![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Visiting the Korkyt-Ata Monument...
May. 30th, 2010 09:31 amYesterday was a pretty exhausting day, but little of that expended effort had anything at all to do with launching rockets, at least not directly. It was the first day of upper stage fueling, a process entirely under the control of one of the few Russian military units remaining at Baikonur. Today, propellant loading will continue with oxidizer.
There really is not all that much to do around Baikonur in terms of sightseeing, but one makes do with what is available. Yesterday, a number of French campaigners, along with a small handful of American ones, got on the bus for a trip to a place quite off the beaten path, a monument - some call it a mausoleum, though I do not fully understand why, as there is no actual tomb at the site - to a poet and mystic named Korkyt-Ata.
The structure on the left holds a set of pipes in the air to catch the wind, making the kind of sound one gets when one blows across the mouth of an open soda bottle. I found the sound to be calming, but the wind was not steady, and so in order to hear it well, one had to stand almost directly under the pipes.
The pyramidal structure just to the left of center is exactly that, a pyramid that is sunk into the ground. It is said that, if you descend the stairs to the base of the pyramid, go around the pyramid three times (counterclockwise, looking from above), and then place your hands on the pyramid, anything you wish will be granted.
The round structure in the center of the photo is a sunken amphitheater. The following photo gives a better angle.
The site is apparently of some significance to Moslems, and we were there at the same time as what appeared to be a family group that included an old woman and three people of the right age to be her adult grandchildren (or perhaps children, if the old woman's life had been particularly hard). You can see the group sitting on the pink steps of the amphitheater in the photo above.
The group was at the site to pray, as far as I could see, and the old woman carried a kobyz, an instrument said to have been invented by Korkyt-Ata, which legend says he played so beautifully that he actually kept Death at bay for as long as he played it.
I took a picture of the old woman as she played in the shadow of the wind organ structure, and also of an oversized kobyz that is on display at the site's museum.
The old woman's playing was quite simple, but then again, I have nothing with which to compare it. Campaigners whose Arabic is native said they recognized snippets of Koranic verse in what the woman sang, but when asked later if they spoke Arabic, the family members said that no, they did not, aside from the words in their prayers.
Our visit to the site did not last long, and despite the fact that the solstice is still three weeks away, it was quite hot out. So, our group got on the bus for the ride back to Baikonur, where we dropped off the Kazakhstan border control officer who had accompanied our group to Korkyt in lieu of everyone having to apply for a Kazakhstan visa. Then we continued on into town for a meal at the Palermo Pizzeria.
It's 9:30 am, and I need to go tag up about what may (or may not) be happening today.
Cheers...
UPDATE: It looks like another museum visit for me, to interpret for a VIP. Pretty soon, I ought to be able to narrate an excursion without a guide!
There really is not all that much to do around Baikonur in terms of sightseeing, but one makes do with what is available. Yesterday, a number of French campaigners, along with a small handful of American ones, got on the bus for a trip to a place quite off the beaten path, a monument - some call it a mausoleum, though I do not fully understand why, as there is no actual tomb at the site - to a poet and mystic named Korkyt-Ata.
The structure on the left holds a set of pipes in the air to catch the wind, making the kind of sound one gets when one blows across the mouth of an open soda bottle. I found the sound to be calming, but the wind was not steady, and so in order to hear it well, one had to stand almost directly under the pipes.
The pyramidal structure just to the left of center is exactly that, a pyramid that is sunk into the ground. It is said that, if you descend the stairs to the base of the pyramid, go around the pyramid three times (counterclockwise, looking from above), and then place your hands on the pyramid, anything you wish will be granted.
The round structure in the center of the photo is a sunken amphitheater. The following photo gives a better angle.
The site is apparently of some significance to Moslems, and we were there at the same time as what appeared to be a family group that included an old woman and three people of the right age to be her adult grandchildren (or perhaps children, if the old woman's life had been particularly hard). You can see the group sitting on the pink steps of the amphitheater in the photo above.
The group was at the site to pray, as far as I could see, and the old woman carried a kobyz, an instrument said to have been invented by Korkyt-Ata, which legend says he played so beautifully that he actually kept Death at bay for as long as he played it.
I took a picture of the old woman as she played in the shadow of the wind organ structure, and also of an oversized kobyz that is on display at the site's museum.
The old woman's playing was quite simple, but then again, I have nothing with which to compare it. Campaigners whose Arabic is native said they recognized snippets of Koranic verse in what the woman sang, but when asked later if they spoke Arabic, the family members said that no, they did not, aside from the words in their prayers.
Our visit to the site did not last long, and despite the fact that the solstice is still three weeks away, it was quite hot out. So, our group got on the bus for the ride back to Baikonur, where we dropped off the Kazakhstan border control officer who had accompanied our group to Korkyt in lieu of everyone having to apply for a Kazakhstan visa. Then we continued on into town for a meal at the Palermo Pizzeria.
It's 9:30 am, and I need to go tag up about what may (or may not) be happening today.
Cheers...
UPDATE: It looks like another museum visit for me, to interpret for a VIP. Pretty soon, I ought to be able to narrate an excursion without a guide!
