11 days - Tashkent - Samarkand - Shakhrisabz - Bukhara - Khiva - Qala - Chimgan

11 days - Tashkent - Samarkand - Shakhrisabz - Bukhara - Khiva - Qala - Chimgan

Day 1
Meeting at the Tashkent airport
Hotel accommodation.
Excursion around Tashkent with a guide and a car.
Visiting the Khast-Imam complex, formed around the grave of the prominent Muslim scholar Khazrati Imam.
Here in the library, you will have the opportunity to see the Osman Koran (the oldest surviving Koran in the world).
Continue to the Barakhana Madrasah near the Hastimom mahalla,
After the complex you will visit the Chorsu market, the largest in Central Asia.
After visiting the market, you will head to the Iconic Plov Center, where you can see and taste the process of making pilaf.
After lunch, you will visit the Museum of Stalinist Repressions
Then we head to Mustakillik Square, exit to Broadway. We follow to the square of Amir Temur, where his monument is located.

Day 2
In the morning, at 07:00 transfer to the railway station. Transfer to Samarkand by high-speed train Afrosiab.
Meeting in Samarkand with a guide and a car.
Most of the main attractions of Samarkand are the creations of Timur, his grandson Ulugbek and the Uzbek Sheibanids.
The Gur-Emir Mausoleum is the burial place of Timur, his 2 sons and 2 grandchildren.
Stop at the majestic Registan, the trading center of medieval Samarkand and a huge bazaar.
Walk along the street of Shah-i-Zinda tombs. The name means the tomb of the Living King.
The Bibi-Khanum Mosque, built shortly before Timur's death and named after his Chinese wife.
Visit the Ulugbek observatory, you will see the remains of a huge astrolabe.
Hotel accommodation

Day 3
Excursion Samarkand - Shakhrisabe
The shortest way from Samarkand to Shakhrisabz runs through the picturesque Aman-Kutan pass. This is a narrow winding road rising to a height of 1650 meters above sea level.
In the mountains you will have a picnic (Besh Chinor), where you can taste the meat of a young lamb cooked in a tandoor on juniper twigs.
One of the main attractions of Shakhrisabz is the palace of Amir Timur Aksaray
The complex is called Dorus-Saodat (Dorussiadat), which in translation into Russian means "receptacle of power."
The burial ensemble Dorut-Tillyavat (translated as “Place of Reflections”) dates back to the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th centuries.
Mosque "Kok - Gumbaz" Translated into Russian, "Kok - Gumbaz" means "Blue Dome". The mosque was built in 1435 on the skeletons of an earlier building

Day 4
At 09:00 departure to the yurt camp on the shore of Lake Aydarkul
The first stop will be the city of Nurata, 180 km from Samarkand
Holy spring and mosque Choshma, where you can enjoy and drink ice-cold spring water.
We will also visit the remains of the sentinel fortress of Alexander the Great in the spurs of the Nurata Range.
In a private guest house we will stop for lunch
After lunch we will head to the yurt camp of Aydarkul Lake. Accommodation in yurts. Acquaintance with the surroundings, camel trekking in the Kyzyl Kum desert.
After dinner, tourists gather around the fire and spend the evening listening to the music and songs of the akyn (folk singer of Central Asia)

Day 5
After breakfast departure to Bukhara.
On the way, in the spurs of the Nurata Range, you can see the rock paintings of an ancient man dating back to 100,000 BC.
Further on your way there will be a stop near the Caravanserai (XI-XII) and the Sardoba well, which were located on the Great Silk Road.

In the city of Gijduvan you will visit the artistic dynasty of the world-famous masters of ceramics Narzullavs.
You will get acquainted with the entire process of production of ceramic products, including the preparation of clay mass and dyes, molding and painting of finished products and their subsequent firing.
In the evening, accommodation at the hotel in Bukhara.

Day 6
Bukhara
Walking tour of the city
Buildings included in the UNESCO list, with a thousand-year history.
The tour includes the Ark Citadel, which is the residence of the Bukhara khans, the Kalyan minaret, known as the Tower of Death (in the Middle Ages, criminals were thrown to their deaths from the top) and the Samanid mausoleum of the 9th century.

dynastic mausoleum of the Samanids in the historical center of Bukhara (Uzbekistan), built at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries
Madrassah of Abdullah Khan (uzb. Abdullaxon madrasasi) - a medieval building of a higher educational institution
The Chashma-Ayub mausoleum is a religious building in the center of Bukhara, it includes a mausoleum and a sacred spring.
Madrassah Nodir-Divan-Begi is a madrasah in Bukhara, part of the architectural ensemble of the 16th-17th centuries Lyabi-Khauz.
You will relax with a cup of fragrant green tea in Lyabi-Hauz, a quiet square overlooking the pool, which was created in 1620. It sits in the shade of mulberry trees as old as the pool.

This evening you will attend an open-air folklore show with dinner, which includes national dances, performance of music on national instruments and a fashion show of national clothes.

Day 7
Bukhara. Country excursion.
The Emir's summer palace and the Chor-Bakr necropolis near Bukhara ("memorial complex of the four brothers"), also known as the City of the Dead.
The Sitorai-Mohi-Khosa Palace (Uzb. Sitorai Mohi Khossa Saroyi - Palace like the stars and the moon) is the country residence of the Emir of Bukhara, built in the late 19th - early 20th centuries.
Madrassah Caliph Niyozkuli (Niyazkuli) (better known as Chor-Minor - translated as Four Minarets
The Baha ad-Din complex is a cult ensemble located in the suburban area of Bukhara. The complex served as the center of the Nakshbandi dervish order.

Day 8
Transfer from Bukhara to Khiva by car (420 km)
Our road will run through one of the largest deserts - Kyzyl Kum, through the city of Gazli, along the bed of the Amu Darya River.
There will be a stop at the observation deck where the Amu Darya River is the border between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
A stop for lunch will be at a cafe where you will taste fresh Amu Darya fish.
Hotel accommodation.

Day 9
Walking tour of Khiva.
During the tour you will immerse yourself in the history of this ancient city. Once the main slave market of Central Asia, Khiva retains the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. You will visit the minarets of the famous madrasahs, gates and powerful walls of the Ichan-Kala fortress. To see the elegantly decorated wooden columns of the mosques of the 10th century and the amazing oriental Khiva baths, you just need to get into the part of the old city to contemplate all the splendor of the ancient oriental architecture.

Day 10
Khiva – Kyzylkum Desert – Khiva
Visiting ancient fortresses
In the Kyzylkum desert, on the motley cliffs of one of the eastern spurs of the Sultauizdag, the ruins of one of the largest fortresses of Ancient Khorezm, Ayaz-Kala, rise.
Also nearby are other fortresses - Kyzyl Kala and Toprak Kala.
Lunch on the shore of Akcha Kul lake in the yurt camp Ayaz kaly..
Upon returning to Khiva, you will have a master class on cooking the national Khiva dish in the family of a local resident.
Evening flight to Tashkent. Meeting in Tashkent, hotel accommodation.

Day 11
After breakfast, departure to the Chimgan tract, spurs of the Western Tien Shan
Moving along the mountain serpentine, we climb the sandy pass, 1830m high, descend to the Chimgan tract, where you can enjoy the clean mountain air. Trekking on horseback, ride a cable car.
Then we descend to the Charvak reservoir, which is formed by the confluence of three mountain rivers - Chatkal, Koksu and Pskem. We pass the Charvak dam 300m high. Then we go down to the village of Khodjikent, where the oldest 700-year-old plane tree (plane tree) is located. Encampment of an ancient man, rock paintings.
We have lunch at the national teahouse.
In the evening we return to Tashkent.