The Tyrant of Tashkent
On 25 April 1966, Tashkent was flattened by an earthquake. The city that stands today is largely the creation of the Soviets, who rebuilt the Uzbek »
Samarkand: Timur's town
If you’ve only ever heard of one place in Central Asia, it’s probably Samarkand. This ancient city, one of the most important stops on »
Crossing the Kyzylkum Desert
The Kyzylkum Desert is the Central Asia you imagine when you look at a map: vast, inhospitable, empty. Yet a lot of history fills the barren »
Bukhara: The holiest city you've never heard of
I’m not usually superstitious, but I’m pretty sure that the ghost of a tenth century Persian emir cured me of diarrhoea. My stomach had »
Khiva: In the court of the khan
The sun-baked city of Khiva sits between two bleak and inhospitable deserts, the Kyzylkum and the Karakum. As you approach the city limits the rusty brown »