By train around Uzbekistan: to the Samarkand of the Silk Road

Writer: Helena Bergström

When visiting Uzbekistan, you don't want to miss Samarkand - the city of fairy tales, and one of the greatest sights in the country. We travelled here on the Afrosiyob high-speed train and had just under two days to explore the city.

Arriving in Samarkand - the city of fairy tales

We arrived by train from Zomin National Park, and the train journey from Dashtobod station took no more than an hour. If we had travelled all the way from Tashkent, we would have had to count on 2.5 hours, roughly.

Samarkand welcomed us - with a local festival

We were visiting Uzbekistan on a press trip, and when we arrived in Samarkand we were eight writers from Sweden, Norway and France. A little while later, when we got into the minibus, there were twelve of us. To our surprise, four Spanish writers were waiting in the car.

Our local guides drove us straight to a local festival. We had no idea what to expect, but when a fellow traveller asked us at the end of the trip what we thought had been the best part of the week, it was actually this festival I immediately mentioned ...

The local festival, usually organised once a year, was held on the outskirts of the town and, as we understood it, the aim was to showcase products from local producers, accompanied by music and dancing. The small stalls included vegetables, clothes, wine and brandy - a drink that turned out to be very good and which we bought a bottle of later in the trip.

We were probably the only outsiders at this small local festival, and the most amazing thing happened when we approached the tables of dressed-up and festive people. They immediately welcomed us with nuts, dried fruit and other goodies, and they immediately invited us to dance. It was a wonderful moment, full of joy and laughter, that we will never forget.

Registan - the main attraction in Samarkand

When we felt ready for the festival, we set out to spend two days exploring Samarkand's major attractions, many of which are part of the UNESCO heritage site ”Samarkand - Crossroads of Cultures”.

The Registan, Samarkand's historic square, is the city's greatest attraction. Home to three madrassas - historic Islamic centres of learning - the area is incredibly grand and beautiful.

You can wander around the various courtyards and be fascinated by the architecture, mosaics and colours.

Registan in the evening - with a spectacular light show

If you want to have an extraordinary experience, you can go to Registan in the evening. During the high season, a light show is performed here every evening at 20:00. For 50 minutes, the buildings are illuminated and different stories come to life, using both visual effects and a dramatic voice-over.

Shakh-i-Zinda - ”the living king”

Another interesting place to visit in Samarkand is Shakh-i-Zinda, which means ”the living king”. The complex, built from the 11th to the 19th centuries, includes more than 20 impressive mausoleums. Several important people are buried here, such as the preacher Kusam ibn Abbas and several relatives of Timur Lenk.

As well as being a sacred and historically important site, it's an incredibly beautiful setting, and it's hard to stop taking photos when you're here.

Amir Timur's mausoleum

Another important place to visit in Samarkand is the mausoleum of Amir Timur. Amir Temur, or Timur Lenk as he is commonly known, was born in 1336 in what is now Uzbekistan and was a successful yet brutal Turkic-Mongol warlord. During his reign, he expanded the Timurid territory from present-day Turkey to India, in an attempt to recreate the former empire of Genghis Khan.

On the way to China, Amir Timur died of pneumonia and he was brought back to Samarkand, where he was buried. And yes, today this is both an interesting and beautiful sight!

More attractions in Samarkand

In addition to these sights, there is a lot more to see in Samarkand and we had time for a visit to Ulug Beg's observatory. Ulug Beg, who was born in 1394, was known as the greatest astronomer of his time and compiled a star catalogue with no less than 1018 stars.

We also checked out the maosuleum of St Daniel. St Daniel, who depending on the religion may also be called Khoja Daniyar or Dānīyyēʾl, is buried on the outskirts of Samarkand, next to a spring of holy water.

Samarkand Bukhara Silk Carpets

We also went to Samarkand Bukhara Silk Carpets - a visit that everyone in the group greatly appreciated. Samarkand, which once lay along the famous Silk Road, is known for its carpets and silk products. At Samarkand Bukhara Silk Carpets, visitors get an introduction to the manufacturing process and techniques, which is very, very interesting.

Anyone who wants to can also shop, and several of our group left with beautiful scarves.

Tourist village of Konigil

We also had time to visit the tourist village of Konigil, where they show how paper was made in the past. To this day, paper is still made by hand to some extent in this way, for handmade products such as postcards, decorations and dolls.

Konigil is relatively central in Samarkand, and at the same time scenic with rippling water and greenery. When we were there, they were preparing for a show a little later, which meant we saw many many people dressed up in beautiful traditional clothes, and they were happy to pose for photos!

Restaurant visit in Samarkand

During our two days in Samarkand we had two lunches and two dinners. As we described before, restaurants in Uzbekistan are quite different from restaurants in our part of the world - the premises are often large and often lavishly decorated, and the parties that visit the restaurants are also often large. It seems that people like to go out to restaurants in groups - and dancing is also very popular!

Shashlik IP

One restaurant that we found very cosy was Shashlik UZ, where you can sit outside as well as inside.

Here we had a salad with vegetables and meat and a dish with courgettes for starters. For the main course we had lamb, beef and chicken.

Oshqand

On another occasion, we ate at the Oshqand restaurant, and here we all went for the national dish plov. This immensely popular dish only must to eat at least once when visiting Uzbekistan. The dish consists of rice with oil, meat and vegetables such as carrots and chickpeas.

Manhattan

One evening we had dinner at the Manhattan restaurant in Samarkand.

As usual, the meal started with various tasty salads.

We ordered beer to drink, which is usually perfectly fine in Uzbekistan, although it may not be so clearly signposted, and may not always be on the menus. In this case, the beer was served in large plastic bottles, which is how it is sold from kegs, via vendors in town. The main course was a large communal tray with beef, lamb, chicken and beef steaks.

Afrosiyob

The very last meal in Samarkand, before we had to rush to a late evening train, was taken at the Afrosiyob restaurant. Here we had a Greek salad as a starter and a broth soup with meatballs and noodles, before a shared tray of meat was brought in.

Do you think that a lot of meat seems to be served in Uzbekistan? Yes, that is a correct reflection. Uzbeks love meat. If you are a vegetarian, you can find things like vegetarian salads, vegetable or lentil soups, breads, pies, dumplings and fried dumplings filled with spinach or pumpkin, for example. Note, however, that there is often meat in everything (including soups, salads and pies), so you need to be clear when ordering.

Where did we live in Samarkand?

During our visit to Samarkand we stayed at De Villa Hotel, which is a nice hotel that also has a central and good location.

The train chugged on towards ... Bukhara!

We spent just under two days in Samarkand, and we can highly recommend this historically interesting and fabulously beautiful city! For our part, the train now continued to chug on, from Samarkand to Bukhara. To be continued!