Off the Beaten Path
Central Asia
The Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, finally open. Still empty.
The Forgotten Atlas — Field Report
The Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, finally open. Still empty.
Uzbekistan was closed to casual tourism for most of its post-Soviet history under President Karimov's authoritarian government. When he died in 2016 and his successor began liberalising the visa regime in 2017, one of the great Silk Road countries became accessible for the first time. The cities that had been largely off-limits — Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva — are among the finest medieval Islamic architectural sites in the world. The infrastructure for tourism developed rapidly between 2017 and 2020. The number of visitors is still a fraction of comparable sites. The window of experiencing them without the crowds they will eventually attract is open. It will not stay open forever.
Bukhara is what a medieval Silk Road city would look like if it had been preserved in amber for five centuries and then carefully reopened. Which is essentially what happened.
The Forgotten Atlas
Bukhara is, in many ways, the more complete experience than Samarkand. The old city centre is an intact medieval Islamic urban environment — the Kalon Minaret (built 1127, so impressive that Genghis Khan reportedly ordered it to be spared when he destroyed everything else), the Kalon Mosque, the Ark fortress, the covered bazaars, the trading domes, the six-centuries-old Lyabi-Hauz pool surrounded by mulberry trees. Walk it in the evening when the light goes gold on the tile work and the crowds of the day have thinned.
Khiva is the most intact of the three Silk Road cities — the old inner city (Ichan Kala) is a completely preserved medieval fortified urban environment, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and arrestingly beautiful. It also has the fewest visitors of the three, being furthest from Tashkent, and has a slightly artificial quality that comes from its extraordinary preservation — it feels like a city that has been restored rather than lived in continuously. This is both its limitation and its advantage. The tilework on the Kalta Minor minaret is the most vivid in Central Asia.
Fly to Tashkent. Take the high-speed train to Samarkand (2 hours) and then to Bukhara (1.5 hours). Khiva requires a separate domestic flight or an overnight train. Twelve days covers all three cities properly.
The three-madrasah plaza. The most impressive public space in Central Asia. Come at dusk when the tile work changes.
The most authentic Silk Road urban environment. The Kalon Minaret, the bazaars, the Lyabi-Hauz pool. Walk it slowly.
The intact inner city. The most visually coherent medieval urban environment in the region.
The capital. Soviet-era boulevards, excellent markets, and the Chorsu Bazaar — one of the great Central Asian markets.
The weekly event where enormous kazan pots of the national dish are sold from early morning. The social event of the Tashkent week.
Restaurants around the pool serve traditional Uzbek food in the most atmospheric setting in the city. The shashlyk and the samsa are the things to order.
Modern Uzbek food with a view of the Registan. The plov is outstanding.
The market food at Chorsu — non (bread), samsa, lagman — is the best introduction to the full range of Uzbek cooking.
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