Tashkent
Gritty Tashkent, Central Asia’s hub, is an eccentric kind of place.
Gritty Tashkent, Central Asia’s hub, is an eccentric kind of place.
The region of Central Uzbekistan packs a serious historical, architectural and religious punch with big names like Samarkand, Bukhara, Shakhrisabz, Termiz and Nurata in the line-up.
Central Asia’s holiest city, Bukhara has buildings spanning a thousand years of history, and a thoroughly lived-in old centre that probably hasn’t changed much in two centuries.
No name is so evocative of the Silk Road as Samarkand.
Khiva’s name, redolent of slave caravans, barbaric cruelty and terrible journeys across deserts and steppes infested with wild tribesmen, struck fear into all but the boldest 19th-century hearts.
A visit to Khorezm will have you flying down the time tunnel to an age of desert caravans, slave-driving Khans and lost empires.
The first thought many visitors have on arrival in the Fergana Valley is, ‘Where’s the valley?’ From this broad (22,000 sq km), flat bowl, the surrounding mountain ranges (Tian Shanto the north and the Pamir Alay to the south) seem to stand back...
As the valley’s first significant town on the road from Tashkent, Kokand is a gateway to the region and stopping point for many travellers.
Andijon – the Fergana Valley’s largest city and its spiritual mecca – will forever be linked with the bloodshed of 13 May 2005.
Modern-day Termiz bears few traces of its colourful cosmopolitan history.
Shakhrisabz is a small, un-Russified town south of Samarkand, across the hills in the Kashka-Darya province.
To the north of the featureless Samarkand–Bukhara ‘Royal Rd’, the Tian Shan Mountains produce one final blip on the map before fading unceremoniously into desertified insignificance.
If you’ve been travelling along the Silk Road seeking answers to where in fact this highly touted fabric comes from, Margilon, and its Yodgorlik Silk Factory, should be your ground zero.
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