by Elle Morena

Created on: September 01, 2011

The land of mosques, mausoleums and madrassahs, the Republic of Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia and is land locked bordering ex-Soviet nations such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan was part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century and since 1991 it is now an independent nation.

The Uzbek language is widely spoken together with Russian and 90% of the population is Muslim with remainder Orthodox Russian. Comparatively, Uzbekistan is the poorer neighbor compared to Kazakhstan and economically it depends on minerals and natural gas. If travelling to both countries, the contrast of the wealth of the nations and their population is clearly visible by the infrastructure, the population and the residential houses and cars that are on the roads.

Uzbekistan has very little rain and is a relatively dry country with less that 10% irrigated land and the rest the Kyzyl Kum dessert and mountains. The highest peak is Mount Khazret Sultan at 4,643meters. Its summers are hot at above 40 degree Celcious and its winters below -20 degree Celcious.

In the times of antiquity, Iranian nomads started their trade travel from the west to the east and cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand were part of the silk route cities that traders took trading their wares from the west, through the Middle East and right through to China. Bukhara and Samarkand were once very wealthy cities and this could be seen from the ancient structures that were once stood vibrant cities during the silk route trading era. These fortress cities have huge caravansaries, where merchants of various tribes congregate and goods are inter trader amongst traders plying the silk route. In addition to trade and economics, the cities were also rich in cultural, education and religion.

Against the backdrop of ancient Islamic fortress cities, in a mostly brown dry flat steppe semi dessert environment and clear cloudless blue skies, together with centuries of historical influences from invasions from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan, the three important cities of Bukhara, Samakand and Khiva provides an interesting travel destination to those heading to Uzbekistan.

We flew into Tashkent, the Capital City of Uzbekistan amidst Russian language signage and difficulty in communicating with immigration officers. We were met by our Russian tour director and to a briefing of our one week tour proper of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, by-passing Urgench. It is recommended

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