Samarkand and Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Samarkand and Bukhara: The Silk Road Cities That Actually Deserve the Description

In 1220, Genghis Khan arrived at Bukhara, then one of the wealthiest cities in the Islamic world. He rode his horse into the main mosque, declared it a stable, and used the Quran cases as feed troughs. The city was sacked, burned, and its population scattered or enslaved. An estimated three-quarters of the urban population died. Samarkand suffered similarly. Both cities were rebuilt. Both eventually became even more architecturally significant under Tamerlane in the 14th century than they had been before the Mongol destruction. The buildings you see in Samarkand’s Registan date from 1418-1660, the post-destruction reconstruction, and they are extraordinary precisely because the civilization that built them knew what had been lost and what needed to be made.

The phrase “Silk Road city” gets applied to places that were peripheral to the trade network and spent nothing on architecture. Samarkand and Bukhara are not those places. They were the principal stopping points on the central Asian trade routes between China and the Mediterranean for nearly 2,000 years, and they spent the accumulated wealth on buildings. The buildings are still there.

Samarkand

Samarkand is 350km from Tashkent by high-speed train (Afrosiyob service, 2 hours, $20-30 USD). The Registan, the main public square, is flanked by three 15th-century madrasahs. The tilework on the Tilya-Kori (gold-covered) Madrasah ceiling is genuinely one of the most elaborate interior surfaces in Central Asia. Entry to the Registan costs 100,000 UZS (about $8); open 8am-9pm. The evening light show projected onto the facades is tacky and somewhat enjoyable.

The Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum, Tamerlane’s tomb, is 1.5km from the Registan. The onyx nephrite slab marking his grave was removed by Soviet archaeologists in 1941; Tamerlane’s body was examined and reinterred in 1942. The mausoleum’s exterior dome is covered in geometric tilework that looks structurally impossible up close. Entry costs 30,000 UZS.

The Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, a processional alley of tombs from the 11th to 19th centuries, is the least visited and most affecting of Samarkand’s major sites. The tiled facades on the medieval tombs are in better condition than almost anything else in the city, and the space between the buildings produces a depth of colour that doesn’t reproduce well in photographs.

Bukhara

Bukhara is 280km from Samarkand by road (3.5 hours by taxi, about $40; no direct train). The old city is largely intact and is used daily by residents rather than preserved as a museum-piece. That distinction matters: the bazaars, chai-khanas (teahouses), and mosques function as they always have, with tourism layered on top rather than replacing local life.

The Ark of Bukhara, the fortress citadel, has a museum inside covering the last Emir’s reign and the 1920 Soviet takeover. The wall walk offers views over the whole old city. Entry 30,000 UZS. The Kalon Minaret dates from 1127 and is the reason the Mongols are supposed to have spared Bukhara during the 1220 destruction: Genghis Khan arrived, looked up at it, knocked his hat off, and took this as a sign of divine significance. Probably apocryphal. The minaret survived.

The Lyab-i-Hauz ensemble, a pool surrounded by a 17th-century madrasah, khanqah, and caravanserai, is the town square equivalent. In the evening, locals play dominoes at the poolside café tables and the light on the brick facades is warm enough to justify sitting for two hours with a glass of tea.

Food

Plov is the regional dish: rice cooked in animal fat with carrots, onion, and lamb. The version in Uzbekistan is substantially better than the name suggests. In Samarkand, the plov at Tao Café (near the Registan) costs 50,000-80,000 UZS per plate and is excellent. In Bukhara, the teahouses around Lyab-i-Hauz serve samsa (baked pastries with minced lamb) for 8,000 UZS each. Non-bread (large flat bread baked in a tandoor oven) costs 5,000-10,000 UZS and is the correct accompaniment to everything.

Practical Notes

The Uzbekistan e-visa is available online for most nationalities; it costs $20-25 and takes 3 days to process. The sum (UZS) can be withdrawn from ATMs in Tashkent and major cities. Credit cards are not widely accepted outside hotels. Summer (July-August) is very hot (40°C); the best seasons are April-May and September-October.