The Silk Road

After our morning arrival to Tashkent, we drop our luggage at our hotel, the excellent four-star superior Lotte City Palace, and have a spot of breakfast. We continue with our first taste of Uzbekistan with a stop at the Amir Temur Square, overlooked by one of the most iconic buildings of the Soviet era, the Uzbekistan Hotel. Tashkent was hit by a devastating earthquake in the 1960s, so most of the city was rebuilt with more ‘modern’ blocks of apartments and wide, tree-lined avenues, and there’s only a small area left of the old city, which we visit.

In the afternoon we’ll have a guided walk through the Chorsu bazaar, the largest in the country – a perfect introduction to the foods, smells and exotic produce of Uzbekistan.

After breakfast we catch the short flight to the city of Urgench in the far west of the country. On arrival we drive out to the vast plains of the Khorezm desert. This will give us a glimpse into the seemingly never-ending distances and inhospitable country that Silk Road caravans had to cross. The Ayaz Qala is just one of a series of castles that were built to protect these trade routes until they were destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 12th-century.

This morning we explore the amazing living museum that is the UNESCO World Heritage city of Khiva. Fully enclosed by its spectacularly buttressed mud-brick walls, this is the best-preserved of the country’s Silk Road cities, and as soon as you pass through its fortified gates, you’ll really start to understand what it must have been like in its heyday. Surprisingly compact, all the incredible sights are conveniently close together and, since no cars are allowed, it’s the perfect place to walk around. Amongst many of the highlights visited, we’ll see the Khan’s palace, the Tosh-Hovli Palace, and harem, the great, beautifully tiled Kalta minaret, which would have been the highest in the country, had it been completed. Close by is the current holder of that title, the Islam Hodja minaret, which is an incredible 56m tall. Khiva was also infamous for its slave market – many slaves were from Persia but surprisingly from Russia as well. Astoundingly, the trade was only officially abolished after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks finally gained full control over the region.

This afternoon is free to explore at your leisure. Perhaps take a walk around the historic city walls of the old town, Ichon Qala, which date back to the 18th-century. Some of the impressively high mud stone walls, with over a mile of preserved wall nearby the North Gate, where you can take in some memorable views. For a small entry fee, you can access the viewing platform, best visited in the evening for unbelievable sunsets.

Today we have a long drive to the city of Bukhara, a spiritual city with ancient architecture and a grand royal fortress. On the way we’ll cross the fabled River Oxus, which was also crossed by Alexander the Great and his army over 2,000 years ago. On arrival in Bukhara we’ll check into our hotel for the next three nights. One of the first places we’ll see is the Lyab-i Khauz complex, with some of the finest 16th-century buildings in the city constructed around a water reservoir. It’s now surrounded by popular open-air tea houses. 

Larger in scale than Khiva, Bukhara was a richer city and it still shows, with hundreds of fascinating monuments. We’ll have two full days to explore it in depth, with plenty of free time on your own as well. Bukhara was also one of the cities involved in the ‘Great Game’ and is the place where two unfortunate British officers, Stoddart and Connelly, were imprisoned and ultimately executed by the local Emir. We’ll visit the Arc fortress, the Emir’s palace, set high above the city walls, as well as the prison where the officers were held. The most prominent landmark in the city is the Kalyan minaret, with its intricate decorative brickwork, rising 47 metres into the sky, it would have been the tallest building in Central Asia when it was completed in the 12th-century.

Today we’ll visit the old summer palace of the last Emir, just outside town, which was built in the early 20th-century. It’s an intriguing mix of Russian imperial design and local craftsmanship, and now houses many fascinating artefacts from that time. The Emir’s harem was said to have contained 400 wives and concubines and he even had his own personal zoo, with a pet elephant! 

This afternoon, you’ll have time to browse in the many local dome-roofed bazaars. Look out for the market bakers making traditional bread from scratch, traditionally eaten warm and fresh with kaymak, more familiar to us as clotted cream.

We say goodbye to Bukhara and set off on the road to the greatest of all the central Asian cities, Samarkand. On the way there, we’ll stop by the little village of Gijduvan, famed for its master potters. We’ll visit a family who have perfected their craft over seven generations, still producing superb pieces on traditional foot-powered potters’ wheels and mud-brick kilns. We stay two nights in Samarkand.

Samarkand’s extraordinary Registan Square is the crowning jewel of Islamic architecture in Central Asia. Just the sheer scale of the place is staggering! As the capital of Tamerlane’s empire, it benefitted from a huge building programme, supported by the very best artisans from his numerous conquests. You won’t miss the 14th-century mausoleums of Samarkand either, which are said to have inspired the Taj Mahal. The Gur-e-Amir in particular is a sight to behold, with its striking turquoise dome and beautiful floral-patterned tiles. Fittingly, Tamerlane himself was interred here, and we will visit his mausoleum which is still impressive after all these years.

Today we head slightly out of town to visit the small community of Koni Ghil where the ancient craft of producing paper from mulberry tree bark has been revived. We’ll also stop at the Afrosiyob museum which contains a remarkable series ancient frescoes discovered nearby. In the afternoon we transfer to the railway station to catch the fast train back to Tashkent and our final night back at the Lotte City Palace Hotel, with breakfast.