Hello! In his last essay I announced a speleotour to the Peshagor cave - so to speak, I moved from the snowy kingdom to the underground kingdom. Although, technically, the cave is above the ground, inside the mountain.
I heard about this location several times, but I just couldn't get to it. And finally, the tour announcement appeared. I signed up immediately, of course. The announcement indicated that we would have to squeeze through a hole with a diameter of 1x1.5 m, and this moment confused me a little. Immediately in my head there were scenes from a cartoon about Winnie-the-Pooh and small rabbit holes as well as about teddy bears who eat too much. Looking ahead, I will say that no one is stuck :).
So, the Peshagor (or Boshpeshagor) cave is located in the Jizzakh region, almost three hundred kilometers from Tashkent. What does it mean? That's right, this means that we had to leave early in the morning. We drove out after dark and met a beautiful sunrise only near Jizzakh. For the third year I have been travelling with "Mysterious Uzbekistan" and have met many sunrises and, it seems, should already get used to them, but every time I am amazed at their beauty. Every time the sky turns pink and orange, I feel joy, elation and a surge of strength.
The organizers promised sunny and warm weather. But when we arrived at the unloading point, the sky was covered with dark clouds without a hint of the sun. And the wind blew cold and piercing.
But as soon as we went a little deeper into the gorge, the wind became warm and even stuffy. But in some places there was still melted snow.
We walked along the rolled track for about 3 or 3.5 kilometers, slowly and smoothly climbing up. After last weeks’ half marathons and snow ascents, it was a bit unusual to just follow a good road :).
Peshagor is translated as "the vestibule or entrance to the cave". In fact, the cave itself is called Boshpeshagor (can be translated as "the main entrance to the cave"). But, everyone simply calls the cave Peshagor, although Peshagor (or Pshagor) is the name of a nearby village.
As I mentioned in previous posts, in Uzbekistan any unusual place very often associates with some saint. Same story in this case - the place is considered holy and attracts many pilgrims. Between the village and the gorge is the grave of the local saint - the Sufi Sheikh of the Naqshbandiyya order Maulan Muhammad (Seroba) Peshagoriy (XIII-XIV centuries). Due to the climatic features of Uzbekistan, many saints are somehow connected with water or springs. There is a spring here, according to legend, created by these saints, who received one of his names for this - Serob, which means "abundant" or "fruitful".
The path to the cave is quite easy. The entrance to it rises about 30-40 meters above the ground and before people were forced to climb there along a crumbling path, but about fifteen years ago, steps were made here and the ascent became quite simple. By the way, I heard the story that when these steps were being made, a bunch of scorpions came out from somewhere, but the prayers of the local imam did their job and the scorpions retreated. Fortunately, during my visit to the cave, I didn't know anything about scorpions :).
A vertical manhole leads into the cave (that 1x1.5m hole where I was afraid to get stuck). I was not stuck there, but I was thoroughly smeared in dust and dirt. In general, one had to walk very carefully - as everywhere there were stones covered with slippery clay and water dripping from the ceiling.
The crawlway leads to the first hall of the cave. It is relatively small and I would call it rather a corridor to the central, huge hall.
The first hall is inhabited by bats and the walls are strewn with strange fluorescent streaks with teardrop-shaped ends – they looks like micro-stalactites. It is a pity that they could not be photographed in the light of the lanterns ...
Of course, at the sight of bats, jokes about a new wave of COVID-19 and the emergence of an "Uzbek" strain of the virus rained down. There is so called “Chinese”, “Italian” strain, “Brazilian”, “British” - why are Uzbeks worse? We warned each other not to eat bats :). Well, new COVID-era creates a lot of jokes about COVID… But we shouldn't be afraid, because on the way back we planned to stop by a local cafe and eat the famous Jizzakh samsa - huge as a pie, with a lot of meat!
From the first hall we got into a huge central hall, 10 m wide and 250 m long - it could easily accommodate a five-story building!
Peshagor is one of the largest and longest caves in Uzbekistan with a large number of halls. At this moment, three of them are available, further the path is blocked by a metal grill, which was installed for security purposes. According to local residents, through the labyrinth is possible to go to the Tamerlane Gate - a famous rocky passage on the way between Jizzakh and Samarkand cities.
According to legend, when the beforementioned saint prayed in caves, his prayers were heard even in Mecca itself.
But not only bats and saints have chosen the local cave. Ancient people once lived here. In the cave, numerous traces of their vital activity were found - rock paintings, vessels, household items, burials and bones, dating back to the IV century BC. The walls and dome of the central hall are covered with soot. I did not see ancient rock paintings, but at the entrance to the cave there are abundant more modern love "equations" like "A + B = love".
We spent about two hours in the cave and it was time to return. We went down carefully. No matter how hard I tried, I was all covered in mud. It's good that the organizers warned me and I brought a change of clothes with me.
We walked downstairs in anticipation of dinner. The sun, promised by the organizers continued to hide behind the clouds. Moreover, a light rain began to drizzle.
Already near the minibus, dressing in clean clothes, I saw a whole colony of "ladybirds". Wow, they already awake ... It means I can continue my tradition – to make a photo of “ladybirds” in each of my trips.
When we drove away from the cave, the long-awaited sun finally appeared from behind the clouds ...
This was the last trip in January. There is slush in the mountains now and we need to wait a bit until the earth dries up. So now I am in the waiting mode for new and interesting trips ...
!pinmapple 39.898848 lat 68.101141 long Journey into the depths of the earth or speleotour to Peshagor cave, Jizzakh region, Uzbekistan d3scr