Osh is built around a large hill called Solomon's mountain. It's named after King Solomon, of Biblical (and Q'uranic) fame. According to tradition, Solomon came to this mountain and prayed. There is a small mosque built on the top of the hill, where there are five impressions in the rock (supposed to be the imprints of Solomon's knees, hands, and forehead). The impressions are actually probably the remenants of a Zoroastrian shrine. Zoroastrianism used to be very strong in Kyrgyzstan.
There are all kinds of smaller shrine sites on the mountains--caves where you can get blessings (very small and hard to crawl into, but the rock is absolutely smooth from centuries of people crawling in), smooth rocks that you are supposed to slide down in order to be healed. It was very interesting, especially to see the different perspectives of the people who came. Some people said that the rock had healing powers, and that is why you can get healed. A much more conservative Muslim who I talked to (a Tatar from NovoSibirsk, Russia), said that was actually a false beleif. He said Allah heals the people if they believe. He just used the rock as an instrument.
All in all, this trip has taught me that I need to learn the Q'uran better. It comes up a lot in conversations and I've only read excerpts from it. The pilgrims were all very nice. The guy who told me about the rock actually let me join his family in prayer. He was very religious. His grandfather was an Imam during Soviet times, and he has gone through quite a bit of religious training himself. His religious and political views are probably what one would describe as fundamentalist. His family was very nice too.
