Boysun & Surkhandarya Heritage Trail

You are met at Tashkent International Airport and driven to your hotel. Once you have settled in, your guide takes you into the Old City for the Khast-Imam complex and the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi, then on to Chorsu Bazaar under its great green dome, where the spice and dried-fruit rows are the best introduction to Uzbek food you will get. You ride a stop or two on the tiled Tashkent metro into the modern centre, finishing at Amir Timur Square and the Courage Monument, which marks the earthquake of 1966. Overnight in Tashkent.

An early transfer takes you to the domestic terminal for the morning flight to Termez, 661 km south and about two hours by air. Your driver and guide meet you on arrival and you start straight away in one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. You visit the Kokildor-Ota khanaka, the fortress of Kirk-Kiz, a summer residence of the Samanid rulers, and the Sultan Saodat ensemble, a long avenue of mausoleums of the Termezi sayyids. The day ends at the mausoleum of Al-Hakim at-Termezi above the river. Overnight in Termez.

After breakfast you drive north-west to Kampyr-Tepe, a Greco-Bactrian fortress on a bluff above the old course of the Amu Darya, about 35 km and an hour away. You continue to the eleventh-century Jarkurgan Minaret with its fluted brick shaft, then return towards Termez past views of the Surkhan oasis and the Friendship Bridge into Afghanistan. The afternoon is given to the Buddhist sites: the cave monastery of Kara-Tepa, the temple complex of Fayaz-Tepa and the eroded brick core of the Zurmala stupa, followed by the Archaeology Museum. Overnight in Termez.

You leave the Amu Darya behind and drive north through Sherabad and the dry gorges below the Kohitang ridge, climbing steadily into the Hissar foothills until the road reaches Boysun, roughly 150 km and three hours from Termez. The town sits among walnut and apricot orchards with the mountains at its back. In the afternoon you walk through the bazaar and visit local craftswomen who still embroider the distinctive Boysun suzani and weave the striped chapan coats worn at village celebrations. Overnight in a family-run guesthouse.

A full day in the Boysun district, the living heritage that gives this trip its name. You drive out to the mineral spring at Omonxona, set in a wooded valley below the ridge, and walk a stretch of the Machay gorge where shepherds still bring their flocks up in spring. Your guide explains the Boysun bahori spring festival, the songs, the rope-walking and the doira drumming that UNESCO recognised. Lunch is with a village family, and there is time in the afternoon to sit with musicians before returning to your guesthouse. Overnight in Boysun.

You set off early and cross the mountains north through the Derbent gorge, the narrow defile the ancient sources call the Iron Gates, where the road out of Bactria was once controlled from a single toll post. Arriving in Shakhrisabz you visit the towering remains of Timur's Ak-Saray Palace, the Dor-us Saodat complex with the mausoleum of his son Jakhongir, and the Dor-ut Tilavat ensemble with the blue-domed Kok-Gumbaz Mosque. In the late afternoon you drive over the Takhtakaracha pass to Samarkand. Overnight in Samarkand.

The last morning is spent in Samarkand. You stand in Registan Square between the Ulugbek, Sher-Dor and Tilya-Kori madrasahs, then walk to the ribbed turquoise dome of the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, where Timur is buried, and finish with time at Siab Bazaar for pomegranates and Samarkand flatbread. In the afternoon you board the Afrosiyob high-speed train to Tashkent, a journey of a little over two hours, and are transferred to the airport for your onward flight. End of your Surkhandarya journey.