Samarkand

Watered by the snowmelt channels of the Zeravshan River at 702 metres (2,303 feet) above sea level in southeastern Uzbekistan, Samarkand is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. Founded in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE on the loess plateau of Afrosiab as Marakanda, capital of ancient Sogdiana, it conquered the imagination of Alexander the Great in 329 BCE and rose in 1370 to become the imperial capital of Amir Timur (Tamerlane) and his astronomer-grandson Mirzo Ulugh Beg. Inscribed in 2001 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Reference 603, Samarkand, Crossroads of Cultures), the city preserves three monumental zones: the archaeological mound of Afrosiab, the Timurid monumental core around Registan Square, and the 19th-century tree-lined avenues of the Russian Governorate district.

Walking the two-kilometre pedestrian spine of Islom Karimov Street takes you past the ribbed azure dome of Gur-e-Amir, the three towering pishtaq portals of the Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor, and Tilya-Kori Madrasahs on Registan Square, the colossal congregational Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Siyob Bazaar, and the shimmering ceramic street of tombs at Shah-i-Zinda.

Board Uzbekistan Railways' 250 km/h Talgo Afrosiyob high-speed train to Samarkand Railway Station from Tashkent (2 hours 10 minutes) or Bukhara (1 hour 40 minutes), take the modern Sharq express train, or fly directly into the rebuilt Samarkand International Airport (SKD) from Istanbul, Dubai, Moscow, or Tashkent.

Book a traditional carved-wood courtyard boutique hotel in the Old Jewish and Tajik Mahallas around Registan and Gur-e-Amir for five-minute walks to the illuminated monuments, choose the leafy 19th-century University Boulevard and Orzu Mahmudov Street restaurant strip, or stay at the modern resort hotels of Silk Road Samarkand.

Inspect the gilded dome and mosaic courtyards of Registan Square at dawn and during the evening 3D light show, walk the 11th-to-15th-century glazed mausoleums of Shah-i-Zinda, admire the nephrite jade cenotaph of Timur inside Gur-e-Amir, view the 7th-century Ambassadors' Painting at Afrosiab Museum and Ulugh Beg's sextant, and watch waterwheels pulp mulberry bark at Konigil Meros Paper Mill.

Arrive by 11:45 at a local oshxona for unmixed layered Samarkand zigir osh (plov) cooked in dark flaxseed oil with yellow carrots, chickpeas, and quail eggs, buy warm 2-kilogram stamped Samarkand non bread at Siyob Bazaar, and dine on clay-oven tandir kabob and pumpkin samsa.

Under Amir Timur (1370 to 1405) and Ulugh Beg (1409 to 1449), master architects, ceramicists, calligraphers, and astronomers brought from Persia, Khwarezm, Syria, and northern India fused cobalt blue, turquoise, and white glazed banna'i brickwork, carved kashin mosaic, and kundal gold-relief painting into the Timurid Renaissance.