TOMB OF SCHOLAR AL-BIRUNI

The Biruni Bridge leads to the eponymous town, 15 kilometres north-east of Urgentch, and is named after the encyclopaedist Al-Biruni (973-1050), who was born there. Few drivers know this, but you can go and see his tomb on the right a little after crossing the bridge, a stone's throw from the ruins of Xat Kala. The body of the great Muslim scholar who, 600 years before Galileo, claimed that the earth could only be spherical in shape, lies in the shelter of a small octagonal mausoleum.