Silk Road Photography Expedition

You are met at Tashkent International Airport and transferred to your hotel. Once you have settled, your guide takes you out for a first afternoon of shooting: the Courage Monument, then the old city with the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi and the Khast-Imam Complex, whose courtyard empties beautifully towards evening. You finish among the fruit pyramids and bread stalls of Chorsu Bazaar and ride the Tashkent Metro, whose Soviet-era stations are now open to the camera. Overnight in Tashkent.

A morning transfer takes you to the station for the Afrosiyob high-speed train to Samarkand, a journey of two hours and ten minutes. Your guide and driver meet you on arrival and, after check-in, you begin with Gur-Emir, the mausoleum of Timur, whose ribbed dome and gilded interior reward a long lens. As the afternoon lengthens you move to Registan Square for golden hour and stay on into the blue hour, when the three madrasahs are lit and the crowds thin. Overnight in Samarkand.

You start at first light on the stepped lane of Shah-i-Zinda, where the tiled mausoleums are at their best before the pilgrim groups arrive and the walls hold reflected colour. Afterwards you photograph the ruined scale of the Bibi-Khanum Mosque, then cross the road to Siab Bazaar for portrait work among the bread bakers, spice sellers and dried-fruit stalls. The afternoon is spent at the Ulugbek Observatory and its buried sextant, with free time before an evening return to the old city. Overnight in Samarkand.

This morning you visit the Afrasiab Museum and the archaeological hill behind it, where the seventh-century murals give context to everything else you will shoot, and continue to the Tomb of Saint Daniel. You then drive out to Konigil village, where mulberry bark is beaten into Samarkand paper at a restored water mill — dim, steamy interiors and craftsmen's hands, a change of register from the monuments. The rest of the day is free, with car and driver at your disposal for a return to any location. Overnight in Samarkand.

After breakfast you leave Samarkand and drive west to Bukhara (280 km, about four hours), stopping at the eleventh-century Rabat-i-Malik Caravanserai, where the surviving portal stands alone in open steppe and photographs well in hard midday light. You reach Bukhara in the afternoon and check in close to the old town, then walk out for an unhurried first look at the Lyabi-Khauz pond, the Chor-Minor Madrasah and the lanes around them as the sun drops. Overnight in Bukhara.

You are out early for the Kalyan ensemble, when the minaret throws a long shadow across the empty courtyard of the Kalyan Mosque and the Miri-Arab Madrasah catches the first warm light. From there you work the covered trading domes and the workshops beneath them — coppersmiths, knife makers, miniature painters — then the Magoki-Attori Mosque and the Ulugbek and Abdulazizkhan madrasahs facing one another across the lane. The evening is free for rooftop views over the old city. Overnight in Bukhara.

The morning is given to the Ark Fortress, whose sloping walls and gate ramp are best shot early, and to the Bolo-Khauz Mosque opposite, with its painted columns doubled in the pool. You continue to the Ismail Samani Mausoleum, a cube of woven brickwork that changes character hour by hour, and to Chashma-Ayub. In the afternoon you drive out to Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the last emir's summer palace, and to the Chor-Bakr necropolis, a quiet field of domes and courtyards at sunset. Overnight in Bukhara.

Today you cross the Kyzylkum desert to Khiva (480 km, seven to eight hours), following the route that Silk Road caravans used for centuries. You stop where the dunes and camel tracks come close to the road and again at the Amu Darya crossing, so the drive doubles as a shooting day. Cafés en route are basic, so a packed lunch is arranged the evening before. You arrive in Khiva in the late afternoon, in time to check in and be out on the walls of Ichan-Kala for sunset. Overnight in Khiva.

You go out at dawn while the walled town is still empty, climbing for the classic view over the flat roofs to the stump of Kalta-Minor and the Islam-Khoja minaret, the tallest in Uzbekistan. After breakfast you photograph the 213 carved wooden columns inside the Juma Mosque, the tiled courtyards of the Tash-Khovli Palace, the Mukhammad Aminkhan and Mukhammad Rahimkhan madrasahs and the Pakhlavan Makhmud Mausoleum. The afternoon is free to work the alleys, and you return to the walls for a last sunset. Overnight in Khiva.

A final early walk inside Ichan-Kala catches the town waking up, with bread ovens lit and the gates still quiet. After breakfast and check-out you have free time for any frame you missed before the transfer to Urgench airport (30 km, 45 minutes) for the flight to Tashkent. You are met on arrival and driven to your hotel or on to Tashkent International Airport for your homeward flight. End of the Silk Road Photography Expedition.