Bolgar

Bolgar town lies on the shore of Volga river. It contains the evidence of a medieval city.

An early settlement of Volga-Bolgars existed between 7th - 15th centuries, AD.

It was the first capital of the Golden Horde in 13th century.

The big minaret.

Bolgar represents the historical cultural exchanges and transformations of Eurasia.

Khans tomb.

Khans tombs and tombstones. 

The white chamber and below is the bath.

The black chamber from the inside.

The small minaret.

Another excavation on the process.

If you click to enlarge, you'll see the black line. It was a line on the ground which tells that the whole city was burned down during the invasion of Mongols. Each later on the ground tells different times of whose occupation. That is according to what materials were laid to make houses. 

The minaret and crosses.

The place continue to be the most popular destination for Muslim pilgrims. At the same time, a church is located just beside the mosque. The church is a Russian Orthodox one. People in this small town go yo the same area to pray. They just enter different doors. 

I have read the entire history of Volga-Bolgars and it is impossible to retell in one sitting. It is very interesting to know how the east and the west were interconnected at those times. How Mongols achieved such a period in history. Life in this part of the world was quite impressive as the turn of events were pretty rich in culture & now history.

I'm adding some link which you may read if you find it interesting to dig deeper down this historical town.

Bolgar History

Mongol Invasion of Volga-Bolgaria

Linking with:

Skywatch Friday

Scenic Weekends

Inspired Sunday

Sailing on Volga River 2

The boat ride was 2 hours so here I have more pictures to show you.

Do you know that if on land there are bus stops, on the river there was a"boat stop".

At first I thought we were already docking but I was looking and I couldn't see the land. We stopped and some passengers got off the boat and few got in. So it is a stop where you can wait for another boat/hydrofoil which goes to a different destination. It was very interesting for me because I haven't witnessed such thing before. Say it was like "a connecting flight".

Here is another. It's a boat transfer. I don't know how exactly things work, whether it is regular or not, if captains communicate or what but anyway, here's  what I saw at least. Two or three of our passengers transferred to another boat going to a different direction. This is another, after the boat stop. Boat transfer-funny eh?

Meanwhile inside our boat. Some people were judt chatting, others sleeping. I think it was only me who kept on making pictures, which obviously underlined that I was the only foreigner/tourist in the group.

 At this point, I was already standing trying to stretch my legs out. Our captain seem to be doing ok, he's awake and alert.

The beautiful nature on the shore continues.

The farther we drifted, the more there was a feeling of being on a vast river. It felt huge somewhere in the middle. I couldn't see the shore. The sizes of barges and boats were bigger ships were seen from afar.

There were some more interesting "road signs". I don't know how they should be called, "river signs"?

Later there were no more dachas (summer resthouses) but villages or small town.

This one's a small town, I'm sorry that it's  quite far but if you try to click the picture, you may see it a bit closer. I don't know if you can see the green dome - that's a church. I can't  really identify what the other buildings are. 

And here are Orthodox church and mosque.

A bigger town.

We weren't  heading there.

We were heading to a much smaller town - a very interesting...historical town. That will be in my next post.

Linking with:

Scenic Weekends

Sailing on Volga River

I'm going to take you to the countrysides but before that, you're  going to hace a ride with me at the Volga river.

This is a hydrofoil and below is the one I took.

It's nice to see the land from afar and get a picture of how it looks like.

Here, is a small barge and behind it are dachas, not very far from the city area. It's more like suburban dachas.

Somewhere farther is a small port and behind are dachas...

more dachas here.

"Dachnikii" -they are reffered to people who stay in dachas every summer. Like I mentioned in my previous post, swimming is one if the favorite pastimes in dacha.

Beautiful river cliffs...

where fishermen below found themselves a hideout.

Somebody's huge poperty.

I don't want to overload you with pictures so I am going to continue next post.

Linking with:

Our World Tuesday