Where history of Uzbekistan is concerned, Baisun in the Surkhandarja region is a living symbol, a territory that has retained in a practically unchanged form the ancient way of life, traditions, crafts, and national ways. Five centuries ago, singers and narrators of the Uzbek tribe of Kongrat composed Alpomysh, the epic poem known to all Turkish peoples from the Volga to Baikal.

Unmatched in loveliness, Baisuntau gorges and slopes stretching from the Pamirs glaciers to the Amudarja banks have been populated since the time immemorial. An ancient site discovered in the cave of Teshik-Tash has been thought the most ancient Neanderthal site in Central Asia until recently.

Baktrija, a Scythian state of Zoroastr followers that belonged to the empire of the Iranian Ahemenides, appeared on the Amudarja banks in the 1st millennium B.C. Alexander the Great conquered it in the 3rd century B.C.

Alexander the Great found a passage through the mountains and moved his armies to Sogdiana, leaving governors in Baktrija. These latter established a dynasty of the Greek-Baktrijan kings who ruled this heart of Asia for the following two hundred years before falling to nomadic tribes from the North.

The Tolkhars or Juechji the Huns had driven from the Baikal region embraced the Baktrijan culture and founded the Kushan empire that spanned the territory from the Aral Sea to India. Unfortunately, outposts in the Baisuntau mountains failed to save it from nomadic raids from the steppes.

Numerous military expeditions passed the Baisuntau mountains in both directions afterwards - horsemen of the Tyurk Kaganat, Arab armies, troops of the Seldjuk Turks, Jenghiz-Khan's hordes, armies of Tamerlan and Bobur. Uzbek nomads led by Khan Sheibani from the Dashti-Kipchak steppes set out to conquer Central Asia in the 16th century.

The Kongrat tribe played a special part in the alliance of the steppes because Jenghiz-Khan's descendants married the daughters of the prominent Kongrat chieftains. The Kongrats seized Khorezm a century before Khan Sheibani's inroad and began spreading into the oases of Bukhara and Shahrisabz, into the Karsha steppes and Surkhandarja (this latter became their realm afterwards). Alpamash epic, however, that goes back to the tales of the Altai peoples, calls the Baisuntau mountains the Kongrats' native area.

As a matter of fact, Baisun is not a location in the epic, it is rather the name of a people. Baisin stands for "straightforward". The epic narrates the story of Alpomysh, the hero who won the wrestling consent to free his fiance Barchin. Alpomysh left the native land soon afterwards and ended up prisoner. He came home seven years later only to find his motherland enslaved by an impostor and usurper, his faithful wife proclaimed a widow and forced to remarry. Alpomysh changed clothes with a shepherd to make it to the wedding feast, challenged the impostor, killed him, and became the king of all Kongrats. A lot of episodes in the epic bear a strong resemblance to Homer's Odyssey while the central character's name resembles that of another hero, Manas.

Ethnographers say that the Baisuntau district is not populated by the Kongrats alone. There are also the tribes of Katagans, Chagatais, Karluks, and Durmens, there are Tajiks and representatives of non-Turkish ethnic groups (Darbandis, Machaiis, Sairobis, Penjabis). Once a strictly clannish structure of the population deteriorated into a mixture of languages and traditions, folk tales, elements of clothing, and so on. All of that eventually became what ethnographers nowadays call the Baisuntau-Kongrat people.

Even the terrain in the area is unique. It definitely leaves the impression of a world out of fairy tales. Nut-tree groves among red and green cliffs give way to pastures. Juniper forests surround sharp peaks. Canyon slopes resembling lunar surface have fields scattered on them here and there...

Located on the slopes of a mountain, the township is surrounded with smaller settlements and fruit-tree gardens. A lot of these settlements were specialized centers before the 20th century and retained their old names - Zargarguzar (jewelers), Kassobguzar (butchers), Charmgarlar (leather tanners), Degrezlar (founders), and so on. The name of the northern outskirt Darband stands for Closed Door or Obstacle since this is a settlement surrounded with a granite barrier.

Houses in Baisun are made of bricks or rocks held together with clay. Their interiors are richly decorated with homemade rugs. Flour is ground in grinders, bread baked in tandyrs (ovens of clay). Traditional accoutrements include the articles mentioned in Alpomysh - the karmaza or red silk of the kerchiefs women wear and the alacha or white cotton cloth with blue stripes used to make trousers for men. Youngsters, however, prefer cheap Chinese garments - just like everywhere else in Uzbekistan.

The valley here remains the only transport corridor directly connecting the Surkhandarja region with the rest of the country. In 2004, Japan loaned $150 million to Uzbekistan for construction of 226 kilometers of a railroad connecting Tashkent and Bukhara with Termez and eventually reaching ports on the Indian Ocean coast via Afghanistan. Official Tokyo apparently intended it for transportation of energy resources, uranium, and other raw materials from Central Asia to Iran and Pakistan. Effectiveness of the project, however, directly depends on the political situation in the region. Uzbekistan stands to benefit in any case. It will end up with a route to its southern region with a fairly undeveloped economy.

Uzbekistan is paying Turkmenistan colossal railroad transit duties every year, and that drain on the budget affects the plans of Surkhandarja region development. Hence the haste with which the government of Uzbekistan is working on the railroad. Railway service between Tashguzar in the Kashadarja region and Dehkanbad near Baisuntau slopes (56 kilometers long) was opened last year, the year of the 14th anniversary of sovereignty. Fifty-nine kilometers of the railroad on the other side of the mountain connected Kumkurgan and Baisuntau. Five stations, seven sidings, and 28 bridges designed by Japanese specialists were built. Five of the latter were built in the mountains. They are unique in all of Eurasia.

Only 20 kilometers of the railroad remain to be built now. The Uzbeks are working in shifts day and night. The first echelon with construction materials made it to Darband in the Baisuntau environs in October 2006. The locals hope that they will soon have a convenient and direct route to the rest of the country.

Builders have another year to complete the construction. What with the enthusiasm that usually intensifies with the coming of a jubilee, it stands to reason to expect the first passenger trains running between Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara on the one hand and Baisun on the other by spring 2008. The ancient region of legends will be more accessible then and may even become a new tourist attraction. Provided modern infrastructure is built, of course. In the meantime, the Baisuntau mountains are still keeping a secret or two...