Monday, October 31, 2016

Kashar - China

The Silk Road or Silk Route was an ancient network of trade routes that for centuries were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the East and West from China to the Mediterranean Sea. In June 2014 UNESCO designated the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site. 
Kashgar, an oasis city in Xinjiang, is the westernmost Chinese city. Located near the border with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it served as a trading post and was a strategically important city on the Silk Road between China, the Middle East, and Europe.
This card with Afaq Khoja Mausoleum was sent by Danise.

Aba Khoja Mausoleum is the holiest Muslim site in Xinjiang. 
The mazar (mausoleum) was initially built in ca. 1640 as the tomb of Muhammad Yūsuf, a Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi master who had come to the Altishahr region (present-day southern Xinjiang) in the early 17th century, and possibly was also active in spreading Sufism in China proper. Later, Muhammad Yūsuf's more famous son and successor, Afāq Khoja, was buried there as well. All told, the beautiful tiled mausoleum contains the tombs of five generations of the Afāqi family, providing resting places for 72 of its members. - in: wikipedia

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