How my love affair with history took me on a wild trip to the Central Asian lands

Numerous universal travel organizations promote visits to The Stans. Typically it is to 'The Five - stans', in particular, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all situated in what is called Central Asia.

This area, which involved various abandoned, quarreling khanates and emirates at the time, was vanquished by Tsarist Russia and added to the Russian domain in the second 50% of the nineteenth century. All things considered, each of the five turned into a piece of the Soviet Union (USSR) and remained so until the point that it became bankrupt in 1991.

Contingent upon time and cost factors, a few visits go for less than the five Stans, or consolidate them with Iran (toward the south) and additionally Xinjiang (toward the east). Xinjiang, the western-most region of China, was truly known as Eastern Turkestan.

A few explorers stretch out their visit to incorporate Azerbaijan, toward the west of the Stans, over the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan has about everything in the same manner as the five Stans, aside from the postfix 'stan'.

On the off chance that there is any rationale to the postfix 'stan', at that point Azerbaijan ought to have been named Azeristan. Turkey ought to be Turkestan, being on the western furthest point of the Turkic-talking lands. One may even contend that Iran should be Iranistan, for 'stan' is a piece of the Persian vocabulary more than of some other.

Astana Skyline, Kazakhstan. - All photographs by creator