Uzbekistan: History & Culture

Morning arrival in Tashkent, breakfast at the hotel and a visit to Khast Imam Square, the spiritual centre of the city, whose library keeps the 7th-century Othman Quran. We continue to the blue-domed Chorsu bazaar. After check-in and rest: the Earthquake Memorial, Independence Square, the Romanov Palace, the Navoi Opera House and Amir Timur Square. Optional ride on the decorated Tashkent metro.

Morning flight to Urgench and a short drive to Khiva. Inside the walls of Ichan Kala (UNESCO) we visit the Kunya Ark fortress, the turquoise Kalta Minor, the Juma Mosque with its 213 wooden columns and the tallest minaret of Islam Khodja. In the afternoon the harem of Tash Khauli Palace, the Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum and the Alla Kuli Khan caravanserai. Dinner with a folk show.

Today we follow the ancient caravan road from Khiva to Bukhara — about six hours across the Kyzylkum, the “Red Sands” desert. Leaving the walls of Khiva behind, the landscape opens into endless dunes, saxaul bushes and the wide valley of the Amu Darya river, where caravans once carried silk, spices and silver between China and the Mediterranean. A stop for lunch at a roadside chaikhana, and arrival in Bukhara in the late afternoon, with free time to stroll around the illuminated Lyabi Hauz pool.

A full day in Central Asia’s most ancient living city: the Ismail Samani Mausoleum, Chashma Ayub, the Bolo Hauz Mosque, the Ark citadel, the Poi Kalon ensemble with the Kalon minaret and Miri Arab madrasah, Lyabi Hauz and Chor Minor. In the domed bazaars we visit five workshops — knives, puppets, suzani embroidery, copper and hand-woven ikat — and end in the old Jewish Quarter.

We visit the Bahauddin Naqshband complex, shrine of the founder of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, and Sitorai Mokhi Khosa, the summer palace of the last emirs. On the road to Samarkand (about four hours) we stop in Gijduvan, at the workshop of the Nasrullayev family, potters for six generations.

The Registan — the madrasahs of Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor with its lions and suns, and the gilded Tilya-Kori — then the vast Bibi-Khanym Mosque. After lunch the avenue of tiled mausoleums of Shah-i-Zinda, and in the evening the azure dome of Gur-e-Amir, the tomb of Timur and his descendants.

A last morning in Samarkand. The 15th-century Observatory of Ulugh Beg, the astronomer-king, preserves part of a gigantic meridian arc with which he catalogued over a thousand stars. We visit the Mausoleum of St Daniel, revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews, and the village of Konigil, where paper is still made from mulberry bark as in the Middle Ages. At the colourful Siab bazaar there is time to buy dried fruit, nuts, spices and Samarkand bread. In the afternoon the high-speed Afrosiyob train takes us back to Tashkent in about two hours.

After breakfast transfer to Tashkent airport for your flight home. With a later flight there is time for a last walk — the Amir Timur Square, the Chorsu bazaar for spices and souvenirs, or a ride on the beautifully decorated Tashkent metro. On request we can extend the trip with a day in the Tian Shan mountains at Amirsoy and Charvak, or with the Fergana Valley.