Shakhrisabz & Southern Uzbekistan

You are met at Tashkent International Airport and transferred to your hotel. Your guide then takes you into the Old City for the Khast-Imam complex, which holds one of the oldest Qurans in the world, and the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi, before you browse the food rows of Chorsu Bazaar. A ride on the tiled Tashkent metro brings you to the modern centre for the State Museum of Applied Arts and Amir Timur Square. There is an early start tomorrow, so dinner is nearby. Overnight in Tashkent.

You transfer to the railway station for the morning Afrosiyob high-speed train, which covers the 300 km to Samarkand in a little over two hours. Your guide meets you and the day is given to the city: Registan Square with its three madrasahs, the ruined immensity of the Bibi-Khanum Mosque, the tiled alley of the Shakhi-Zinda necropolis, the underground sextant arc of the Ulugbek Observatory and finally the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, where Timur, his sons and his grandson Ulugbek are buried. Overnight in Samarkand.

After breakfast you drive south over the Takhtakaracha pass, stopping at the village of Langar high in the hills to see the mausoleum and mosque of Muhammad Sodiq, where the painted wooden ceiling has survived since the sixteenth century. You reach Shakhrisabz for lunch. The afternoon covers the two surviving pylons of the Ak-Saray Palace, the Dor-us Saodat complex with the mausoleum of Jakhongir and Timur's own empty crypt, and Dor-ut Tilavat with the Kok-Gumbaz Mosque. Overnight in Shakhrisabz.

A long and rewarding drive today, roughly 300 km and five hours south through Guzar and the Derbent gorge, the narrow pass the ancient geographers called the Iron Gates, and down onto the hot Surkhandarya plain. You arrive in Termez in the afternoon and start gently with the Sultan Saodat ensemble, an avenue of brick mausoleums of the local sayyid dynasty, and the Kokildor-Ota khanaka. From the riverbank you can see across the Amu Darya into Afghanistan. Overnight in Termez.

A full day among the ruins of one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. You visit the fortress of Kirk-Kiz, a Samanid summer residence, and the weathered brick core of the Zurmala stupa standing alone in a field. The Buddhist sites follow: the cave cells of Kara-Tepa above the river and the temple complex of Fayaz-Tepa, where a famous limestone triad was found. You also see the mausoleum of Al-Hakim at-Termezi and the Archaeology Museum. In the evening you fly to Tashkent. Overnight in Tashkent.

A relaxed final morning. Depending on your flight time there is a chance to go back for anything you missed in the capital, whether that is the ceramics and suzani of the State Museum of Applied Arts, a last walk round Chorsu Bazaar for dried apricots and spices, or simply coffee in the shade on Amir Timur Square. You check out by noon and are transferred to Tashkent International Airport for your onward flight. End of your southern Uzbekistan journey.