The Golden Road to Samarkand

An ethnic and cultural melting pot, Uzbekistan has ancient roots and has seen the wax and wane of countless empires. Situated as it is on a key stretch of one of the greatest trade routes in history, the exchange of goods and ideas – religious, intellectual and artistic – left a remarkable historical and architectural legacy.

Samarkand, Tamberlane’s capital, was one of the great medieval trading centres and whose legacy, and that of his grandson Ulug Beg, is to be found in the magnificent buildings. The Registan, the main square, is the centrepiece surrounded on three sides by buildings whose pillars, arches and domes explore perfection in colour and shape.

Bukhara’s great days began in the 9th and 10th centuries when it was the seat of the Samanid dynasty, but even when they were deposed, and Samarkand prospered, the city remained an important trading centre on the Silk Road. The old town is a treasure trove of old and beautiful buildings dotted around a warren of jumbled streets with the Ark, a citadel with 18-metre walls, dominating the main square. Khiva, probably the least known and most remote of the Uzbek cities, flourished in the 16th century thanks to its location on the trade route to the Volga. Since 1967 its status as a museum city has ensured that it remains the most homogenous collection of architecture in the Islamic world.