A day trip to Merv

A full day without the group—the two of us and Jack took off on another internal flight. This one was much less traumatic without baggage and only 50 minutes of flying time.
For three tourists, we were overloaded with guides—from the tour director in Ashkabad who drove us to the airport to our guide who got us on the plane to the local guide who met us in Merv to the local museum with another guide. The museum Deputy Director took us on a personal tour through the museum. It was wonderfully done and she was an enthusiastic guide. They have a Zoroastrian center—focused on Margush, a 2nd millenium BC town. We also bought two old Turkoman photos from her and she gave us a fertility/prosperity figurine.
Local tradition = tying a cloth in the shape of a cradle to a tree to help conceive a child

Then onto Merv (Mary) scattered over hundreds of acres of desert lie the remains of the walls and ramparts of old Merv, the ‘pearl of the East’, second city of Islam after Baghdad between the 8th to 13th Centuries. It was also site of one of the most horrific slaughters in all of the Mongols’ rampages. Genghis Khans’ son Toloi arrived in January 1221 and spent 6 days preparing to besiege the city with catapults and battering rams. On the 7th day, Merv’s governor surrendered on the understanding that his people would be spared. As they evacuated the city, they were all slain. Each Mongol soldier had orders to behead between 300-400 inhabitants. Almost 1 million died in the initial massacre. Then the buildings were destroyed and Toloi’s army withdrew. Just when the survivors thought it safe to return, the Mongols trapped them in their ruined city and butchered them, too.
A writer in 1990 wrote,
“As I gazed across the barren brown plain of the Turkmen, it seemed to me that pictures of Hiroshima after the atom bomb did not more clearly illustrate what happens when a place is razed to the ground”.

Note: They cut the ears and tails off their dogs so they can stave off wolves.