Travel Back To Babylon In Samarkand

The adventure

Step into the Registan and you understand why travellers wrote poems about Samarkand. Three huge madrasas face each other across the square, their portals covered in mosaics of turquoise, cobalt and gold, with minarets leaning ever so slightly at the corners. One façade even shows tigers chasing deer beneath suns with human faces, a rare flash of figurative art in Islamic architecture.

Beyond it, the city keeps unfolding. Inside Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum of the conqueror Timur, the walls glow with gilding under a ribbed blue dome. The Shah-i-Zinda necropolis is a narrow street of tiled tombs, each more dazzling than the last. Then comes the bazaar: piles of round bread, dried apricots and melons, and the smell of plov cooking in vast iron pots.

Why it’s epic

• Samarkand is around 2,750 years old, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia.
• The Registan's madrasas were built between 1417 and 1660, starting with Ulugh Beg's.
• The interior of Tilya-Kori, the gilded madrasa, shimmers with gold leaf.
• The city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001 as a crossroads of cultures.

What it is

Samarkand was a major city on the Silk Road, with the Registan square and its blue-tiled madrasas.

How to do it

Fly to Tashkent and take the high-speed Afrosiyob train to Samarkand, about two hours away.

Top tip

Visit the Registan again at night, when it's lit up.

Need to know

• British citizens can currently visit Uzbekistan visa-free for up to 30 days.
• Book Afrosiyob train tickets in advance, as they sell out.
• Dress modestly in mosques and mausoleums, covering shoulders and knees.

Plan this trip

Rough cost

£2,000 to £5,000 per person, including flights from the UK

Time needed

2 to 3 days

Best time to go

April to June, September to October

Fly into

TAS airport

Flights to Tashkent are the biggest cost; hotels, food and trains in Uzbekistan are cheap.

Sample itinerary

1. Day 1High-speed train from Tashkent to Samarkand
2. Day 2The Registan at sunrise and Bibi-Khanym Mosque
3. Day 3The blue-tiled tombs of Shah-i-Zinda, then the train on to Bukhara

Make it happen

• Tours and ticketsGetYourGuide
• FlightsKiwi.com

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Why it’s on my list

The city of Samarkand has been at the crossroads of world cultures for over two and a half millennia, and is one of the most important sites on the Silk Routes traversing Central Asia.

With beginnings that make Samarkand as old as Babylon, this beautiful city on the Silk Road has survived many of history’s major upheavals including Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the Arabic conquest.