The water wheel
On the river.
LBM1948 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Enric — CC BY-SA 4.0 · LBM1948 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Enric — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Enric — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Enric — CC BY-SA 4.0
A workshop in the village of Konigil on the Siab river where paper is still made by hand the old way, from mulberry bark. «Samarkand paper» was one of the Silk Road's famous goods, nicknamed silk paper for its strength and smooth surface. The brothers Zarif and Islam Mukhtarov revived the lost craft when they opened the workshop in 1996; it is now the only place in Uzbekistan making paper this way, with about twenty craftspeople, per visitor guides. You see every stage: stripping mulberry branches, boiling the bark until soft, pounding it in a large mortar driven by a water wheel on the river, then spreading the pulp thin, drying it and polishing it with a stone. The workshop also makes papier-mâché dolls and other pieces, and sells paper and notebooks. Tickets are about 25,000 som, per visitor guides. The site is shady, under trees by the river, with a small teahouse at the entrance, about 8 km from central Samarkand.
On the river.
Branch to sheet.
Papier-mâché.
Konigil village on the Siab river, east of Samarkand
Mulberry bark, boiled, pounded, spread, dried and polished; every stage can be seen at the Meros workshop in Konigil.