Uzbekistan Jewish Heritage Tour

You arrive in Tashkent, where our driver meets you and transfers you to your hotel; check-in is available from 14:00. The remainder of the day is free to rest. Your guide will call at the hotel to introduce the itinerary and answer questions about the communities and sites you will visit. If you would like to eat kosher during the trip, this is the point to confirm arrangements, which we make in advance in each city. Overnight in Tashkent.

Your guide and driver meet you at the hotel for a full day in the capital. You start in the Old City at the Khast-Imam Complex, then visit the Centre of Rishtan Ceramics in the restored Kallakhon Madrasah and walk through Chorsu Bazaar. A ride on the Tashkent Metro brings you to the city centre and the Bukharan Jewish Orthodox Sephardic Synagogue, one of the oldest still functioning in the city. Nearby is Beth Menachem, the European synagogue at the centre of the Ashkenazi community. You finish by walking past the Navoi Theatre to Amir Timur Square.

In the morning you transfer to the railway station for the Afrosiyob high-speed train to Samarkand, about two hours ten minutes. Your guide and driver meet you on arrival and the city tour begins at Registan Square, the heart of Timurid Samarkand, flanked by the Ulugbek, Sher-Dor and Tilla-Kari madrasahs. You continue to the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, resting place of Amir Timur and his descendants, then to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque, the stalls of Siab Bazaar and the hillside remains of the Ulugbek Observatory. Overnight in Samarkand.

The day opens at the Shakhi-Zinda Necropolis, an ascending avenue of tiled mausoleums built for the nobility of the city. You then visit the Gumbaz Synagogue, a working nineteenth-century synagogue that has kept its original domed interior and remains a centre of Jewish life in Samarkand, followed by the Tomb of Saint Daniel and the Bukharan Jewish cemetery, where headstones carry Hebrew inscriptions going back two centuries. In the afternoon you drive to Konigil village to watch Samarkand paper being made from mulberry bark.

A morning transfer to the station for the Afrosiyob train to Bukhara, roughly one hour forty-five minutes. On arrival your tour takes in the Kalyan Minaret and Mosque, the Miri-Arab Madrasah, the Magoki-Attori Mosque, the Ulugbek and Abdulaziz-Khan madrasahs, the covered trading domes and the Lyabi-Hauz ensemble. You then walk into the Old Jewish Mahalla, a few minutes from Lyabi-Hauz, to visit the house museum and a family synagogue and to wander streets still home to descendants of the Bukharan Jewish community.

You begin with the Bukharan synagogue and the House Museum of Fayzulla Khodjaev, then the old Jewish cemetery with its Hebrew inscriptions and traditional symbols. Continuing through the city you see the Ark Fortress, the Bolo-Hauz Mosque with its painted wooden columns, and the Ismail Samani and Chashma-Ayub mausoleums. A short drive out of town brings you to Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, summer residence of the last emir. In the late afternoon you take the Afrosiyob train back to Tashkent. Overnight in Tashkent.

At 09:00 you leave for the Chimgan Mountains (80 km, 1.5–2 hours), the road running through villages, orchards and streams. At Amirsoy you take the Amirsoy Express cable car up to the resort, then a second gondola to the Kumbel Ridge at 2,300 metres, where the whole western Tian Shan opens up with Big Chimgan at 3,309 metres. After lunch and free time at the resort you drive to the Charvak Reservoir viewpoint (37 km, 45 minutes), stopping at the Bochka parking area, and return to Tashkent by early evening.

You check out of the hotel at noon, with free time until your transfer. Depending on your flight there may be room for a final visit — the State Museum of Applied Arts, or a last hour at Chorsu Bazaar. Your driver then takes you to Tashkent International Airport for your onward flight. This is the end of your Uzbekistan Jewish Heritage Tour with Naseem's Travel.