Uzbekistan is the heart of the ancient Silk Road and the home of some of the most stunning Islamic architecture on Earth. Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva were among the medieval world's greatest cities — trade hubs, centres of astronomy, poetry, mathematics and medicine, places where the accumulated knowledge of the Islamic Golden Age was preserved and transmitted. Walking through their tile-covered monuments today is to walk through a civilisation that shaped the world in ways most textbooks underestimate.
Samarkand is the name that resonates most historically — it was the capital of Timur's (Tamerlane's) 14th-century empire, which stretched from Turkey to India. The Registan, Samarkand's central square, is the greatest surviving ensemble of Islamic architecture anywhere: three enormous 15th-century madrassas facing each other across a paved plaza, their facades covered in geometric tile mosaic, calligraphic friezes and starwork of staggering technical precision and visual beauty. At the centre of Uzbekistan's tourism, it justifies every photograph taken of it. The Gur-e-Amir mausoleum nearby holds Timur himself beneath a ribbed azure dome — one of the most exquisite sepulchres in Islamic architecture.
Bukhara is an ancient trading city that has been continuously inhabited for at least 2,500 years. Its old centre — centred on the Kalon Minaret, a 12th-century tower from which the call to prayer was issued across the city — is more organically preserved than Samarkand's, less reconstructed, with covered bazaar domes, caravanserais and madrassas that give a genuine sense of a functioning commercial and intellectual city. The Ark fortress, the Bolo Hauz mosque and the Jewish quarter (Bukhara had a significant Jewish community for millennia) add depth to what is easily two full days of exploration.
Khiva is the most preserved of the three — a walled inner city (Ichan Kala) that looks from certain angles as if the 18th century never ended. The Islamic-Khodja minaret, the Kalta Minor minaret (begun with ambitious plans for a height that was never reached, truncated and perfect), the Palace of Allakuli Khan and the covered bazaar colonnades form an architectural concentration within the mud-brick walls that UNESCO justifiably listed as a World Heritage Site.
The Fergana Valley, in the east bordering Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, is the agricultural heart of Uzbekistan and home to some of its finest handicraft traditions. Rishtan is famous for its blue-glazed ceramics, Margilan for its ikat silk (fabric woven from pre-dyed threads in complex geometric patterns), and Kokand for its 19th-century palace. The valley's plov (rice cooked with lamb, carrots and spices in a large kazan pot) is considered the national dish's finest regional version.
Uzbek food generally is hearty and good. Plov (also spelled osh) is the centre of the food culture — cooked correctly in a kazan over open fire, it is one of Central Asia's great dishes. Samsas (baked meat pastries), lagman (noodles with meat and pepper sauce), shashlik (skewered grilled lamb) and lepyoshka (round flatbread baked in a tandoor) make up the rest of daily eating.
Uzbekistan has invested heavily in tourism infrastructure since independence in 1991 and the experience of visiting — trains between cities, hotel choices, guided tours, money-changing — is now smooth by Central Asian standards. The people are warm, the hospitality of the tea house culture genuine, and the architecture not just beautiful but among the most architecturally significant anywhere in the world.
The Silk Road was one of history's greatest achievements of exchange. Uzbekistan is where its soul lives.
