2023-05-10 20:09:59
Ana Friday afternoon we walk down Khudjumskaya Street in the old town of Samarkand. The heat has subsided a little, the sun is shining on the tin roofs of the mud-plastered houses. Because the walls radiate the heat stored during the day, the alleys resemble an oven. Here in the old town, the buildings facing the street have no windows because life takes place in the inner courtyard. Only in the evening will Khudjumskaya Street wake up from its lethargy, when there will be a great bustle: boys will chase an almost airless plastic football, girls will curve around on bicycles, and on carpeted bed tables men will stretch out on all fours and chew pistachios or play chess. Women with headscarves will spread shawls on the ground and sell what is growing in their fields outside the city: grapes, white and blue figs, melons and pumpkins. But now in the afternoon, the Mahalla Wostok, the former Jewish quarter, seems deserted.
Largest Jewish stronghold
Except for the man with a stubbly gray beard and a peaked cap covering his head, he is standing in front of the synagogue. On the facade of the church, brown and green tiles form a Star of David and a seven-branched candlestick, symbols of the people of Israel. The man bends over a bucket filled with water and squirts it onto the dusty floor in front of the entrance. Shabbat, the Jewish holy day of the week, begins in the evening. Then the pious will come to the synagogue to pray and read the Torah. Jessew Tinjajew, that’s the man’s name, seems surprised when we speak to him. The sixty-eight-year-old is the keeper of the Gumbaz synagogue – he apparently rarely gets visitors.
#trip #Samarkand