Once on the fabled Silk Road, and one of the several Central Asian Muslim "Stans" that emerged from the Soviet Union's breakup, this one is home to deserts, mountains, mythic cities -- Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara -- and fascinating history.
Is reconstruction of monuments in Samarkand helping or hurting?
Adam JonesIn this fabled Silk Road "Crossroad of Cultures," a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Uzbekh authorities have been restoring and rebuilding mosques, palaces, and other historic landmarks for decades. But National Geographic recently reported that concerns about how they have been going about it in Samarkand have been coming increasingly to the fore. Read about the controversy here.
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Uzbekistan is certainly a very interesting direction for travel, this is one of the oldest places on the planet! For a long time the cities of this country were one of the main points of the great Silk Road. By the way this direction is not so festered by tourists.
Here is a link to a good travel agency, for anyone who wish to journey there: https://www.people-travels.com/guaranteed-departures-tours-to-uzbek...
Travel to Uzbekistan, Central Asia and along the Great Silk Road. Various tours to Uzbekistan and Central Asia by Sairam Tourism Co.
http://www.sairamtourism.com
Here's a photo I took of Yangguan Pass, Gobi Desert. After that...nothing, at least until the Silk Road traders reached the other side of the treacherous Taklamakan Desert, which has long been thought to mean--because it's a cool translation--The place where people go in but do not come out. Yanguan was one of the two Chinese Imperial forts that marked the end of civilisation. Maybe we can have a string of photos from Xian to Antioch?