Islom Hoja Minaret

Khiva

　　It's possible to climb this 57m tall minaret, Uzbekistan's highest, for fine views over the old city. Morning light offers the best views. With bands of turquoise and red tiling, it looks rather like an uncommonly lovely lighthouse. ...

City Walls

Khiva

　　One highlight for which no ticket is needed is the walk along the northwestern section of the Ichon-Qala wall. The stairs can be accessed at the North Gate and are a great place to be at sunset. The 2.5km-long mud walls date from the 18th century, and were rebuilt after...

Watchtower

Khiva

　　At the back right corner of the throne room in the Kuhna Ark, a door in the wall leads to a flight of steps up to the watchtower, the original part of the Ark, set right against the Ichon-Qala’s massive west wall. It's well worth paying the fee to climb...

Kuhna Ark

Khiva

　　To your left after you enter the West Gate stands the Kuhna Ark – the Khiva rulers’ own fortress and residence, first built in the 12th century by one Ok Shaykh Bobo, then expanded by the khans in the 17th century. The khans’ harem, mint, stables, arsenal, barracks, mosque and...

Ichon-Qala

Khiva

　　Khiva's Ichon-Qala is one of the great highlights of Uzbekistan. The perfectly preserved medieval walled town is home to dozens of mosques, medressas and mausolea, most of which are home to small museums. You need a whole day to see the sights, but try also to wander the streets during...

Kalta Minor Minaret

Khiva

　　This fat, turquoise-tiled minaret was begun in 1851 by Mohammed Amin Khan, who according to legend wanted to build a minaret so high he could see all the way to Bukhara. Unfortunately the khan dropped dead in 1855, leaving the beautifully tiled structure unfinished. 　　East of the minaret, beside the...

Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum

Khiva

　　This revered mausoleum, with its sublime courtyard and stately tilework, is one of the town’s most beautiful spots. Pahlavon Mahmud was a poet, philosopher and legendary wrestler who became Khiva’s patron saint. His 1326 tomb was rebuilt in the 19th century and then requisitioned in 1913 by the khan of...

Tosh-Hovli Palace

Khiva

　　This palace, which means ‘Stone House’, contains Khiva’s most sumptuous interior decoration, dense with blue ceramic tiles, carved wooden pillars and elaborate ghanch. Built by Allakuli Khan between 1832 and 1841 as a more splendid alternative to the Kuhna Ark, it’s said to have more than 150 rooms off nine...

Afrosiab Museum

Samarkand

　　The Afrosiab Museum was built around one of Samarkand’s more important archaeological finds, a chipped 7th-century fresco of the Sogdian King Varkhuman (r 650–670) receiving ranks of foreign dignitaries (including Chinese envoys carrying silk), while sitting astride elephants, camels and horses. You’ll see reproductions of this iconic fresco throughout the...

Sher Dor Medressa

Samarkand

　　The entrance portal of the Registan's Sher Dor (Lion) Medressa, opposite the Ulugbek Medressa and finished in 1636, is decorated with roaring felines that look like tigers but are meant to be lions. The lions, the deer they are chasing and the Mongolian-faced, Zorostrian-inspired suns rising from their backs are...

Ulugbek Medressa

Samarkand

　　The Ulugbek Medressa, on the western side of the Registan, is the square's original medressa, finished in 1420 under Ulugbek who is said to have taught mathematics here (the stars on the portal reflect Ulugbek's love of astronomy). Beneath the little corner domes were lecture halls, now housing displays on...

Tilla-Kari Medressa

Samarkand

　　On the northern side of the Registan is the Tilla-Kari (Gold-Covered) Medressa, completed in 1660, with a pleasant, gardenlike courtyard. The highlight here is the mosque, which is on the left-hand side of the courtyard and is stunningly decorated with blue and gold to symbolise Samarkand’s wealth. The mosque’s delicate...

Bibi-Khanym Mosque

Samarkand

　　The enormous congregational Bibi-Khanym Mosque, northeast of the Registan, was financed from the spoils of Timur's invasion of India and must have been the jewel of his empire. Once one of the Islamic world’s biggest mosques (the cupola of the main mosque is 41m high and the pishtak or entrance...

Shah-i-Zinda

Samarkand

　　Samarkand’s most moving and beloved site is this stunning avenue of mausoleums, which contains some of the richest tilework in the Muslim world. The name, which means ‘Tomb of the Living King’, refers to its original, innermost and holiest shrine – a complex of cool, quiet rooms around what is...

Registan

Samarkand

　　This ensemble of majestic, tilting medressas – a near-overload of majolica, azure mosaics and vast, well-proportioned spaces – is the centrepiece of the city, and arguably the most awesome single sight in Central Asia. The three grand edifices here are among the world’s oldest preserved medressas, anything older having been...

Fayzulla Khojaev House

Bukhara

　　This wealthy merchant's house, built in 1892, was once home to one of Bukhara’s many infamous personalities, the man who plotted with the Bolsheviks to dump Emir Alim Khan. Fayzulla Khojaev was rewarded with the presidency of the Bukhara People’s Republic, chairmanship of the Council of People’s Commissars of the...

Ismail Samani Mausoleum

Bukhara

　　This mausoleum in Samani Park, completed in 905, is the town's oldest Muslim monument and one of its most architecturally interesting. Built for Ismail Samani (the founder of the Samanid dynasty), his father and grandson, its intricate baked terracotta brickwork – which changes 'personality' through the day as the shadows...

Lyabi-Hauz

Bukhara

　　Lyabi-Hauz, a plaza built around a pool in 1620 (the name is Tajik for ‘around the pool’), is the most peaceful and interesting spot in town – shaded by mulberry trees as old as the pool. The old tea-sipping, chessboard-clutching Uzbek men who once inhabited this corner of town have...

Maghok-i-Attar

Bukhara

　　Between the two covered bazaars, in what was the old herb-and-spice bazaar, is Central Asia’s oldest surviving mosque, the Maghoki-Attar, a lovely mishmash of 9th-century facade and 16th-century reconstruction. This is probably also the town’s holiest spot: in the 1930s archaeologists found under it bits of a 5th-century Zoroastrian temple...

Kalon Mosque

Bukhara

　　At the foot of the minaret, on the site of an earlier mosque destroyed by Chinggis Khan, is the 16th-century congregational Kalon Mosque, big enough for 10,000 people. Its courtyard has some spectacular tile work. Used in Soviet times as a warehouse, it was reopened as a place of worship...

Char Minar

Bukhara

　　Photogenic little Char Minar, in a maze of alleys between Pushkin and Hoja Nurabad, bears more relation to Indian styles than to anything Bukharan. This was the gatehouse of a long-gone medressa built in 1807. The name means ‘Four Minarets’ in Tajik, although they aren’t strictly speaking minarets but rather...

Kalon Minaret

Bukhara

　　When it was built by the Karakhanid ruler Arslan Khan in 1127, the Kalon Minaret was probably the tallest building in Central Asia – kalon means ‘great’ in Tajik. It’s an incredible piece of work, 47m tall with 10m-deep foundations (including reeds stacked underneath in an early form of earthquake-proofing),...

Ark

Bukhara

　　The spectacular-looking Ark, a royal town-within-a-town, is Bukhara’s oldest structure, occupied from the 5th century right up until 1920, when it was bombed by the Red Army. For centuries it was the residence of the emirs of Bukhara. It’s about 80% ruins but there are still some remaining royal quarters,...

Assumption Cathedral

Tashkent

　　It's impossible to miss the handsome gold onion domes, pastel blue walls and 50m bell tower of the impressive Assumption Cathedral. Built in 1958 and renovated in the 1990s, this is the biggest of the four Orthodox churches in Tashkent. It's particularly worth visiting on Sunday when Tashkent's Russian babushkas...

Minor Mosque

Tashkent

　　The striking new Minor Mosque, also known as the white mosque for the colour of its marble, is proof that Uzbekistan still knows how to create sublime Islamic architecture. The lovely circular prayer hall has a beautifully ornate mihrab (a niche indicating the direction of Mecca) and ceiling. Walk south...

Moyie Mubarek Library Museum

Tashkent

　　The primary attraction of Khast Imom square is this library museum, which houses the 7th-century Osman Quran (Uthman Quran), said to be the world’s oldest. This enormous deerskin tome was brought to Samarkand by Timur, then taken to Moscow by the Russians in 1868 before being returned to Tashkent by...

Earthquake Memorial

Tashkent

　　The New Soviet men and women who rebuilt Tashkent after the 1966 earthquake are remembered in stone at the Earthquake Memorial just north of Mustaqilik Maydoni. Newlyweds flock here to have their photos taken on weekends. ...

State Fine Arts Museum

Tashkent

　　The four floors of this excellent museum walk you through 1500 years of art in Uzbekistan, from 7th-century Buddhist relics from Kuva and the Greek-inspired head of Hercules from Khalchayan near Termiz, to the art of Soviet Uzbekistan. There are even a few 19th-century paintings of second-tier Russian and European...

Museum of Applied Arts

Tashkent

　　The Museum of Applied Arts occupies an exquisite house full of bright ghanch (carved and painted plaster) and carved wood. It was built in the 1930s, at the height of the Soviet period, but nonetheless serves as a sneak preview of the older architectural highlights lurking in Bukhara and Samarkand....

Chorsu Bazaar

Tashkent

　　Tashkent’s most famous farmers market, topped by a giant green dome, is a delightful slice of city life spilling into the streets off the Old Town’s southern edge. There are acres of spices arranged in brightly coloured mountains, Volkswagen-sized sacks of grain, entire warehouses dedicated to sweets, and the freshest...

History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan

Tashkent

　　The History Museum is a must-visit for anyone looking for a primer on the history of Turkestan from its earliest settlements 5000 years ago to the present. The 2nd floor has some fine Zoroastrian and Buddhist artefacts, including several 1st- to 3rd-century Buddhas and Buddha fragments from Fayoz-Tepe area near...