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| The fabled mosques and madrasas of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, with their marvellous design and colourful tile work, are just some of the sites in Uzbekistan linked to The Silk Road. This country also gave the world Tamerlane, one of the most legendary of the Central Asian warriors.
Other notables from history who knew Uzbekistan well were Marco Polo and Alexander the Great, whose armies smashed through the region on his way to India.
As a hub of trade and cultural exchanges, Uzbekistan saw travellers from Europe, Arabia, Persia, China, India, the Caucasus and Mongolia pass through. The fame of Uzbek cities spread far and wide until even today their names are synonymous with the exotic and wonderful.
For many centuries, the rulers of what is today Uzbekistan were a power to be reckoned with along The Silk Road.
From Samarkand, Tamerlane sailed forth to conquer much of the Eurasian continent and bring back to his capital the most gifted architects, masons and other craftsmen to add to the city's grandeur. |
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Samarkand, the ancient city of Afrasiab and already an important settlement in the 1st millennium, was one of the jewels of The Silk Road. It was also the home of Tamerlane whose mausoleum is a major attraction, as is the famous Registration Square, the Bibi Khanum Mosque and the Shah-i-Zinda Mausoleum complex. Some 15 kilometres outside of town is the Imam Al-Bulahari Mausoleum, a shrine for the entire Muslim world. Bukhara was once known as 'The Divine' because of the number of religious schools and mosques there. Besides being a main trading centre, it was a pilgrimage site for Muslims visiting Imam Bakhouddin Naqshbansdin's mausoleum. Its main attractions include the Ark, where the emirs live, the UNESCO-protected Kalyan Minaret and a number of restored madrasas in the old downtown section. Khiva, located in Chorku, was an oasis town on the northern Silk Road spur on the way to Russia and became known for its artisans. The entire city has been remarkably preserved and declared a national reserve. It is like an open-air museum and perhaps the finest example of an old Silk Road city in Central Asia. Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, has been a settlement of some kind or another since the 1st century BC and was largely rebuilt following a devastating earthquake in 1966. Attractions include many excellent museums, a number of mosques and madrasas, and the Zangi-Ata Mausoleum complex. Urgench is the gateway city for those visiting Khiva. Shakhrisabz was the birthplace and home town of the great Tamerlane. The Fergaria Valley is a fertile area filled with orchards, where The Silk Road passes through to Kyrgyzstan. Kokand is the ancient capital of the local rulers known as the Khans of Kokand. Margilan is an Uzbek city with a famous silk factory still operating today. |
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