UZBEKISTAN BY RAIL
Clockwise from top left: In Samarkand, Registan was once the ceremonial and commercial heart of the Silk Road; ceramic traditions dating back centuries are still preserved in Uzbekistan; the Fann Mountains have more than 30 alpine lakes, and locals say each one changes colour throughout the day; Karshi Railway Station is one of the key gateways connecting Uzbekistan with the Silk Road cities
TOP THR E E
MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES
1
Heli-ski in the Western Tien-Shan
The connection becomes clearer the next
morning, when my new guide, Maftuna Sharapova, explains how some believe the term entered Russian in the 19th century, after Tsar Nicholas I reportedly mistook it for the generic word for a railway station. Another theory traces it back further still, to London’s Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens — once a place of spectacle and entertainment. It’s a curious reversal — a name born in a
Georgian-era pleasure garden resurfacing above a station in Uzbekistan. “Imagine a train station like that — no coffee stalls or commuters, but tightrope walkers, fireworks and hot air balloons drifting above the crowds,” says Maftuna, and I find myself smiling at the thought. Instead of exploring Bukhara’s 2,000-year-
old Old Town, as so many travellers do, we drive north across a desert basin into the arid lands of Gijduvon, one of the last strongholds of a ceramic tradition dating back to the third century. If anywhere offers a slower counterpoint to Uzbekistan’s high-speed future, it’s here. At the workshop of the Narzullaev family, clay is still fired using traditional underground kilns, the same techniques passed down from generation to generation. “It’s difficult to find two similar pieces,” says
master ceramicist Olimjon Narzullaev, whose family has done more than most to preserve these age-old methods. “We believe it’s because fire and God decide something different every time.” He works as he speaks, moulding clay with quick,
practised movements. The workshop around him feels densely lived-in — lined with family portraits, trinkets and faded books. Shelves are stacked with hundreds of pots, plates and jugs, all intricately decorated with olive stalks, lemon flowers and lapis blue petals. The family produces more than 350 pieces every month. In the outbuilding next door, another
fragment of a different time emerges. Tethered to a heavy millstone, a broad-shouldered donkey walks in slow, tight circles, grinding material for liquid glaze. It’s a method unchanged for centuries — and, as we’re told, practised only once a month. This beast, I think to myself, just might be the luckiest in Central Asia.
Return of the peaks The following afternoon, I take to the tracks again, this time speeding towards Samarkand, where the companionship of the peaks returns. Rising rugged and stark from the plains to the far north are the sandstone spurs of the Nuratau mountains, where tourists are thin, even if history isn’t. Millennia ago, Alexander the Great left his mark,
as did Genghis Khan, who swept through like a storm with his rampaging armies. Many people imagine the Silk Road as an endless desert, but central Uzbekistan tells a different story — south of Samarkand, the khaki-covered slopes and wind-eroded caves of the Aman-Kutan Mountains reshape that image completely. I watch as the land starts to buckle. Clouds
gather like a Mongolian horde. A mercurial smear of mountains pulls into focus on the horizon. These are the Fann Mountains across the Tajikistan border and they exert a quiet but powerful pull, as if trying to coax me back into the high country. Come early evening, a light snow begins to fall
on the tracks. I check the forecast and see the temperatures are about to plummet, with heavy snowfall — the sort that rises above the windows — set to close the mountain roads. Almost anywhere else it would be a pity. But the Silk Road spectacles of Samarkand await, and the great madrasas, mosques and mausoleums that spill out from every street are enough to buoy any imagination. The guidebooks are wrong in suggesting that
Uzbekistan should be visited in warmer days, with Samarkand — long mythologised as a starting point on the Silk Road — pitched as the place where all journeys should begin. For me, with my thoughts focused on mountains and majestic architecture, silvery light and snow, this is the perfect place to end.
HOW TO DO IT: Uzbekistan Airways flies direct three times a week from London to Tashkent, from £490 return. Veres- Vert specialises in tailor-made tours in Uzbekistan, offering itineraries combining winter sports at Amirsoy Mountain Resort with a cultural tour of the Silk Road cities of Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent, from £2,599.
uzairways.com
veres-vert.com
Far beyond Amirsoy’s groomed pistes, the Western Tien-Shan opens into a wilderness of untouched bowls, knife-edge ridges and deep powder fields accessible only by helicopter. One moment, you’re hovering above serrated peaks and glacier-fed valleys, the next, you’re carving through snow where there are no tracks in sight, just vast emptiness stretching towards Kazakhstan. HOW TO DO IT: Heli-ski Uzbekistan offers multi-day adventures from around £3,500 per person, including guides, and accommodation.
heliski.uz
2
Hike the Nuratau Mountains
Between the Kyzylkum Desert and the Silk Road cities lies the Nuratau range, where dusty shepherds’ trails thread through walnut groves, juniper forests and remote stone villages. Day hikes here reveal a slower pace of life and immense desert panoramas. HOW TO DO IT: Nuratau Travel offers guided hiking and homestay itineraries from around £95 per day, including accommodation and meals.
nuratau.com
3
Climb the Chimgan Mountains
Known locally as ‘the Switzerland of Uzbekistan’, the Chimgan Mountains rise above reservoirs and pine-covered valleys. In summer, climbers and trekkers tackle ridgelines and summits, while paragliders drift overhead on thermals. Higher up, the landscape turns stark and elemental, with eagles soaring above and views stretching over the untouched Chatkal range. HOW TO DO IT: Central Asia Adventures has climbing excursions from around £55 per person.
centralasia-travel.com
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER – LAKES & MOUNTAINS COLLECTION 21
IMAGES: GETTY; ALAMY; MAXIMUM EXPOSURE LIMITED
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