Zoroastrian & Buddhist Uzbekistan

You are met at the airport and transferred to your hotel, with check-in around midday. Your guided introduction to the capital starts at the State Museum of History, whose collection covers the Zoroastrian and Buddhist periods, including finds from Bactria and Sogdiana. You then visit the archaeological site of Ming Urik, an early settlement in the middle of the modern city where a fire temple was excavated, and walk through the old town, Chorsu Bazaar, Independence Square and Amir Timur Square. Overnight in Tashkent.

A morning flight takes you 661 km south to Termez, close to the Afghan border, in about two hours. Your driver and guide meet you and sightseeing begins in what was one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. You visit the Kokildor-Ota Khanaka, the Kyrk-Kyz fortress, a summer residence of the Samanid rulers, the Sultan Saodat ensemble and the Zurmala Tower, the eroded core of a Buddhist stupa. You continue to the monastery sites of Kara-Tepe and Fayaz-Tepe and the Mausoleum of Al-Hakim at-Termezi.

A full day around Termez. You drive north-east to Kampyr-Tepe, a Greco-Bactrian fortress above the old course of the Amu Darya, about 35 km away, then continue to the Jarkurgan Minaret with its fluted brickwork. Driving back you take in the views over the Surkhan oasis and the Friendship Bridge that links Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, and finish at the Archaeological Museum, which holds the finds from the sites you have seen. Overnight in Termez.

This morning you leave Termez for Samarkand, some 375 km and around five and a half hours north through the mountains of Surkhandarya and the Kashkadarya valley, a spectacular drive with stops for photographs and lunch on the way. You arrive in Samarkand in the late afternoon and check in to your hotel. The evening is free, and the Registan is worth the short walk once the facades are floodlit.

A full day in Samarkand, weighted towards its pre-Islamic layer. You start with the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, the Registan Square and the remains of the Bibi-Khanum Mosque, then cross to Afrasiab, the 212-hectare mound of the original city, where excavation is still going on. The Afrasiab Museum beside it displays a model of the ancient city and its walls, pottery, weapons, coins and altars, and above all the seventh-century Sogdian murals. Overnight in Samarkand.

You leave in the morning for Bukhara, 280 km and about four hours west, stopping at the eleventh-century Rabat-i-Malik caravanserai whose great portal still stands beside the road. Arriving in the late afternoon you drive to Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the summer residence of Bukhara's last emir, where oriental and Russian styles are combined, and then to the Mausoleum of Bakhouddin Naqshbandi, founder of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. Overnight in Bukhara.

A walking day through the old city with your guide. You take in the Lyabi-Khauz ensemble, the Magoki-Attori Mosque, which stands on the site of a pre-Islamic temple, the Chor-Minor Madrasah, the covered trade domes, the Kalyan Minaret with the Kalyan Mosque and Miri-Arab Madrasah, the Ulugbek and Abdulazizkhan madrasahs, the Ark Fortress, the Bolo-Khauz Mosque and the Ismail Samani and Chashma-Ayub mausoleums. Overnight in Bukhara.

Today you drive the 480 km between Bukhara and Khiva, seven to eight hours across the Kyzylkum Desert on the line the Silk Road caravans followed for centuries. You stop for views of the sand and the Amu Darya; because roadside cafes on this stretch are basic, it is worth asking your hotel or guide to arrange a packed lunch the day before. You reach Khiva late in the afternoon, check in and have the evening at leisure inside the old walls.

A day inside Itchan Kala, the walled inner town and a UNESCO World Heritage site. You visit the Mukhammad Aminkhan and Mukhammad Rahimkhan madrasahs, the unfinished turquoise drum of Kalta-Minor, the Juma Mosque with its 213 carved wooden columns, the Tash-Khovli Palace, the Mausoleum of Pakhlavan Makhmud and the Islam-Khoja Minaret, the tallest in Uzbekistan. The afternoon is free to wander the lanes, watch the wood carvers at work or climb onto the walls at sunset.

A day among the fortresses of ancient Khorezm. You visit Toprak-Kala, the residence of the Khorezmian rulers in the third century AD and the most fully excavated of the group, then Gyaur-Kala, whose name means the fortress of the infidels, and Koykirilgan-Kala. You finish at Ayaz-Kala, one of the largest fortresses of the Kushan period, held by frontier garrisons nearly nineteen centuries ago, and settle into the yurt camp below it for dinner and the night.

After breakfast you drive north to Nukus, stopping at Chilpyk, the great ring of walls on a hill above the Amu Darya that served as a Zoroastrian dakhma, or tower of silence. In Nukus you visit the Savitsky Karakalpakstan Art Museum, with the world's second largest collection of Russian avant-garde art and a fine Karakalpak applied-art display, and drive past the Berdakh statue, the city hall and the drama theatre. An evening flight returns you to Tashkent.

Check-out is at noon, leaving the morning free. If time allows you could visit the Islamic Civilisation Centre near the Khast-Imam Complex, look in at the State Museum of Applied Arts or return to Chorsu Bazaar for last purchases. Your driver then takes you to Tashkent International Airport for your onward flight, bringing your twelve-day journey through Zoroastrian and Buddhist Uzbekistan to a close.