Samarkand: the blue domes on the Silk Road

It’s 5:14 a.m. at the Registan square in central Samarkand and the three madrasas — the Ulugh Beg (1417), the Sher-Dor (1636), and the Tilya-Kori (1660) — are still in shadow but the sky behind them is going from indigo to that particular Central Asian dawn blue. The turquoise-tiled facades, fifteen metres tall on each of the three sides of the square, will start glowing in about fifteen minutes. The place is, simply, one of the most extraordinary architectural set pieces I have ever stood in. By 9 a.m., the Russian and Chinese tour groups arrive. The hour before is mine.

Why I keep coming back

Samarkand was the capital of Timur (Tamerlane) — the 14th-century Central Asian conqueror who built an empire stretching from the Mediterranean to India — and the city is, architecturally, the most ambitious surviving Timurid project. The turquoise-domed mosques, the madrasas with their portals and minarets, the geometric tilework — Samarkand is one of the great Islamic-architecture cities and one of the most consequential stops on the Silk Road.

Uzbekistan, until 2018, was one of the world’s most restrictively governed tourist destinations — visa hurdles, registration requirements, currency restrictions. The post-2018 liberalisation under President Mirziyoyev has opened the country dramatically. The country is now, in 2026, one of the most rewarding regions to visit in the post-Soviet space.

Where to base yourself

Samarkand for the central Silk Road experience.

Bukhara (5 hours by road, 90 minutes by fast train) for the other great Uzbek city — older, more intact, with its surviving 16th-century khanate-era core.

Khiva (a further drive west) for the smallest and most preserved of the three Silk Road centres.

Tashkent is the modern capital — useful for the airport but not a destination.

The standard tourist route is Tashkent → Samarkand → Bukhara → Khiva, by train or car, 10–14 days.

What to actually do

Walk the Registan at dawn. The defining experience of the city. Bring coffee. Sit on the steps. Watch the light hit the tile.

Visit Shah-i-Zinda. The ‘Tomb of the Living King’ — a small alley of tombs from the 11th to the 15th centuries, each more elaborately tiled than the last. Some of the most refined ceramic-tile work in the Islamic world.

Visit the Gur-e-Amir. Timur’s own mausoleum; the lapis-blue ribbed dome is the architectural prototype that influenced the Taj Mahal and many other later Islamic buildings.

Climb the Ulugh Beg Observatory. Timur’s grandson Ulugh Beg built a giant astronomical instrument here in the 1420s; the surviving stone sextant arc is preserved at the base, with a small museum.

Day-trip to Shahrisabz. Two hours south; Timur’s birthplace; the massive ruined portal of his Ak-Saray palace.

Walk Bukhara’s old city. Smaller than Samarkand and more intact at the residential level; the Kalyan minaret, the Lyabi-Hauz pond, the working madrasas, the small ceramic shops.

Visit Khiva’s old town (Itchan Kala). The 19th-century khanate walled city, almost completely preserved within its mud-brick walls; small and walkable in a day.

Where to eat

Uzbek cuisine is heavily wheat-and-lamb-based: plov (the pilaf with lamb and yellow carrot, the national dish), shashlik (grilled lamb skewers), manti (steamed lamb dumplings), somsa (samosa-like baked pastries), the rich variety of bread (non) baked in domed clay ovens.

Plov Center (Tashkent) — A vast plov-only restaurant; the daily preparation is the show. Karim Bey (Samarkand) — Reliable mid-range Uzbek. Lyabi-Hauz tea houses (Bukhara) — Cool by water, the classic chaikhana experience. Old Khiva (Khiva) — Traditional Uzbek in a heritage building. Local chaikhana (tea house) anywhere — the centre of Uzbek public life; tea, bread, plov, conversation.

When to come

April–May and September–October for the most pleasant temperatures and the lower-crowd shoulder months.

June through August is hot (40°C+) in Samarkand and Bukhara.

November through March is cold (occasionally well below freezing in January) but the architecture under a thin snow is extraordinary and the crowds are minimal.

Practical notes

• Visa: Uzbekistan is visa-free for most Western passports since 2019.
• Money: Uzbek so’m; ATMs work in Samarkand and Bukhara; cash is still the standard for smaller transactions.
• Transport: The Afrosiyob high-speed train connects Tashkent–Samarkand–Bukhara in just over 2 hours each leg; book online. The slower trains continue to Khiva (10+ hours; the overnight option).
• Language: Uzbek is the official language; Russian is widely understood by older generations; English is increasingly common in tourism but still limited.
• The Soviet inheritance: Uzbekistan was a Soviet republic until 1991 and the urban-Soviet legacy (the grid plans, the apartment blocks, the centralised bureaucracy) is still visible alongside the older Timurid and Islamic architecture.
• Hospitality: Uzbeks are extraordinarily hospitable; declining a tea or a meal invitation is sometimes culturally fraught. Accept when offered.

A final thought

Uzbekistan is one of the most rewarding travel discoveries of the post-2018 era. The architectural depth — the Timurid monuments in Samarkand, the older Islamic city in Bukhara, the preserved khanate at Khiva — is among the most consequential in the wider Islamic world and remains, despite the rapidly growing tourist numbers, well below the saturation point of the more famous Western destinations.

Ten days is the right length. Train the three cities. Walk slowly. Drink chai. Talk to the carpet sellers and the ceramicists in the small shops (Uzbek silk and ceramic traditions are alive and active). The Silk Road is, after a thousand years of fame and a century of Soviet eclipse, doing its thing again. Visit while the experience is still uncrowded.