Cultural Treasures Of The Silk Road

You fly to Tashkent with TK or HY from your home country. You arrive in Tashkent (in the late evening or in the morning in a text day depending on your flight connection). Your guide meets with you at the airport and transfers you to the hotel. Overnight stays in Tashkent.

Today we experience the contrasting capital of Uzbekistan, which presents itself in a mixture of Post-Soviet charm and oriental flair. It is astonishing how well modernity and tradition merge in Tashkent. In the old town, we visit the Khasti Imam complex, in which the oldest version of the Koran is kept. On the large square, you can visit the Tilla Sheikh Mosque, Barak Khan Madrasah and Mausoleum Kaffal Shashi and experience the hustle and bustle at the Chorsu Bazaar, which was already known in the middle Ages and was located at the intersection of the caravan processions of the Great Silk Road. In the afternoon we visit the Museum of Applied Arts. We also take a look at Independence Square, Navoi Theatre Square and the Monument to Earthquake Victims. Then we take an underground journey. At the end of the day, there is dinner and an overnight stay in Tashkent.

After breakfast in the hotel, we take the comfortable train at 08:07 A.M. through the impressive Kamchik pass (2,268 m) to Kokand. You arrive at 12:13 P.M. In Kokand, we visit the magnificent Islamic buildings - the palace of Khudoyar-Khan and the imposing Juma mosque (Friday mosque). Then we continue to Rishtan - the home of artisans who have been hiding the secrets of azure ceramic manufacture for over 800 years. We learn from the ceramic master Rustam Usmanov in Rishtan how the blue and gold faience that adorns the Islamic sanctuaries is created. We continue to Fergana. Dinner and overnight stays in Fergana.

To get to know the city better, we take a city tour through the avenue-like streets in the city of Fergana, visit the German cultural centre. You continue through varied landscapes to Margilan. In the silk factory “Yodgorlik” we get to know the production steps of “white gold”. The quality and design of the silk fabrics produced here are valued far beyond the country's borders. In the afternoon we drive back to Tashkent by car over the mountain pass. Overnight stays in Tashkent.

In the morning take a fast train from Tashkent to Samarkand which gets only in 2 hours. Samarkand is one of the oldest towns in the world and at the same time the centre of the famous Silk Road.

Then you will visit the Shahi Zinda Complex, a wonderful group of different mausoleums in Timur style coated with majolica and mosaic tiles. You will note that centuries-old traditions still continue in Samarkand when you visit the Paper manufacturing factory. Here you can learn about traditional process of paper which is produced quite naturally from the fibres of the mulberry tree. After that visit Observatory of Ulugbek, the world-famous astronomer, Amir Timur’s grandson, who built his observatory in 1428 but was only discovered in 1908.

In the late afternoon, you will see a colourful folklore programme in the Theatre „El-Merosi “(the inheritance of the people), telling through dance the history of the region. During the show, the actors will show costumes from different historic periods of Uzbekistan, from the Bronze Age to the present. Dinner in a local restaurant.

Samarkand was considered, in the Middle Ages, to be one of the most beautiful and most important towns in the world. You will be impressed by the palace-like mausoleum of the ruler Timur, the Gur Emir Mausoleum. Today you can enjoy the highlight of your trip – Registan Square with its three magnificent, artistically decorated medrasas. Tashkent Street, where in particular the souvenir shops are to be found, brings you to what was once the greatest mosque in Central Asia – the Bibi Khanym Mosque.

Timur wanted to demonstrate his unlimited technical and financial possibilities by building the most beautiful mosque of the Eastern world. You are encouraged to try the raisins, apricots and nuts on a culinary walk through the bazaar. Today you will cook with the Uzbek family and enjoy a typical local dinner.

Along the historical Great Silk Road, you drive through the beautiful mountain landscape to Amir Timur’s birth town, Shakhrisabz. He very quickly gained a larger empire than that of Alexander the Great. Admire King Timur’s building exploits and wander through the town and the market.

In the late afternoon, we travel on to Bukhara – an oasis town in the Kyzylkum Desert. Dinner in a local restaurant. Three overnight stays in Bukhara.

We start our tour with the Mausoleum of Ismail Samani and then go to the Chashmai Ayub Mausoleum. After we will wander around the old town where you will feel transported to the world of the stories from ‘One Thousand and One Nights’. It is hard to believe that, just like 100 years ago, teaching and learning still takes place in the mosques and madrasas, such as the Miri Arab madrasa. You will admire the «classic» architectural complex Lyabi Khauz with its trading domes and several mosques, madrasas as well as the dervish monastery Khanaka in the old town, and will understand the honorary title «noble town».

The Susani embroiderer Abdurahman will tell us about Bukhara embroidery and we will try the Emir’s Plov.

Today we will visit the Chor Minor madrasa, whose four minarets (chor – four) and the whole style shows similarities with the Indian style of building. After that we will take a road to the summer residence of the last Bukhara Emir – Sitorai Mokhi Khosa which in Persian means «The place where the moon and the stars meet».

As it is known, Bukhara is one of the seven holy towns of the Islamic world. There are a large number of orientations in Sufism, and the representatives of all orders were present in various eras on the site of where Uzbekistan is today. Sufi orden Naqshbandiya had the longest lasting effect and left behind the greatest legacy. Bahauddin Naqshbandi was one of the spiritual mentors of Tamerlan. His philosophy was based on the principle of «God in the heart, work in the hands». The memorial complex of Bahauddin Naqshbandi was considered to be the Central Asian Mecca.

In the afternoon, we have time to discover the Jewish quarter of Bukhara and visit a Synagogue which is over 400 years old. Then we will visit a Puppet Work Shop. Dinner in a local restaurant by „Lyabi Khauz “.

Trip through the desert Kyzylkum («Red Sand») and steppe to Khiva. Picnic on the way in an Uzbek «Roadhouse». Arrival in Khiva, check-in to the hotel. In the evening you can explore by yourselves. Princely dinner in the „Toza Bog “summer palace (at least 8 people).

Today you visit the old town of Khiva “Ichan Kala”, which has maintained its historical, oriental character. You will stand in front of the massive wall with its four entrances to Ichan Kala and feel transported to another world: all around the Kalta Minor (short minaret), which was once so tall that you could see far-away Bukhara from the top, the hustle and bustle of life, is just as it was in ancient times. On this tour, you can let all the sights sink in: Kunya Ark –the old residence of the Khiva Khans, the Medrasa of Muhammad Rakhim Khan, Mausoleum of Pakhlavon Makhmud, Medrasa and Minaret of Islam Khodja, the Residence Tosh Khovli and Juma Mosque – Friday mosque, whose wooden beam ceiling is held up by 212 wooden columns decorated with artistic carvings.

In the morning you have a free time to wander around on your own. After lunch take a road to Ayaz Kala – an impressive ancient mud fortress. In the Kyzylkum Desert, on the slope of one of the eastern foothills of the Sultanuvaystag, enormous ruins of one of the great fortresses of the old Khorezm dominate – Ayaz Kala. According to archaeological excavations, the Ayaz Kala fortress stems from the 2nd century BC. It was part of a system of border fortresses which formed a chain from East to West and which protected the oasis Khiva from the desert side. Then we will visit the other mud fortress Toprak Kala (ancient capital of Khorezm, 2nd century AD).

After that take a flight back to Tashkent at 21:15. Overnight in Tashkent.

Check out at the hotel. Transfer to the airport. End of the trip.