Samarkand & Silk Road Cities

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL ART • ARCHITECTURE • GASTRONOMY • ARCHAEOLOGY • HISTORY • MUSIC • LITERATURE Samarkand & Silk Road Cities with Tashkent, Shakhr-i-Sabz, Bukhara and Khiva 22 April–3 May 2022 (mi 328) 12 days/11 nights • £4,420 Lecturer: Dr Peter Webb 13–24 May 2022 (mi 355) 12 days/11 nights • £4,420 Lecturer: Dr Peter Webb 16–27 September 2022 (mi 493) 12 days/11 nights • £4,420 Lecturer: Dr Venetia Porter The best of Uzbekistan and some of the most glorious sights in the Islamic world. Memorable landscapes, magnificent mosques and madrassas, wonderful wall tiles, intact streetscapes. Remote, difficult to access and remarkably unspoilt. Oxiana, Tartary, Turkestan, Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand: names to produce a frisson. They evoke alluring images of shimmering turquoise domes and exquisite glazed wall tiles, of lost libraries and renowned scholars, of the delicious decadence of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khiva, the Grand Minaret, wood engraving c. 1880. Khayyám, of gardens, poetry and wine, of the fabulous riches of the Silk Road between China and Christendom. world. Broad tree-lined boulevards encircle Itinerary Less agreeable images are also evoked: of the historic town centres and no expanding Day 1. Fly at c. 10.30am (Turkish Airlines) from Ghengis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane), the girdle of high-rise apartments disfigures London Heathrow to Tashkent via Istanbul. most far-reaching conquerors in history; of the the approach. The spacious modern capital Rooms are available from 2.00pm today. tyranny and cruelty of the khans, perpetuating Tashkent has good museums and galleries; Shakhr-i-Sabz is famed for the breathtaking the last redoubts of medieval misrule; of the Day 2: Tashkent. Touch-down c. 1.00am. remains of Timur’s palace. A slave-trading oasis Great Game, the nineteenth-century Cold War Nothing is planned before departure from khanate, Khiva, the smallest of these cities, is between Britain and Russia; of terrain as hostile the hotel at 1.30pm for lunch. Afternoon city perhaps the most intact and homogenous urban as the tribesmen and of a post-Soviet penumbra tour. See the World War II Memorial and ensemble in the Islamic world, with biscuit- of Stans of suspect politics and allegiances. Independence Square, home to government coloured brick and blue and turquoise maiolica. The cities of the subtitle lie now in buildings and the Monument of Independence. In Bukhara, gorgeously adorned architecture Uzbekistan, independent since 1991 but an First of two nights in Tashkent. entity that has its origins in late nineteenth- spanning a thousand years still rises above century Russian imperialism, which a streetscape of indeterminate age, while Day 3: Tashkent. The morning is spent at the agglomerated a number of independent Samarkand has the largest, most resplendently Chorsu Bazaar and Kukeldash Madrassa, khanates, and whose borders were settled in caparisoned historic buildings of all. introducing the theme of Soviet reconstruction the 1920s. The country lies at the very centre of Modernity has made relatively unobtrusive of Islamic heritage. Afternoon visits to the State Central Asia. One of only two double land- inroads throughout and the whitewashed Museum of History and Amir Timur Museum. villages and farmsteads with their awnings locked nations in the world, its capital lies a Day 4: Tashkent to Samarkand. High- of vines would hold few surprises for Tolstoy. thousand miles north of the Indian Ocean speed train from Tashkent to Samarkand Since independence, in the wake of economic (Afghanistan and Pakistan intervene), 1,400 (duration: c. 2 hours; luggage transferred liberalisation, streets and courtyards are miles east of the Black Sea and 400 miles from separately). Visit Shah-i-Zinda, an ensemble draped with dazzling hued carpets and textiles; Xinjiang, China’s largely Islamic western of mausolea gorgeously apparelled in many the glories of the Silk Road in its heyday are not province. types of dazzling glazed tiles, the Afrasiab hard to imagine. Space is not at a premium in this part of the History Museum, which documents pre- book online at www.martinrandall.com Telephone 020 8742 3355 MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Samarkand & Silk Road Cities continued Islamic Samarkand, and the remains of the preserved 10th-century Mausoleum of Ismail of Durham. She recently curated the exhibition extraordinary observatory built by Ulug Beg Samani, which displays exquisite brickwork. Hajj: Journey to the heart of Islam (2012). in the 15th century. First of three nights in From here walk through the park to the Bolo Samarkand. Hauz Mosque with its elegant patio of timber Practicalities columns. The resting place of a Mongol khan, Day 5: Shakhr-i-Sabz. Cross the Hisor the Mausoleum of Buyan-Khuli Khan still has Price, per person. Two sharing: £4,420 Mountains (by car; coaches are not permitted), some fine chipped 14th-century mosaic and or £3,620 without international flights. a dramatic drive with long views down the terracotta. Next door are the twin domes of the Single occupancy: £4,830 or £4,030 without sun-baked valley the other side. Shakhr-i-Sabz larger Saifuddin Bukharzi Mausoleum. Free international flights. was transformed by Timur (1336–1405) whose afternoon. home town it was. An astounding survival is Included: air travel (economy class) with the most imposing palace portal in the history Day 10: from Bukhara to Khiva. The 280- Turkish Airlines: London to Tashkent via of architecture, an arch 22 metres wide with a mile journey starts and finishes in an unspoilt Istanbul (aircraft: Boeing 777, Airbus 321) wondrous range of tiled decoration. Further landscape of green fields, plentiful trees and and Uzbekistan Airways: Tashkent to London Timurid remnants include a mosque complex adobe farmsteads, while the central section is (aircraft: Boeing 757) and Urgench to Tashkent with three turquoise domes. undulating desert, specked with tufty shrubs (Airbus 320); travel by private air-conditioned that are briefly green in the spring. There are coach, cars (in convoy, for one excursion) Day 6: Samarkand. Begin with the Amir periodic sightings of the meandering Oxus, the and high-speed train between Tashkent and Timur Masuoleum, burial place of Timur. mighty river crossed by Alexander the Great in Samarkand and Samarkand and Bukhara; The Registan, ‘the noblest public square in 329 bc. Reach Khiva in time for a walk before hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 11 lunches the world’ (Lord Curzon, 1889), is bounded dinner. First of one or two nights in Khiva. and 10 dinners with wine, water and coffee; all on three sides by magnificent madrassas of admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the the 15th and 17th centuries. Commissioned Day 11: Khiva. No modern intrusions spoil the lecturer, tour manager and national guide. by Timur in honour of his wife, Bibi Khanum timeless fabric within a rectangle of crenellated Mosque is an impressive exercise in gigantism and turreted ramparts. Most of the buildings International flights: we travel to Tashkent despite partial destruction and over-zealous are 19th-century, but such was Khiva’s isolation with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul in order restoration. Gumbaz Synagogue, hidden in the and conservatism that to the inexpert eye they to arrive in Uzbekistan at a more civilised Old Town, was constructed in the 19th century could date to any time from the 16th century. hour than is offered by Uzbekistan Airways’ for Samarkand’s Jewish community. The Friday Mosque, a forest of carved wooden direct route. However, we return directly to columns some dating to the 10th century, London with Uzbekistan Airways – the most Day 7: Samarkand to Bukhara. High-speed the Tash Hauli Palace, whose harem quarters convenient return flight. train from Samarkand to Bukhara (duration: constitute the loveliest secular spaces in Central c. 1 hour 30 minutes; luggage transferred Internal flight: please note that the flight Asia, and the Paklavan Mahmoud Mausoleum separately). Visit Central Asia’s oldest surviving schedule between Urgench and Tashkent can where tiled interiors reach a peak of opulence. mosque, Magok-i-Attari, before lunch in the vary and is not confirmed until c. 4 months Depending on domestic flight schedules, hotel. The afternoon walk begins in the social before the tour departs. The hotel stay on second of two nights in Khiva OR internal heart of the city, the Lyab-i Hauz square built Day 11 will be either in Khiva or Tashkent flight and overnight Tashkent. around a 15th-century pool and flanked by the depending on this schedule. Nadir Divanbegi Madrassa and Khanaga. Time Day 12: from Khiva (or Tashkent) to London. Visas: British, Canadian, Australian and New for tea under the mulberry trees. First of three Either drive a short distance from Khiva Zealand passport holders, as well as many nights in Bukhara. to Urgench for a morning internal flight to European citizens, can travel to Uzbekistan Tashkent, or free time in Tashkent. The c. Day 8: Bukhara. Genghis Khan ensured in without a visa for a period of 30 days. Please see 4.15pm flight (Uzbekistan Airways) from 1220 that – with notable exceptions, including the below list and contact us if your nationality Tashkent arrives at Heathrow c. 8.00pm. the Kalyan Minaret at 48 metres then the tallest does not appear to discuss the visa procedure. in the world – little of Bukhara’s first golden age Citizens of the following 55 countries are remains, but of the second, the 15th and 16th Lecturers covered by Uzbekistan’s visa-free regime: centuries, there survives much magnificent Andorra, Australia, Austria, Argentina, architecture, lavishly embellished. Today’s Dr Peter Webb. Arabist and historian, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, walks take in the vast Kalyan Mosque (finished specialising in early and medieval Islam. He Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, 1514) with a capacity of 10,000, several grand has travelled extensively in the Middle East Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, madrassas, the formidable citadel of the khans and Central Asia and has taught at SOAS and Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, and the Zindan, their infamous prison.

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