In Western Uzbekistan, a Rich Design Heritage is the Foundation of the Future

"On a cold march morning in the Qizilqum, or Red Desert, of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in the far west of Uzbekistan, I woke in darkness to watch the sun rise. It peeked over the horizon just as I was clambering up the sprawling central enclosure of Ayaz Kala 3, an 1,800-year-old mud-brick citadel near the textile-wrapped yurt where I'd spent the night, staining the bastions and battlements a dazzling cadmium red."

"In the distance irrigation canals cut like razors through the sandy soil. To the south the fluted ramparts of the second fortress in the Ayaz Kala complex ringed a lower bluff. A hard, cold wind blasted in across the desert, sweeping over the salt flat that once protected the armies of the Khorezmian civilization, which flourished along the banks of the Amu Darya river beginning in the third century BCE, from the attacks of nomadic raiders."

"I'd come to this remote corner of Central Asia to attend the Aral Culture Summit, a conference in the Karakalpak capital of Nukus that was organized by the Uzbekistan Arts & Culture Development Foundation, or ACDF. There, architects, agronomists, artists, and anthropologists spoke about ways of reviving the desiccated landscape. Since the 1960s the Aral Sea, once the region's lifeblood, has lost 90 percent of its water-the result of ill-planned Soviet irrigation projects."

A traveler wakes at dawn atop Ayaz Kala 3 and watches mud-brick battlements glow cadmium red while a cold wind strips the desert soil. Irrigation canals cut through sandy land as fluted ramparts and a protective salt flat recall the Khorezmian civilization. The Aral Culture Summit in Nukus convenes architects, agronomists, artists, and anthropologists under the Uzbekistan Arts & Culture Development Foundation to explore revival strategies. The Aral Sea has lost roughly 90 percent of its water since the 1960s due to poorly planned Soviet irrigation projects. Visitors frequently tour the Moynaq ship graveyard and remaining shoreline remnants.

Read at Conde Nast Traveler