SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan — Samarkand. The name evokes mystery and romance. Eastern writers long ago described this oasis city, set in the midst of the deserts and mountains of Central Asia, as the Mirror of the World, the Garden of the Blessed, the Fourth Paradise.
Until recently, few outsiders visited Samarkand, isolated as it was in the depths of the Soviet Union's Central Asian empire.
Today, parties of foreign tourists stroll around the "Mirror of the World" admiring the turquoise domes and blue-tiled mosques and minarets, and gaze on a sight once reserved for a few rare and intrepid wanderers--the distant prospect of the great turquoise dome and crumbling archway of the Bibi Khanum mosque and the glittering minarets of the Registan.
As Central Asia emerges from its long isolation, however, that scene may change. It is becoming clear that hundreds of ancient buildings in Samarkand and the other historic caravan cities of Bukhara and Khiva are under threat both from natural deterioration and from heavy-handed Soviet-era restoration.
The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization issued a status report on the region that presages a UNESCO program to help Uzbekistan look after its three historic cities, with their wealth of ancient architecture. The report is highly critical of some of the restoration work already under way.
Samarkand is no stranger to restoration. When Russia captured the city in 1868, the great mosques and madrassas were already crumbling, assisted by tremors that often shake the area. Their decline continued until the Soviet government began restoring or rebuilding some ancient buildings, particularly during the 1960s and '70s.
Soviet restoration re-created the beauty of some of this architecture, but closer inspection shows its limitations. Much of the decorative tile work has been replaced at various times.
"You can tell the difference between original tile work and the newer tiles because the color of the old tiles is better," a local guide said, pointing out the darker, richer hues of some of the old tiles, which have not faded like Soviet-period replacements.
Indeed, most of the buildings are showing their considerable age, and it is often difficult to tell which crumbling details are centuries-old and which are crumbling Soviet restorations only three decades old.
