We've written frequently in the past about challenging travel destinations (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Here, though you wouldn't know it from the photo, is one of the more dangerous, or at least formerly fear-inducing, of them all.
Photo from the New York Times.
At first glance, where do you think this might be, maybe a planned community somewhere in the midwest? Could have been, except that mosque in the distance rules that out. Okay then, modern Muslim country... how about a planned community on the edge of the desert outside of Amman, Jordan? Maybe a development somewhere around the new airport for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
Take a guess, and then after the jump see a "before" picture of the same place.
Photo from Cobb.
Grozny, Chechnya, Russia. The top photo looks too good to be true, doesn't it? It's from a New York Times story last year titled Under the Iron Hand of Russia's Proxy, a Chechen Revival.
*****
We've made it as close to Grozny as the border between Georgia and the Russian Republic of North Ossetia. From there, as the crow flies, it's about 70 miles to Grozny, although the road is longer, because it takes you first to Vladikavkaz, capital of the Republic of North Ossetia.
Our visit was summer before last and we got the idea that Georgia was full of U.S. military advisers. The Army Corps of Engineers was hard at work building the Georgia/Russia border post in the gorge alongside the fast-moving Terek River on the road to North Ossetia, as seen here, in the distance:
Photo from EarthPhotos.com
See more photos from Russia and Georgia on EarthPhotos.com.
This is just sensationalist journalism. I suggest that you compare images of Osetia before and after Georgina attack
Posted by: Moscow travel | 23 October 2008 at 08:25 PM