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18:09

Depressing radioactive Soviet mining town 🇰🇬

32:13

Absurd day in Kyrgyz nomad highlands 🇰🇬

46:47

Tower of Death on the Silk Road 🇺🇿

19:51

The Land That Lost the Sea 🇺🇿

22:31

Solo in a remote Tajik village | Life in the mountains 🇹🇯

32:38

Brutal 16hr drive along the Afghan-Tajik border | Pamir Highway [day 1] 🇹🇯

The Pamir Highway is one of the world’s most epic roads. It was built at the end of the 19th century by the Russians to allow them to monitor their empire’s remote southern border, and it stretches over a 1000km from Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, to Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city. The intrepid traveler must endure many hardships to traverse its full length, but the Pamirs will reward his labour generously. Join me for the first day of one of the world’s great road trips.
Instagram: joemorgan1
00:00 Negotiations
02:18 Low mentality
06:19 The road to Kulob
07:22 Graveyard of empires
09:20 A civilisation divided
12:50 Nightfall on the Panj
14:25 The capital of the Pamirs

Відео

18:09

How (NOT) to travel Central Asia 🇰🇬🇹🇯

Переглядів 1,8 тис.6 місяців тому

Our adventure starts before dawn with an escape from the irradiated Soviet mining town of Min-Kush. Leaving the roentgens behind, we soon find ourselves back in the Kyrgyz heartlands and ahead of us lies a long and winding road to be travelled with the kindness of the Kyrgyz people, a sacred mountain and a brush with fate. Join me on a perilous quest across Central Asia. Instagram: instagram.co...

Depressing radioactive Soviet mining town 🇰🇬

32:13

Depressing radioactive Soviet mining town 🇰🇬

Переглядів 19 тис.7 місяців тому

At the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were both producing nuclear warheads at rates never seen before or since. Both countries bristled with tens of thousands of missiles, and they were willing to use them. In the USSR’s case, research, uranium enrichment and warhead assembly took place in Russia, but the bottom of the supply chain - uranium extraction - was cent...

46:47

Absurd day in Kyrgyz nomad highlands 🇰🇬

Переглядів 1,1 тис.8 місяців тому

Welcome to Kyrgyzstan. Although the Kyrgyz people were largely settled into a life of collectivised agriculture by the Soviet Union, some still lead a traditional nomad life. After a hard winter in the lowland plains, these families bring their animals up into lush mountain pastures, or “jailoos”, at the first budding of spring. Kyrgyz nomadic life is built around horseflesh and this relationsh...

19:51

Tower of Death on the Silk Road 🇺🇿

Переглядів 1 тис.9 місяців тому

Ancient Persian influence in modern Central Asia is visible not only in its culture and language, but also in its landscape. By the Oxus river, atop a dusty hillock in a windswept desert lies one of the earliest known examples of a dakhma, or a tower of silence. These towers play an essential, if somewhat macabre, role in the disposal of bodies in the Zoroastrian tradition. Once commonplace thr...

22:31

The Land That Lost the Sea 🇺🇿

Переглядів 1,4 тис.Рік тому

“If you’re attracted to desolation, you’ll love the Republic of Karakalpakstan,” says the Lonely Planet’s guidebook for Central Asia. No further invitation is needed. Join me on a quest to the town of Muynak to discover the tragic history of the land of the black hat, the Stan within a Stan, a place which most people have never heard of, the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan. Artwork (in or...

Solo in a remote Tajik village | Life in the mountains 🇹🇯

32:38

Solo in a remote Tajik village | Life in the mountains 🇹🇯

Переглядів 2,7 тис.Рік тому

On a brilliant blue November morning begins the second day of our Zerafshan valley adventure, in which we explore the remote mountain village of Veshab. Compared with the tribulations of the first day, it feels like an oasis of calm and simplicity. Here we have the pleasure to meet some extremely generous and curious Veshabites and we explore the supposed tomb of Rumi’s muse and spiritual guide...

Stranded on a mountain road in Tajikistan 🇹🇯

38:02

Stranded on a mountain road in Tajikistan 🇹🇯

Переглядів 1,6 тис.Рік тому

Girded by dramatic mountain ranges and having more in common culturally with the Persian civilisations of Greater Iran than the Turkic nomads of the steppe, no part of the former Soviet Union, nor any region of Central Asia, holds the same enigmatic appeal as Tajikistan. Many of the great Persian dynasties ruled over the modern territory of Tajikistan and the people there speak a dialect of Per...

Dodging military checkpoints with Azeri hound 🇦🇿

13:17

Dodging military checkpoints with Azeri hound 🇦🇿

Переглядів 1 тис.Рік тому

They call Azerbaijan “the land of fire.” The Absheron peninsula is dotted with natural eternal flames which are fed by the rich gas deposits that lie beneath the earth. Nowadays the term is more a matter of political sloganeering, but the fires must have had a special significance for the ancients, particularly during the time of Zoroastrianism, which regards fire as sacred. The Atashgah of Bak...

32:01

The village at the end of the world 🇦🇿

Переглядів 7 тис.2 роки тому

Follow the stony steel-grey Qudyalchay river upstream out of drab Quba and into the mountains. The buildings become sparser and the mountains loom higher. This was a dirt track until it was sealed for a presidential visit in 2006. Follow it until the road runs out. There lies the village of Khinalug and the speakers of its eponymous language isolate. The colossal glowing south wall of Mount Sha...

27:32

In the Hall of the Mountain Jews 🇦🇿

Переглядів 10 тис.2 роки тому

The Jewish people used to live across the islamic world. They lived in Turkey, North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, Iraq, Persia, the Arab states of the Middle East and even as far afield as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although Islam traditionally grants Jews freedom of religion as “people of the book”, over the centuries, many rulers of the Islamic world have sought to persecute them. The Jews w...

Avoid this abandoned castle in Azerbaijan! 🇦🇿

20:20

Avoid this abandoned castle in Azerbaijan! 🇦🇿

Переглядів 1,9 тис.2 роки тому

Baku is the jewel of the Caspian. It is a sparkling, modern metropolis - steel, glass and marble stretching upwards. It has also in recent years hosted a number of international events such as the Eurovision Song Contest and the Champions League final. The shorefront is decorated with new ultra-modernist developments such as the multipurpose Heydar Aliev Center and the three Flaming Towers, who...

17:12

One day in Chechnya 🇷🇺

Переглядів 4,3 тис.2 роки тому

*Filmed prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine* The Russian Federation comprises 87 federal subjects, of which 21 are known as “republics. Adygea and Dagestan are two such republics which we have visited together on this journey. Generally, these regions are dominated by non-Russian ethnic groups, and the title of “republic” supposedly accords them a greater degree of autonomy. In the 90s, th...

31:26

I met Russia's second Stalin 🇷🇺

Переглядів 1,6 тис.2 роки тому

*Filmed prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine* Russian history contains two great leaders to which all others aspire: Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin. It is difficult to imagine a figure whose legacy more sharply divides Western and Russian civilisations. While deeply reviled in the West for his murder of thousands of opponents and dissidents, a genocidal man-made famine in Ukraine and mas...

24:56

Soviet market hunt 🇷🇺

Переглядів 1 тис.2 роки тому

*Filmed prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine* When the locals of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, need to pick up some articles for the house, they head down to the vast central market, whose labyrinthine patchwork of stalls and frontages hold just about anything a Dagestani could desire. Join me as we work our way through a small shopping list and meet some of the hardworking men and women...