Domed Adobe Buildings with Crumbling Mosque in Background

1905
Shown here is a group of small adobe shrines at the mazar (mausoleum) of Ahmed Zamcha, located among the ruins of the fabled city of Merv (on the Murghab River in the Mary region of Turkmenistan). Settled in the third millennium BC, Merv was taken by the Arabs in 651 and became a staging point for Arab conquests in Central Asia. Merv reached its zenith under the Seljuks in the late 11th and 12th centuries, when it was one of the world’s largest cities and a major point on the Silk Road. Destroyed by the Mongols in 1221, Merv never regained its former importance. In the background is the domed ruin of the great Mausoleum of Sultan Sandjara. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. Prokudin-Gorskii was particularly interested in architectural and archeological monuments in recently acquired territories of the Russian Empire such as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states) in Central Asia, which he visited on a number of occasions, including two trips in 1911.

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Filename: 6542.jpg
Copyright: acku Afghanistan
Image Size: 1800x1726 / 528.4KB; 1905 Turkmenistan Mary Domes Adobe Buildings Mosques Ruins Shrines Mausoleum Photo WDL 010581
Contained in galleries: TURKMENISTAN

1905<br />
Shown here is a group of small adobe shrines at the mazar (mausoleum) of Ahmed Zamcha, located among the ruins of the fabled city of Merv (on the Murghab River in the Mary region of Turkmenistan). Settled in the third millennium BC, Merv was taken by the Arabs in 651 and became a staging point for Arab conquests in Central Asia. Merv reached its zenith under the Seljuks in the late 11th and 12th centuries, when it was one of the world’s largest cities and a major point on the Silk Road. Destroyed by the Mongols in 1221, Merv never regained its former importance. In the background is the domed ruin of the great Mausoleum of Sultan Sandjara. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. Prokudin-Gorskii was particularly interested in architectural and archeological monuments in recently acquired territories of the Russian Empire such as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states) in Central Asia, which he visited on a number of occasions, including two trips in 1911.