Adventure Trip To The Aral Sea

Flight to Tashkent. Arrival in the evening or early morning of the next day (depending on flight connections). On arrival in Tashkent, you will be received by your travel guide at the international airport and taken to your hotel. Two overnight stays in Tashkent.

After a rest in the hotel, your trip starts with a tour through the old town of Tashkent. Today we visit the historical complex of Khasti Imam. On the large square, you will see the Tilla-Shaykh-Mosque, the Barakkhan-Madrasa, the Kaffal Shashi Mausoleum and the library in which the oldest version of the Koran is kept. Then we go to the Chorsu Bazaar, which was already known in the Middle Ages and which stood at the crossroads of the caravansaries of the Great Silk Road. In the afternoon, we walk through the modern town and visit Independence Square and the park called Amir Timur. In the museum of Applied Art which is in a fine, historic Community Centre, you can see over 7,000 exhibits of traditional popular culture from past times and foreign culture. At the end of the day, another highlight awaits you: a trip with the only underground train of Central Asia, which has countless impressive stations. Dinner in a local restaurant.

Early breakfast in the hotel. At 05:30 transfer to the airport for the flight to Nukus at 07:10- 9:55. After checking in to the hotel, we will visit the state museum of art named after I. Savitsky, which houses the second largest collection of Russian avant-garde art in the world and is one of the largest collections of applied art in Central Asia. Dinner in a local restaurant. One overnight stays in Nukus.

You pass the Kungrad District, a previous trading center along the Silk Road. On to Ustjurt. Stop at Sudochye Lake, lunch in a fisher’s house. After lunch, on to the Aral Lake. On the way, you visit the old lighthouse, and a village by a gasworks. You can take photos on the route of unbelievably beautiful gorges and fissured plains. Arrival at the Aral Lake. We pitch our tents and have a simple camp dinner. One overnight stay.

Early start to photograph the sunrise. Breakfast. Muynak (250 km – 4 hours), to see the old port with its abandoned ships in the sand – a ‚ship cemetery‘. We continue on the parched seabed of the lake past the gas towers of the Uschsai gasworks. Lunch. Stop in Nukus to see the architectural complex of Mizdakhan and Gyaur Kala from the 14th century which was destroyed by Genghis Khan. Arrival in Nukus. Dinner in a local hotel. One overnight stay.

Drive to Khiva, visiting Ayaz Kala on the way – an impressive ancient mud fort. In the Kisilkum Desert, enormous ruins of one of the greatest forts of the old Khoresm – Ayas Kala – rise up on the slope of one of the eastern foothills of the Sultanuvaystag. According to archaeological excavations, the Ayaz Kala fort dates back to the 2nd century BC. It was part of a system of border forts which stretched from East to West and defended the Khiva Oasis from the desert side. Then we visit the other mud fort Toprak Kala (the ancient capital of Choresms, 2nd century AD). In the afternoon, we arrive in the oasis town – Khiva. Today you can enjoy a typical dinner of the region – „Shivit oshi“, which translates as „green noodles“. As the noodle dough is made with dill juice, the noodles are green. Two overnight stays in Khiva.

A highlight of your trip! The mud roads and the two-wheeled donkey carts, which are still part of the streetscape today, give you an idea of the unchanged way of living since the Middle Ages. On your trip through the historic center, you can admire the oriental ornaments and turquoise tiles of the richly decorated buildings and can understand that the old town of Khiva is rightly called “Ichan Kala” (open-air museum). Kuhna Ark, once the residence of the Khans of Khiva, the Juma Mosque – a Friday Mosque famous for its very artistically decorated 212 wooden columns, the Pakhlavon-Makhmud-Mausoleum, the Madrasa and Minaret of Islam Khodja – the wise vizier of Khan Muhammad Rakhim Khan as well as the Tash-Hovli-Palace. In the evening, you can enjoy sundown over the oasis. Princely dinner in the summer palace of the Khans, „Toza-Bog“. Enjoy the effect of the magical impressions of the day.

You cross the famous „Amudarya“ River and enjoy countless photo stops on the banks of the river and in the desert. In the late afternoon, you reach the next Silk Road metropolis, Bukhara. Dinner in a local restaurant. Three overnight stays in Bukhara.

Today, you will take a tour on foot through the 2500-year-old town Bukhara. Sightseeing in the Citadel Ark, the mosque Bolo Havuz, the Chashma-Ayub and the Samaniden mausoleums, the oldest buildings of Bukhara. In the afternoon, you will see the enormous architectural complex of Poikalon. You will visit the domed bazaars and trading streets of the Toqi-Sargaron goldsmiths, the capmakers Toki Telpak-Furushon, the architectural complex of the Kosh-Madrasa with the Ulugbek and Abdulasis-Khan madrasas. Then you can relax with a cup of tea at the cooling water basis in the Labi-Hauz-Complex. You can listen to some stories and legends in front of the monument of Nasreddin on the donkey, an Oriental version of Till Eulenspiegel. Dinner today will be in an old Jewish house with a Bukhara family. The Susani embroiderer Abdurahman will tell us all about Bukhara embroidery. Today you can try Emirs Plov.

Today you go to Shakhrisabz (270km), the birthplace of Amir Timur (Tamerlan). Timur was a ruler who conquered Iran and Caucasia in the 14th century and defeated the Golden Horde in South Russia. With unforgettable impressions from visiting the ruins of the Ak Sarai Castle, the Kuk-Gumbaz-Mosque and the “Dorut-Tilovat” Complex with the Shamseddin Kulal and Gumbas Saineddin mausoleums, you continue on to Samarkand(170km). Check in to the hotel, with free time for the rest of the day. Dinner in a local restaurant. Two overnight stays in Samarkand.

In Samarkand, ‚One Thousand and One Nights‘ starts again for you…. It is one of the oldest towns in the world and also the center of the famous Silk Road. In the Afrosiyob Museum, you will get a good idea of what ancient Samarkand was like. Then you go to the Shahi-Sinda Complex, a wonderful collection of different mausoleums, coated in Timuridic style with majolica and mosaic tiles. When visiting the paper manufacturing factory, you will realise that centuries-old traditions are still alive in Samarkand today. You can watch a traditional paper-producing process using the fibers of the mulberry tree. To finish the day, you go to the Ulugbek-Observatory, built-in 1428-1429 on a hill of the Chupanata-chain. Towards evening you will go the theatrical presentation of Oriental historic costumes in the „El Merosi“ Theatre. This theatre shows costumes of Central Asian peoples through the centuries – from ancient times to the 19th century – the eras of the Massagetes, Akhemenides, Sogdies and Timurs. Dinner in the restaurant „Samarkand“, where you can experience the culture of the country and the people at close quarters.

Ancient Samarkand still shows the splendour of old times! In the Middle Ages, it was considered to be one of the most beautiful and most important towns in the world. The palace-like mausoleum of the ruler Amir Timur, the Gur-Emir-Mausoleum, will not fail to impress you. Today, you will enjoy the highlight of your trip, Registan-Square, with its three enormous, artistically adorned medrasas. Then you will go to what was once the greatest mosque in Central Asia – the Bibi-Khanum-Mosque. After the visit, you will go to a colourful bazaar, passing from the museum-like to Oriental reality. Pyramids of nuts, almonds, pistachios, dried apricots, raisins as well as all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables are piled up on the market stands. All sorts of exotic aromas from spices and herbs will assail your noses. A market which is as colourful and fascinating as life itself. In the late afternoon, you leave Samarkand on the“Afrosiyob” fast train at 17:00 to Tashkent. Arrival at 19:10, transfer to the hotel. Dinner in a local restaurant. Overnight stay in Tashkent.