Photos - Uzbekistan

We spend almost half of our 2009 Central Asia tour in Uzbekistan, focusing on both the ancient Silk Road cities plus the Soviet heritage of the former Soviet Republic. We first stayed a few days in the capital Tashkent from were we took a flight to Khiva a beautiful silk road town with clay walls. Next we made a trip to the shore of the Aral Sea were we camped in the desert. Finally we visited Samarkand and Bukhara the most famous silk road cities.

Tashkent is a large and lively city with many oriental Bazaars, kebab vendors and friendly people. Communist Hero’s have been replaced by ancient ones, Amir Timur now stands were Lenin once stood, but there is still enough Soviet history left. Tashkent was destroyed by an earthquake in 1967 and reconstructed in Soviet style, many buildings from that era have by now been replaced but many other are still there. Very interesting is the railway museum with a large collection of Soviet era locomotives. The next stop was Khiva, a Silk Road city were the daytime temperature reaches above 40c. The inner town of Khiva is surrounded by a clay wall and has many historic Mosques Medressa, Minarets and Mausoleums. Next stop was Nukus from were we would do an expedition to the dried up Aral Sea. We were part of a group of seven tourists, accompanied by eight guides and drivers with four 4x4 UAZ cars. The first stop was Muynak, once a thriving fishing town, now an almost deserted town 100km away from the shore of the Aral Sea. An armada of ships lies in the desert where once the Muynak harbour was. From Muynak we drove a day through the desert and finally reached the shore of the Aral Sea were we set up camp. After a couple of days in Turkmenistan, we were back in Uzbekistan, now heading for Bukhara, another famous Silk Road town. The final stop before we went back home was Samarkand, probably the most famous Silk Road city.