Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
The blue-tiled Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, a train ride apart.
- DestinationUzbekistan
- CountryUzbekistan
- TypeInternational holiday
Overview
About Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan's appeal is concentrated in three cities, and the tilework is the reason. Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva were Silk Road capitals, and what survives is a body of glazed brick and majolica in deep blue and turquoise, at a scale found nowhere else.
The three differ in character. Samarkand is monumental, arranged around the Registan. Bukhara is denser and more domestic, a working old town rather than a set of monuments. Khiva is a walled city small enough to cross on foot and almost entirely intact.
Good to know
Worth Knowing Before You Go
- Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva are each UNESCO-listed for their Islamic architecture.
- The Registan in Samarkand is a public square framed by three madrasas built between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.
- Khiva's walled inner town, the Itchan Kala, can be crossed on foot in a few minutes.
- A high-speed rail line connects Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara.
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