Bukhara Welcome to Bukhara, where the history is just as rich as anywhere on the Silk Road.  It is a city of scholars, and at one point it was the center of learning for the entire world.  While the West was…

Samarkand Samarkand is old.  Very old.  As in, it is so old it could be featured in an episode of Doctor Who or in an Indiana Jones movie. This city, for many people, is the Silk Road.  The minarets, the colorful tilework that…

Tashkent It’s really hard at first to figure out what to make of Tashkent.  It’s a city of 2.3 million, with an odd blend of Russian and Uzbek influences, a growing restaurant, cultural, and nightlife scene, authoritarian Presidency, near police-state…

Kokand You’ll see little today in Kokand that recalls the city’s former glory as a religious center of Central Asia and capital of the Kokand Khanate during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Though it was at one point second only…

Osh Osh is the second biggest city in Kyrgyzstan and also it’s oldest, with a history going back more than 3,000 years.  Yep, it’s ancient.  However, despite that impressive age and what one would expect to be a plethora of…

Kashgar This is the western edge of China and one of the great market stops on the old Silk Road.  For more than 2000 years, Kashgar has been an important trading post for all of western China.  And it still is…

Kuqa Kuqa (also known as Kucha) is not a pretty place.  This former Tokharian Buddhist city-state on the trail of the old Silk Road is dirty and poor.  It’s divided between an Uyghur Old Town in the west and a…

Turpan Turpan is hot.  Very hot.  It sits in the Turpan Depression, the second lowest point on earth behind the Dead Sea, roasting in the still air.  In Turpan, the summers are very long and boiling hot, the winters are short…

Hami Hami is an old oasis-city along the northern route of the old Silk Road.  Due to it’s strategic location, it has traded hands many, many times between the imperial Chinese, the Mongols, the Uyghurs, and various Turkic Central Asian…

Dunhuang Dunhuang was founded way back in 111 BC by Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty.  It lies at the crossroads of two branches of the old Silk Road, and on the entrance to the Hexi corridor.  Though you wouldn’t…