The most famous city of modern Uzbekistan and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city of Samarkand, 2,750-year old World Heritage city was the great in Central Asia in its time and has great significance to the Silk Road. Made famous by James Flecker’s poem, The Golden Road to Samarkand, no other city is more reminiscent of the Silk Road history. Samarkand positioned at the crossroads of the world’s greatest trade routes, and the city was founded in the seventh century BC and became part of Alexander the Great’s empire and later was the centre of the silk trade.

Samarkand must see is Registan Square, its dome and minarets are visible from every point of the city. Of the three madrassahs schools in Registan Square, Ulugbek Madrassah is the oldest, dating from 1412. Covered in impressive mosaic floral patterns made in islimi style, and has a tall portal decorated with astral patters and houses over 100 students to live in.

Explore the ancient architecture of Bibi Khanum Mosque the distinctive blue dome which towers above the city and the ancient fort-city of Afrasiab – also an important stop along the Silk Road and the centre of the Sogdian Empire.  The museum at Afrasiab is filled with artefacts, including crockery, tools, coins, terracotta statuettes and the enormous mural paintings which were rescued from the palace of a Sogdian ruler in the 7^th century. Over the history of this legendary city on the Silk Road, Poets and historians of the past has called Samarkand, “The pearl of the Eastern Muslim World”.