova (1912–1991) using music composed by Vasily Vasilyevich Velikanov (1842-1904).

Lilac Road by Ural Tansykbayev

A member of the Uzbekistan delegation he paid a visit to the World War II front in 1942. Jointly with artists M.Arinin, S.Cheprakov, and Madra Mandicencio, he made more than thirty monumental paintings for the Uzbek pavilion at All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV) now the All-Russia Exhibition Centre in Moscow from 1952–1955. He was elected member-correspondent of the Academy of Arts of the USSR in 1954, and a full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR in 1958. That year he was awarded a silver medal at Universal Exhibition in Brussels Expo '58. The theme of his early paintings is connected with the searches for expressive means, forms of reflection of the reality. They are intensive and enriched by their colours, decorative. By the beginning of the 1950s the main genre in his art had become landscapes. He continued to participate in many exhibitions in Uzbekistan, and other parts of the Soviet Union as well as abroad and garnered numerous government accolades. He established very close ties with the Nukus Art museum which obtained many of his earlier works from the late 1920s and early 1930s, regarded by many as the best collection of paintings and graphics of the period. Ural Tansykbayev died in Nukus in 1974 while arranging a solo exhibition.

Sources: Ural Tansykbayev entry in Wikipedia www.savitskycollection.org/Tansykbayev.html

Uzbekistan Airways Flights to Nukus from Tashkent (Summer)

SUMMER 2014 FLIGHT SCHEDULE

Timetable for flights from Tashkent, Uzbekistan (TAS) to Nukus, Uzbekistan (NCU)

Flight	Operational days	Departing Tashkent	Arriving Nukus	Duration	Aircraft
HY1003	Monday	06:05	07:50	1:45	320
HY1001	Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday	07:10	09:55	2:45	I14
HY1005	Monday, Sunday	12:30	15:15	2:45	I14
HY1007	Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday	17:30	19:15	1:45	320
HY1007	Sunday	17:30	20:15	2:45	I14
HY1009	Sunday	17:40	20:25	2:45	I14
HY1007	Thursday	19:00	20:45	1:45	320

Timetable for flights from Nukus, Uzbekistan (NCU) to Tashkent, Uzbekistan (TAS)

Flight	Operational days	Departing Nukus	Arriving Tashkent	Duration	Aircraft
HY1002	Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday	10:35	12:50	2:15	I14
HY1006	Monday, Sunday	15:55	18:10	2:15	I14
HY1004	Monday	18:20	19:45	1:25	320
HY1008	Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday	19:55	21:20	1:25	320
HY1008	Sunday	20:55	23:10	2:15	I14
HY1010	Sunday	21:05	23:20	2:15	I14
HY1008	Thursday	21:25	22:50	1:25	320

Summer Schedule: 31 March 2014 - 31 October 2014

Source: Advantour http://www.advantour.com/uzbekistan/uzbekistan_airways/tashkent-nukus.htm

Excellent Short Travel Videos on Uzbekistan

Excellent Short Videos on Uzbekistan

1. Explore the heart of the Silk Road Uzbekistan (4:44)

Go to  Uzbekistan Gem of the Silk Road

2. Travel through Uzbekistan in April 2012; Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, the Kyzylkum Desert & Nukus - Florian Witulski (7:38)

3. Magical Uzbekistan - Khiva, Euronews (5:01)

4. Magical Uzbekistan - Bukara, Euronews (5:01)

  5. Euronews Video - Samakand Nov 2013 (both 5:00)  

   

Short Videos about Karakalpakstan

1. From All Points  : 2012 Asrlar Sadosi Festival, Karakalpakstan  by Michal Shapiro (USA)

(29:19)

Go to From All Points

A Bakhshi in Central Asia by Michal Shapiro (USA) (5:05)

Go to A Bakhshi in Central Asia

2.  Postcard from Nukus by Zaunka (Spain) (1:28)

Go to Postcard from Nukus  http://www.zaunka.com/

3. Around Karakalpakstan (5 linked videos - Utube Channel) 

Go to  Around Karakalpakstan

4. Du Karakalpakstan à la Kabardino-Balkarie by Romain Darnieaud (8:59)

Go to http://vimeo.com/94096446

5. Journey of Discovery (0:59)

The beginning of construction of the second stage of the State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan named after I.V. Savitsky.

 

The beginning of construction of the second stage of the State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan named after I.V. Savitsky is underway and is expected to take 4 years.  The second stage of the Savitsky Art Museum will include additional exhibition and storage space to house the large collection of items held by the museum.

Construction of the facility started on the 10 march 2013 and is being undertaken by ."Uy-Zhay Kurylys." on behalf of the  Council of Ministers of the Republic of Karakalpakstan.

Founded in 1966, the Savitsky Collection is located in Nukus, Uzbekistan and holds over 90,000 items of art (paintings, graphics, sculptures, folk and applied art and archaeology). Considered to be the second largest Russian Avant-Garde art collection after the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Igor Savitsky, a Russian born in Ukraine, moved to Central Asia in the 1940s to work as an artist on the Khorezm archaeological expedition. He stayed, collecting Folk and Applied Art of Karakalpakstan, and moved into other areas of collecting, notably Russian and Uzbek Avant-Garde of the 1920s.

The Savitsky Collection has one of most impressive and moving stories of any museum in the world to find out more go to www.savitskycollection.org

Stamp to commemorate the 170th Anniversary of the birth of the Karakalpak National Poet Berdakh

Designer: S. Sharipov

Paper: coated

Printing process: offset

Perforation: comb 13 3/4 : 14

Size: 26 x 37 mm

Sheet composition: 50 (10 x 5) stamps

Printing run: 35.000
Michel catalogue number: 174
15.00 (S). red-brown and light-blue.

Berdakh's monument, Nukus

In 1997, in connection with the 170th anniversary of the birth of the great Karakalpak poet-thinker Berdakh, the Karakalpak State University decided to construct a museum. Completed in 1998 the museum is a three-storey building with one large and six smaller domes. The designer was Orynbay Toreniyazov, a famous architect of the republic and the winner of the State Award of Berdakh.

Berdakh is considered the first historian of Karakalpak people. His book "Shezhire" is a genealogy of  not only the Karakalpak people, but comprises data on the Turkic people as a whole. In "Shezhire" he describes the 300 most important characters in Karakalpak history. He was also famous for his poetry devoted to national heroes including the great poems "Amangeldi" and "Ernazar biy". Besides poetry, Berdakh also wrote some well loved "Bakhsy" folk music which that was famous not only among Karakalpaks but their neighbours as well the Khoresmian Uzbeks and Turkmens.

The museum has expositions depicting history, ethnography and culture of Karakalpak people. The organisation of the museum is into thematic halls of archaeology, ethnography, art and history. In addition it has materials about clerical educational institutes of the past and the present - madrasahs and maktabs, the first Soviet educational institutes and about the history of formation of higher and secondary education institutions in Karakalpakistan.  It also contains a collection of old manuscripts in the Arabian, the Persian and the Turkic languages.

Berdakh, pseudonym of Berdimurat (son of Kargabai) (1827–1900) was born in a remote village near modern-day Muynak. His father was a poor fisherman and his mother, who gave him the nickname Berdakh, died when he was 10 years old. His father also died while Berdakh was still a child leaving him an orphan. Berdakh studied in a local maktab and at the same time earned a living from sheaparding fellow villagers' cattle.

His brother assisted him to enrol in Karakum madrasah, a Muslim religious school, but in time Berdakh dropped out to study folk poetry and narrative classical masterpieces under a  tutor, Kunkhoja, (1799–1880) who was famous for his folk poetry. Ajinyaz, (1824–1878) another famous poet of that time, also played a significant role in Berdakh's life. For much of his life Berdakh also earned a living playing the dutar and singing at weddings and different festive occasions.

He was the author of lyrical, satirical, and didactic verses, as well as historical poems (The Genealogy, Aidos bii, Amangel’dy, Ernazar bii, and others). In the narrative poem ‘Tsar Samodur’ (The Petty Tyrant Tsar) Berdakh depicted the people’s struggle against a despotic Khan. The poet exalted labour as the basis of life and the source of man’s spiritual wealth. He ardently opposed social oppression and the oppression of women. Before the October Revolution, Berdakh’s works were disseminated by storytellers, poets, and readers.

During Berdakh's lifetime their developed strong national movements among the peoples of the Amu Darya and Aral Sea territory, especially among the Karakalpaks. Karakalpakia became a hotspot of discord within the Khanate of Khiva. The Khiva Khans constantly imposed heavy duties on its people and ruled with a heavy hand. Berdakh wrote not only about social problems of his time but also about the protection of women's rights and dignity. Berdakh influence in his homeland is still strong and his statue has a prominent place outside the Karakalpak Parliament.

WORKS

Tanglamalï shïgharamalarï. Nukus, 1956.

In Russian translation:

lzbrannoe. Nukus, 1958.

REFERENCE

Saghitov, I. Berdaktïng tvorchestvosï. Nukus, 1958.

The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berdakh

Почтовая марка - Нукус

Почтовая марка СССР 1960г. Нукус. Дом советов министров республики.

Ural Airlines flights to Nukus from Moscow

Ural Airlines started its “Moscow-Nukus-Moscow” flights on the 12th September 2012.
It is amongst the six leading Russian air companies and in 2015 over five (5) million air passengers used its services. It currently goes to some 190 destinations. Ural Airlines fleet includes six (6) A-310s, nineteen (19) A-320s and ten (10) A-321s. The flights are operated twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays by an Airbus A320. Departure of the flights are from  Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport.



FLIGHT SCHEDULE (Updated Jan 2016)

Timetable Nukus, Uzbekistan (NCU) to Moscow, Russia - Domodedovo (DME)

Flight	Operational days	Departing Nukus	Arriving Moscow	Duration	Aircraft
U62998	Wednesday	13:50	15:25	3:35	320
U62998	Saturday	16:40	18:15	3:35	320

Timetable

Moscow, Russia - Domodedovo (DME) to Nukus, Uzbekistan (NCU)

Flight	Operational days	Departing Moscow	Arriving Nukus	Duration	Aircraft
U62997	Wednesday	07:20	12:40	3:20	320
U62997	Saturday	10:05	15:30	3:25	320

Besides the Moscow – Nukus flight, Ural Airlines in 2016 offers a number of other air routes to Uzbekistan.

	Ekaterinburg (SVX) - Tashkent (TAS)
	Krasniojarsk (KJA) - Tashkent (TAS)
	Krasnodar (KRR) - Tashkent (TAS)
	Samara (KUF) - Tashkent (TAS)

	Ekaterinburg (SVX) - Namangan (NMA)
	Moscow (DME) - Namangan (NMA)
	Moscow (DME) - Navoi (NVI)

OTHER AIRLINES Important to remember that Gaspromavia Airline (Russia) and Uzbekistan Airways also operate on the Moscow – Nukus route. I recommend that you check with your travel agent which airline offers the best price and service for your needs.

Note: All times given are local to the airport.



Source - http://www.gazeta.uz/
http://www.airlines-inform.ru/
http://www.advantour.com/uzbekistan/flights/ural-airlines/nukus-moscow.htm

 
NUKUS AIRPORT


Photo: Nukus Airport

Nukus is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan. It is the administrative, economic, scientific and cultural centre of the Republic. The tree lined city lies in the Amu darya delta an oasis surrounded on both sides by the desert. It is also the home of the world famous State museum of arts named after I.V. Savitsky which hosts an important collection of works of Russian and Uzbek avant-garde art works and a large ethnological collection. Other interesting places in Nukus are the museum named after the Karakalpak poet Berdakh and the Parliament Buildings as well as the nearby ancient Mizdakhkan's necropolis (20Km from Nukus). 

Biography of Igor Savitsky, Founder of the Karakalpakstan Museum by Marinika Babanazarova

Igor Savitsky - Artist, Collector, Museum Founder - Marinika Babanazarova.

The Savitsky State Art Museum named after Igor Savitsky in Nukus the capital Karakalpakstan contains an astounding 90,000 works including a comprehensive collection of Karakalpak art and ethnographic items and the largest collection of Soviet avant-garde art outside Russia (rivalled only by St. Petersburg’s Russian
Museum).




Russian artists, caught up in the idealism of the early Soviet days, were drawn by the exoticism of Central Asia. They visited the region, some settling there, and painted exuberant works fusing modernism with orientalism. Simultaneously Uzbek and Karakalpak artists were producing remarkable pieces influenced in particular by primitivism.

This frenetic period of modernist experimentation lasted for a decade after the revolution. In 1932-33 Stalin promulgated the decree 'On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organizations' and those artists whose works did not meet the 'radiant future' style of socialist realism found their paintings removed from galleries and were unable to participate in exhibitions and like others out of step with this turbulent era, often subject to repression.

Igor Savitsky was born in Kiev in 1915. He first came to Central Asia as a student during World War II, when the Institute in which he was studying was evacuated to Samarkand. In 1950 he went to Karakalpakstan as the artist on the Khorezm Archeological and Ethnographic Expedition, and, fascinated by the culture and people of the steppe, he stayed on after the expedition finished in 1957.

He took the opportunity to explore the region and started collecting Karakalpak carpets, costumes, jewelry, and other works of art and artifacts. In the early 1960’s he persuaded the local authorities in Nukus that they needed a museum to store and exhibit them and in 1966 he became its first curator.

Savitsky also collected drawings and paintings of artists linked to Central Asia and most famously he began his amazing collection of thousands of works from all over the USSR by avant-garde artists including Alexander Volkov, Ural Tansykbayev and Victor Ufimtsev of the Uzbek school, Kliment Red’ko, Lyubov Popova, Mukhina, Ivan Koudriachov and Robert Falk of the Russian avant-garde movement amongst many others.




















This amazing collection today is regarded by many including UNESCO of being of immense importance to Uzbekistan's cultural heritage.

Marinika Babanazarova has been the museum's director since Savitsky's death in 1984. Her grandfather served as one of the early leaders of the region. Savitsky often visited her family's house in Nukus and later, Tashkent. Her memoir draws upon correspondence, official records, and other documents about the Savitsky family that have become available during the last few years, as well as the recollections of a wide range of people who knew Igor Savitsky personally.

As she states in the foreword to this deeply moving and personal narrative: “I hope this memoir will serve not only as a multifaceted, broad-based portrait of a great man who was my mentor, but also as a tribute to his legacy.”

The book is available at the Nukus museum and also online now through Discovery Books, London. (around A$24 including postage to Australia).

If you are visiting Nukus this book and many other excellent art books, catalogues, poscards and traditional arts and crafts are available at the museum for purchase.

Visiting the museum's website provides a valuable overview of its history and collection before your visit.

See http;//museum.kr.uz/eng

Source : Uzbek journeys - Art and Craft Tours to Uzbekistan and a number of other sites.

More information on the Art movement known as Socialist Realism see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_realism

Weather in Nukus

Metoprog - Excellent Site

Go to Metoprog http://www.meteoprog.uz/ru/weather/Nukus/

or see below on main page for insert Nukus Daily Metrological data in Russian.


Annual Monthly Average Temperature/Rainfall

Savitsky Art Museum Collection - Nukus

“Crimson Autumn” (1931) by Ural Tansykbaev

Two of the iconic pieces from the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky


The Bull (1929), Vladimir Lysenko (1903-1950ies), 141.5 x 109.5 cm. Collection of Nukus Art Museum named after Savitsky, Karakalpakstan,

The Museum hosts one of the biggest collections of Uzbek and Russian avant garde art of the 20th century in the world.

The collection has some 90,000 items, including graphics, paintings and sculptures, as well as thousands of artifacts, textiles and jewelry, ranging from the antiquities of Khorezm’s ancient civilization to these great avante-guard works of the 1920ies and 30ies and those of contemporary Uzbek and Karakalpak artists.

If your coming to Western Uzbekistan to see the magnificent historical and architectural heritage make sure your Itinerary also includes a visit to Nukus the capital of Karakalpakstan and home of this fascinating art museum.

For more information see
http://www.savitskycollection.org

Film Review - The Desert of Forbidden Art (Go to Film Review Desert of Forbidden Art or go to top right hand side of blog). Learn about the history behind how Igor Savitsky and his collegues established this remarkable collection in Nukus.

FLIGHTS TO AND FROM MOSCOW -> NUKUS

Distance between Moscow-Nukus: 2160 km, average flight time is just under 4 hrs.

Uzbekistan Airways fly to and from Moscow Domodedovo (DME) Airport on Mondays  using an  A-320. A high-speed Aeroexpress train travels to and from Paveletsky-Moscow to Domodedovo Airport. Journey time: 40-50 minutes.










The Gazpromavia company of Russia has three flights a week connecting Moscow and Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan. From Moscow Vnukovo (VKO) airport using the new Yak-42. A fast airexpress train goes from Moscow's Kievsky railway station to Vnukovo Airport. Journey time: 35 minutes.



The cost of taking both airlines similar (see agent).



NOTE: Alongside Nukus Airport another good entry point for western Uzbekistan is Urgench Airport (UGC) located 119 Km away.(Note: Ural Airlines and Uzbekistan Airlines also serve on the Urgench - Moscow route)

Nukus City

Nukus is the capital of the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic (Qoraqalpoghiston) located in Western Uzbekistan near the head of the Amu Darya (river) delta, west of the Kyzyl Kum desert, in the Khorezm oasis some 1,255 km west of the nation’s capital, Tashkent. It is a beautiful modern city, the centre of economical and cultural life of the republic. Flying into Nukus it is striking how the huge expanse of endless desert plains suddenly changes into irrigated fields, growing quickly into an ever denser carpet of green contrasting the grey and barren surroundings. The population is approx. 271,400 (2010 estimate).

Many centuries ago the ancient city Shurcha was located in what is now the north-western part of Nukus (not far from our house). According to historians, the town was one of the defensive fortresses, protecting the border of the ancient state of Khorezm and allow the control of the Amu Darya waterway. At the end of the 19th century, when Russia incorporated the Khiva Khanate, Petro-Aleksandrovsk (Turtkul) became the centre of the Amu Darya division. The first records about the modern city are dated from the second half of the 19th century. At that period of time it was a little (aul) village made up by rows of yurts surrounded by high clay wall.

It had been decided to build a large military fort on the site of village, which was completed in 1874. (Note: Armin Vamberi the great orientalist an historian  from Hungary, who travelled through the country in 1883, in his accounts of the trip mentioned the fort of Nukus located on the banks of the Amudarya). Soon the population of the fortress, mostly consisted of Kazakhs, began to grow and hospitals, schools and administrative buildings were built around the fortress.

When the Soviet authority came to power, Turtkul stayed the administrative centre of the Karakalpak autonomous region. But in the 20ies the threat that the Amu Darya would erode Turtkul town area caused the move of the capital to Nukus. The once tiny Nukus settlement by 1932 had achieved the status of a city, while in 1939 it replaced Turtkul as the capital of the Kara-Kalpak A.S.S.R. (now Qoragalpoghiston). Today, in spite of the fact that the sands of Kyzylkum desert approach closely the city walls, the streets and avenues of Nukus are buried in verdure, the squares are decorated with flowerbeds. Today it is the economic, administrative, political and cultural centre of Karakalpakstan. The city is decorated with modern buildings, boulevards, public gardens and parks.  The present city has a number of food-processing and other light industries, the Qoragalpoghiston branch of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, Nukus State University, two museums, and a theatre.

The famous Art Museum of Karakalpakstan named after Savitsky is located in the city. Its unique collection of Avante Guarde paintings by Russian and Uzbek artists attracts and amazes visitors from around the world. Besides the museum Nukus and the surrounding area has many unique archaeological, historical and cultural monuments. Near Nukus, on the outskirts of Khodjeyli town there lies the ancient necropolis Mizdahkan. Locals believe that it contains  the tomb of Adam or Gayomarda (Gayamaretana) the first man according to Zoroastrian mythology.

Source:
http://www.sairamtourism.com/en/uzbekistan/city/nukus

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/422217/Nukus
http://www.advantour.com/uzbekistan/nukus.htm