Sprawling Tashkent is Central Asia’s hub and the place where everything in Uzbekistan happens. It’s one part newly built national capital, thick with the institutions of power, one part leafy Soviet city, and yet another part sleepy Uzbek town, where traditionally clad farmers cart their wares through a maze of mud-walled houses to the grinding crowds of the bazaar. Tashkent is a fascinating jumble of contradictions that’s well worth exploring over several days.

Like most places that travelers use mainly to get somewhere else, Tashkent doesn’t always immediately charm visitors, but it’s a surprisingly fun and interesting place, with the best restaurants, museums and nightlife in the country. There’s also plenty of opportunity to escape the metropolis for great hiking, rafting and skiing in Ugam-Chatkal National Park, just a 1,5-hour drive away.

Modern Tashkent is a big, sprawling city that’s best appreciated for its whole rather than its parts. If you’re short on time, pick your spots and hone in on them by car. At minimum check out Khast Imom, Chorsu Bazaar and a few museums. If you have a few more days cover as much as you can on foot – you’ll catch random glimpses of city life that are often more rewarding than the sights themselves. Old Town makes for the best wandering.

No name is so evocative of the Silk Road as Samarkand. For most people it has the mythical resonance of Atlantis, fixed in the Western popular imagination by poets and playwrights of bygone eras, few of whom saw the city in the flesh.

On the ground the sublime, larger-than life monuments of Timur, the Technicolor bazaar and the city’s long, rich history indeed work some kind of magic. Surrounding these islands of majesty, modern Samarkand sprawls across acres of Soviet-built buildings, parks and broad avenues used by buzzing Chevrolet taxis.

You can visit most of Samarkand’s high-profile attractions in two or three days. If you’re short on time, at least see the Registan, Gur-e-Amir, Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Shah-i-Zinda.

Away from the main attractions, Samarkand is a modern, well-groomed city, which has smartened itself up enormously in the past decade. This process has involved building walls around some of the less slightly parts of the old town, which many consider to have made the old city rather sterile, blocking off streets that have been linking quarters for centuries. While this “disneyfication” of this once chaotic place is undeniable, it’s also true to say that Samarkand remains a breathtaking place to visit.

Central Asia’s holiest city, Bukhara has buildings spanning a thousand years of history, and a thoroughly lived-in old center that hasn’t changed too much in two centuries. It is one of the best places in Central Asia for a glimpse of pre-Russian Turkestan.

Most of the center is an architectural preserve, full of madrassas, minarets, a massive royal fortress and the remnants of a once-vast market complex. Government restoration efforts have been more subtle and less indiscriminate than in flashier Samarkand, and the city’s accommodation options are by far the best and most atmospheric in the country.

Until a century ago Bukhara was watered by a network of canals and some 200 stone pools where people gathered and gossiped, drank and washed. As the water wasn’t changed often, Bukhara was famous for plagues; the average 19th-century Bukharan is said to have died by the age of 32. The Bolsheviks modernized the system and drained the pools, although it’s most famous, Lyabi-Hauz, remains a cool, mulberry-tree shaded oasis at the heart of the city.

You’ll need at least two days to look around. Try to allow time to lose yourself in the old town; it’s easy to overdose on the 140-odd protected buildings and miss the whole for its many parts.

How to get there from Tashkent:
By Speed Train within 3 hours and 47 minutes
By Air within 1 hour 10 minutes

Khiva’s name, redolent of slave caravans, barbaric cruelty, terrible desert journeys and steppes infested with wild tribesmen, struck fear into all but the boldest 19th-century hearts. Nowadays it’s a friendly and welcoming Silk Road old town that’s very well set up for tourism, and a mere 35km southwest of the major transport hub of Urgench.

The historic heart of Khiva has been so well preserved that it’s often criticized as lifeless – a “museum city”. Even if you subscribe to that theory, you’ll have to admit that it’s one helluva museum. To walk through the walls and catch that first glimpse of the fabled Ichon-Qala (inner walled city) in all its monotoned, mud-walled glory is like stepping into another era.

You can see it all in a daytrip from Urgench, but you’ll absorb it better by staying longer. Khiva is at its best at dawn, sunset and by night, when the moonlit silhouettes of the tilting columns and madrassas, viewed from twisting alleyways, work their magic.

Travel around Turkmenistan:
Ashgabad, the capitol city of Turkmenistan, has a few historic monuments in the city. The city itself resembles a big park with streets fringed with aryks (irrigation ditches) and plain trees. The Turkmen Museum of Plastic Arts possesses the most beautiful collection of carpets; one of the exhibits being the largest carpet in the world.

Nissa, the first Parthian capitol, is located at the west end of the Karakum Desert. In the 3rd century, after the fall of the Arsasids dynasty, the town was pillaged. Only the ruins testify to the brilliant period of the Arasids’ dynasty. The ancient town of Merv is located near the modern town of Mary. During the antique epoch, Merv had been the key city of the caravan routes. In Indian and Iranian mythology, this city was worshiped as the cradle of the Arian nation. Genghis-khan and Timur destroyed Kunya-Urgench, the former capital of the Khoresmshakh State; however the Turabek-khanum mausoleum (the 14th century) was preserved where the spouse of one of the greatest rulers of Khoresm, Kutlugh Timur, is buried. Other sites include the Sultan Tekesh Mausoleum, the highest minaret in Central Asia “Kutlug Timur” (63 m tall), the Alp Arslan Mausoleum, the Kyrk Mulla hill, Caravan-Sarai, the Nadjmiddin Kubra Mausoleum (14th century) – the founder of Sufi brotherhood “kubravi”, and the Fakhriddin Razi mausoleum (12th –13th centuries).

Travel around Kazakhstan:
Almaty, the ex-capitol of Kazakhstan is a beautiful city with long avenues located at an altitude of 800 m and surrounded by mountains. Panfilov’s Park is one of the most visited parks in Kazakhstan and ha the monument for the participants of Great Patriotic War, a wooden cathedral built at the beginning of the 20th century. A picture gallery made in the honor of T. Shevcenko is represented at the Art Museum of Kazakhstan. The Museum of Pictorial Art reveals the history of Kazakhstan from the Paleolithic epoch until present.

Jambul
Taraz is the former name of this city. In ancient times it had been a large trade center on the Great Silk Road, which connected Asia with Europe. On the outskirts of Jambul are mausoleums of Aisha –bibi and Badadji-khatum built in the 12th century.


The canyon encompassing the Charyn River is referred to as the Kazakh Colorado. The Charyn River flows from the Tien-Shan mountains and runs 175 km from Almaty.

Travel around Kirghizstan:
Accurate lines of avenues cross the capitol city of Bishkek. The city has abundant parks and fountains. The Exposition of History Museum presents a collection of Kirghiz paintings. The Ala-Artcha River flows near the capitol and traverses the forest reserve forming a picturesque canyon. In the south of the city is the Chuiskaya Valley Buran tower – an ancient minaret built in the 11th century. 
The Non-freezing Issik-Kul Lake (translation: hot lake) is the second largest mountainous lake in area after Lake Titikaka. Lake Issik-Kul is located in the Tien-Shan (heavenly mountains) mountain range.

Mountain climbing and hiking along The Tien-Shan mountain range in the Song-Kul and Issik-Kul Lake Regions is very captivating.

Travel around Tajikistan:
 
Pendjikent
In the Zarafshan River Valley (1,5 km from the modern Pendjikent) you will find the ruins of the ancient town Sogd founded in the 5th century BC and abandoned in the 8th century AD during the Arabic invasion. Housing foundations and the lower town were recently discovered. The most precious antiques and artifacts are displayed at the Tashkent Historical Museum and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. Pendjikent promenades in the lap of splendid nature and the Ferghana and Zarafshan mountain ranges are fascinating.