Uzbekistan Travel Guide: Itinerary, Cities and Tips

You step out into the square and three turquoise mosaic facades rise up at you, 35 metres (115 ft) tall, lined up in a U like an echo chamber. The monumental heart of Samarkand, the Registan brings together three Timurid madrasas: Ulugh Beg (1420), Sher-Dor (1636) and Tilla-Qari (1660). Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2001, the ensemble takes about 2 hours to visit, madrasas included, with their inner courtyards, student cells and the gold-leaf mosque inside Tilla-Qari. It is the absolute architectural high point of the trip, more impressive in scale than anything you will see afterwards in Bukhara or Khiva.

The minaret rises at the end of the alley, brick on brick, and you understand why Genghis Khan reportedly stepped back from it in 1220. The spiritual pivot of medieval Bukhara, the Po-i-Kalyan complex lines up the Kalyan Minaret (45.6 m / 150 ft, completed in 1127), the Kalyan Mosque opening onto a 130-metre-long courtyard, and the Mir-i-Arab Madrasa, still active with 250 students. Inscribed on the UNESCO list since 1993, the ensemble takes about 1h30 to walk through, mandatory photo from the rooftop terrace of the neighbouring Amir Alim Khan madrasa. More charged with history and spirituality than the Registan, and more intimate too.

You pass through the western gate, and 37.5 hectares (93 acres) of golden adobe open up like a stage set frozen in the 19th century. A walled inner citadel ringed by 10-metre ramparts, Itchan Kala packs in about fifty monuments: the Tash-Khauli Palace, the Islam Khoja minaret, madrasas and caravanserais preserved as an open-air museum. The first Uzbek site inscribed by UNESCO in 1990, the city takes a full day to cover with the combined ticket in hand. More compact and more uniform than Bukhara, Itchan Kala gives the rare sense of walking through an entire medieval city.

You climb a few steps, look up, and the funerary avenue grabs you: 11 mausoleums in a row, facades covered in cobalt-blue and turquoise ceramics. The necropolis holds around twenty tombs from the 14th and 15th centuries, all relatives or companions of Tamerlane. A living Shia pilgrimage site, it features one of the most virtuoso ceramic ensembles in the Islamic world, listed by UNESCO with Samarkand in 2001. The visit takes about 1 hour, climbing slowly to the Mausoleum of the Prophet's Cousin at the far end. Smaller than the Registan, infinitely more delicate in detail.

The fluted turquoise dome can be seen from a kilometre away, perched on a cylindrical drum like a giant melon. Tomb of Tamerlane (died 1405) and several Timurids including the astronomer Ulugh Beg, the Gur-e-Amir reaches 32 metres (105 ft) high. The interior, gold-leafed across ceiling and walls, inspired the architects of the Taj Mahal the following century. A short visit (30 minutes) but an essential one to grasp the aesthetic engine of the trip. Smaller in scale than the Registan, but with rare ornamental intensity.

The main portal towers over you at 35 metres (115 ft), oversized, marked by cracks that tell six centuries of history. A 15th-century giant commissioned by Tamerlane on his return from his Indian campaign, Bibi-Khanym was the largest mosque in the Islamic world at its completion in 1404. The inner courtyard measures 167 m by 109 m, with a marble lectern in the centre under which women would pass to encourage fertility. The site was partially rebuilt during the Soviet era, which shows, but the sheer mass remains striking. Rougher and less perfect than the Registan, but singular.

The adobe ramparts rise to 20 metres (65 ft), ochre and cracked, pierced by a single gate flanked by two round towers. A citadel occupied from the 5th to the 20th century, the Ark was the residence of the emirs of Bukhara until the Bolshevik conquest of 1920. 80% of the complex was destroyed in that takeover, but the Juma Mosque, the throne room and several museums (history, calligraphy, coins) remain. The visit lasts 1h30, including the climb onto the ramparts. More military than the religious ensembles, the Ark gives the measure of pre-Russian Uzbek civil power.

A 10-metre brick cube set on the grass of a park, and the light brings out geometric relief patterns like lacework. A jewel of 9th-century Iranian architecture (built between 892 and 943), this mausoleum is one of the oldest Islamic monuments in Central Asia, miraculously preserved because it was buried under sand until the 20th century. Listed by UNESCO with Bukhara in 1993, it holds the tomb of Ismail Samani, founder of the Samanid dynasty. A very short visit (15 minutes), but a mandatory stop to gauge the pre-Mongol root of everything that follows.

A squat tower, entirely blue, that looks as if it were sliced off mid-rise: the Kalta Minor ("short minaret") was meant to reach 80 metres and stops at 29 (95 ft). Erected in 1851 by Mohammed Amin Khan, the project was halted by the patron's death and stayed unfinished. Entirely covered in glazed blue, turquoise and white ceramic, it is the photographic icon of Itchan Kala. No interior visit, you admire it from outside in 15 minutes. More singular than the country's finished minarets, precisely because it is not.

You wander between blue ceramic portals rising from an ochre plain, 80 km (50 miles) south of Samarkand. The birthplace of Tamerlane, Shahrisabz preserves the monumental remains of the Ak-Saray Palace (1380) — whose portal pylons originally reached 65 m, with 38 m still standing — the Dorut Tilavat Mausoleum and the tomb of Jahangir, Tamerlane's eldest son. Inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 and on the in-danger list since 2016 after contested urban redevelopment, the site can be covered in half a day. Rougher and more rural than Samarkand, with far fewer tourists.

Two slender minarets frame a paved courtyard, and the Hazrati Imam Mosque, rebuilt in 2007, still smells of fresh wood. The complex contains the Barak Khan Madrasa (16th century), the Kaffal Shashi Mausoleum and above all the Quran of Uthman, one of the oldest in the world, a 7th-century manuscript stained with the caliph's blood. The visit takes about 1 hour, to be rounded off with Amir Timur Square in the city centre, planted with oaks and equestrian statues. More modern and less photogenic than Samarkand or Bukhara, but essential to understand post-1966 Tashkent.

You walk down a polished marble ramp under a modern roof, and the giant arc of the sextant appears, still buried in the rock, perfectly preserved. A remnant of the gigantic marble sextant built in 1428 by the prince-astronomer Ulugh Beg, the instrument measured the stellar year to within a few seconds of accuracy, the smallest margin ever achieved before telescopes. A small adjoining museum traces Timurid sky charts and calculations. A short visit (45 minutes) but essential to understand that Samarkand was also a global scientific peak, not just an architectural showcase.