Things to Do
Siab Bazaar: Samarkand's Main Market
What to buy at Samarkand's big market next to Bibi-Khanym: the bread, the halva, the dried fruit and nuts, plus prices, timing and how to bargain.
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Food & Drink
Vegetarian and Vegan Food in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is hard for vegetarians and manageable with a plan: what to order, the phrases that work, the hidden meat to watch for, where to eat in each city.
Destinations
Fergana City: The Valley's Leafy Base
A Russian-built garden city with wide avenues and little to see, and the most practical place to sleep while you visit Margilan, Rishtan and Kokand.
Things to Do
Hazrat Khizr Mosque, Samarkand
The mosque on the edge of Afrasiyab: a painted wooden verandah, the best free view of Bibi-Khanym, and the tomb of Uzbekistan's first president.
Food & Drink
Uzbek Melons and the Fruit Season
A month-by-month guide to Uzbekistan's fruit: which melons to buy, when apricots, cherries, grapes and pomegranates arrive, and how to shop at a bazaar.
Destinations
Namangan Travel Guide
The Fergana Valley's largest city: the Mullah Kyrgyz madrasah, Babur park, the flower festival, and how to use Namangan as a base for Chust and Chartak.
Things to Do
Chashma-Ayub Mausoleum and Bukhara's Water Museum
A conical dome that belongs 600 km away, a spring said to have been struck from the ground by Job, and a small museum about the thing Bukhara never had.
Destinations
Boysun: A UNESCO Culture Space in the Mountains
A mountain district in southern Uzbekistan where pre-Islamic custom survives, recognised by UNESCO in 2001: the spring festival, villages and access.
Culture & History
Sarmishsay Petroglyphs
Thousands of rock carvings in a gorge near Navoi, some of them 10,000 years old: what you see, how to find them, and whether the detour is worth it.
Things to Do
Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan Madrasahs, Bukhara
Two madrasahs facing each other across a Bukhara street, built 235 years apart: restraint on one side, everything the craftsmen knew on the other.