Sufi Heritage Tour of Uzbekistan

You arrive at Tashkent International Airport, where our driver meets you and takes you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free to rest after the flight and adjust to the time difference. If you land early there is time to walk out to Amir Timur Square or along Broadway before dinner, and your guide will call at the hotel in the evening to run through the programme for the days ahead. Overnight in Tashkent.

You begin at Amir Timur Square and then drive some 18 km to the village of Zangiata to visit the mausoleum of Sheikh Ai-Khodja and his wife, one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the region. Returning to the city you visit the Mausoleum of Sheikh Zayniddin-bobo, associated with the Suhrawardiyya order. In the afternoon you walk through Chorsu Bazaar and along Zarkaynar Street to the Mausoleum of Abu Bakr Kaffal Shashi, and finish at the Islamic Civilization Center, built around one of the oldest Qurans in the world.

This morning you transfer to the domestic terminal for the hour-long flight to Bukhara, the holy land of seven thousand saints. You leave your luggage at the hotel and set out on the first part of the pilgrimage to the seven masters, all of whom lie on the outskirts of the oasis. You visit the tomb of Abduholiq Gijduvaniy in the town of Gijduvan, then that of Hodja Muhammad Orif Ar Revgariy at Shofirkon, the burial place of Hodja Mahmud Anjir Fagnaviy, and the mausoleum of Hodja Ali Rometaniy in the Romitan district.

You continue the pilgrimage with the burial place of Hodja Muhammad Boboyi Samosiy, apprentice of Hodja Ali Rometaniy, and then the tomb of Hazrati Said Mir Kulol. The day builds to the holiest ensemble of the oasis, the shrine of Hazrati Bakhouddin Naqshband in the village of Qasri Orifon, founder of the order that carries his name, where you can sit in the courtyard and watch pilgrims at prayer. You finish at the Chor-Bakr necropolis in Sumiton village, a whole city of tombs and courtyards. Overnight in Bukhara.

Today is given to the old city itself, which grew up around this same tradition of learning. On a walking tour you see the Lyabi-Khauz ensemble around its pool, the Kalyan Minaret with the Kalyan Mosque and the Miri-Arab Madrasah, still a working religious school, the madrasahs of Ulugbek and Abdulazizkhan facing one another across the street, the Chor-Minor gatehouse with its four towers, the Ark Fortress, the Bolo-Khauz Mosque and the Ismail Samani Mausoleum. The afternoon is free.

In the morning you leave Bukhara and drive east to Samarkand, some 290 km and about four hours. On the way you stop at Khartang for the memorial complex of Imam al-Bukhari, the great compiler of the hadith, whose tomb stands under a turquoise dome in a garden of roses. A few kilometres further you visit the burial place of Hazrat Makhdumi A'zam Dahbediy, the Sufi philosopher and a descendant of Hazrat Ali. You arrive in Samarkand in the afternoon and check in, with the evening free.

You start at the Khoja Akhror Vali ensemble on the edge of the city and the shrine of Khoja al-Mansur al-Maturidi, then visit the Bibi-Khanum Mosque and climb the steps of the Shakhi-Zinda necropolis to the tomb of Qusam ibn Abbas, cousin of the Prophet. You continue to the Hazrat Hyzr Mosque above Siab Bazaar. The afternoon brings Registan Square, the Ulugbek Observatory and the Gur-Emir Mausoleum. In the late afternoon you transfer to the station for the high-speed Afrosiyob train to Tashkent.

After breakfast and check-out you have free time until your transfer, and your guide can suggest a last stop — the Khast-Imam Complex again for a quieter look at the Tillya-Sheikh Mosque, or Chorsu Bazaar for gifts to take home. There is also time to sit over tea and talk through everything you have seen over the past week. You are then driven to Tashkent International Airport for your onward flight. This marks the end of your Sufi heritage tour of Uzbekistan.