Sightseeing tours through Uzbekistan

Arrival to Tashkent. Meet with the tablet "Tashrif Tours".
Pick up and transfer to the hotel. Accommodation. Breakfast. Rest.

Lunch at the restaurant "Afrasiab".

Sightseeing excursion in Tashkent: In 1966 the strong earthquake in Tashkent completely destroyed the old part of the city, but the little, what was saved makes a strong contrast with the architecture of modern Tashkent.

Old City:
• Hazret Imam Square (16 c.)
• Kafal al-Shashi mausoleum (16 c.)
• Madrassah Barak Khan (15-16 c.)
• Mosque Namazgoh (19 c.)
• Mosque Tillya Sheik (19 c.)

Modern City:
• Memorial of the victims of repressions
• Kukeldash madrassah (16 c.)
• Abul Kasim Sheik mausoleum (19 c.)
• Monument to Alisher Navoi and the park with lake

Dinner at the restaurant "Caravan". Overnight.

Check out and transfer to the airport.
Departure from Tashkent.
Arrival in Urgench. Pick up and transfer to Khiva (30 km). Accommodation in hotel. Breakfast.

Excursion in Khiva city:
Khiva is by right called the "fairy-town". Small, very compact, surrounded by medieval walls - the city seems unreal, fantastic. Everywhere you can meet caps of the minarets, madrassahs and mosques coexist with residential neighborhoods residents. There you can visit the biggest mosque of Khiva, the wooden columns of which are over a thousand years. You will visit the Khan's palace of the eastern ruler, get acquainted with cult architecture, and on each place the historically authentic information will be complemented by numerous beautiful and little sad legends. Ichan-kala - a reserved part of Khiva, where architectural monuments are concentrated as follows:

• Mosque and Madrassah Said bay(18 - 19 c.)
• Khanaka? mosque and mausoleum of Pahlavan Makhmud - poet, sufi and national hero
• Madrassah Allakulikhan (1834/35 years)
• Tim and caravanserai of Allakilikhan (19c)
• Madrassah Abdullakhan (1865 y)
• Mosque and chamber of Anushkhan (1657 y)

Lunch at the national restaurant.

Continue the excursion:

• Tash Hauli (Allakulikhan's palace) (1830/36 years)
• Oq (white) mosque (1832/42 years)
• Juma Mosque and minaret (1788/89 years)
• Mausoleum of Said Alauddin (14 c.)
• Muhamad Amin Khan Madrassah (1851/52)
• Minaret Kalta Minar (1855 y)
• Kunia Ark (1868/88 years)
• Minaret Tura Murat Tur  (1888 y)

Dinner and the concert (khorezm folk dances and songs). Overnight.

Breakfast. Check-out from the hotel.

Transfer to Bukhara (475 km) by car by route in the desert.

Arrival to Bukhara. Accommodation in the hotel. Dinner.

At will you may have bath in the medieval bath-house "Hammomi Bozori Kord" (reserve during the excursion). A narrow corridor leads to 5 rooms of the bath-house. First comes the room where the temperature is maintained in the range of 15-20 degrees, then the central hall, in the middle of which there is a rectangular rising ground for massage, the temperature in this room is of 25-30 degrees. The central hall is going out to three halls. One of them is cold, the rest two are hot, nhe temperature here reaches 60 degrees. Bath-room is general. All have a bath together. Here 5 masseurs work in the bath-house. For massaging they may use such oils as snake-oil, almond oil, ginger, eggs (protein), equine melted fat.
(Note: it is desirable to have bathing suits and swimming trunks (men) and slippers).

Overnight.

Breakfast.

Sightseeing excursion in "The Old City": Bukhara has kept a medieval lay-out, thanks to which, each building, each house on its curve narrow small streets, bears in itself charm of olden time. Here time borders are erased, here you lose sensation of time ... the City architecture includes acquaintance to such monuments, as:

• Ensemble Lyabi-Hauz: khanaka and madrassah of Nadir Divan Begi (16 c.), Kukeldash madrassah (15 c.), the monument of Khoja Nasreddeen.
• Visiting the centre of Development of Bukhara's crafts, located in a caravansarai Sayfiddeen. Crafts: weaver's workshop, woodcarving, stamping, painting on a tree, Central Asian miniature, carpetweaving (from time immemorial, from generation to generation, secrets of skill of handicraftsmen were transferred. This tradition is alive until now).
• Walk under trading domes of the 16th century: Toki Sarraffon, Toki Telpak Furushon, Toki Zargaron, where handicraftsmen (jewellers, miniaturists and others) sell their products.
• Mosque of Magoki Attori (12-16 centuries) - was built where in ancient time were temples of fireworshipers. It is one of the three monuments in Bukhara, left safe after Genghis Khan's invasion.
• The ensemble of Gau-Kushon (16 c)
• Caravansarais of Bukhara
• Tim of Abdullakhan (16 c.) - the covered market used for trade by expensive silk fabrics.
• Madrassah of Ulugbek (15 c.) - constructed by Tamerlan's grandson. At the entrance there you can see an inscription in Arabian , words of the prophet Mohammed: "Aspiration for knowledge is a duty of each muslim man and woman"
• Madrassah of Abdullazizkhan (17 centuries)
• Mosque Kalyan (Big mosque)(16 c.)
• Functioning madrassah of Mir-i-Arab (16 c) - where studied the head mufti of Russian Moslems Ravil Ghaynuddeen and decedent president of the Chechen Republic Ahmad Kadyrov, who was mufti before.
• Minaret Kalyan - the symbol of Bukhara, throughout centuries served as a beacon for caravans in the desert, which made their way to Bukhara. Other name of the minaret - "death tower", according to one of legends, in mediaeval time from this minaret were thrown down adulteresses and Bukhara freethinkers.

Lunch at the national restaurant.

Continue the excursion:

• Ark-Citadel - majestic fortress, the habitat of governors of Bukhara, stronghold of might and power (1 century BC - 19 c)
• Bolo-Hauz Mosque (18 c.) - a quarter mosque
• Mausoleum of Chashma Ayub (12 - 16 centuries), inside which there is a spring of healing water of saint Iova (Ayub)

Visiting markets: fruit, dried fruits, nuts, spices.

• Mausoleum of Samanids (10 c.) - the pearl of Central asian architecture, the family tomb of Samanids' dynasty.

Demonstration of cooking pilaf in the madrassah Said Kamol and dinner.
We offer you to witness or participate in cooking pilaf in Bukhara. An amazing aura of the age-old building of the madrassah Said Kamol will take you for a few centuries ago. The night sky without a cloud, filled with stars, - that's the atmosphere that, without fail, cause you to wish to see how prepared is the most popular Uzbek dish.

Overnight.

Breakfast.

The country excursion:

• The necropolis of Bahauddin Nakshband (located 10 km from Bukhara) - is a buried place of Sufi mystic of the "nakshbandiya" order. Bahauddin Nakshband is admired in all Sufi  Muslim world as sacred.
• Sitora-i-Mohi Hosa (located 4 km from Bukhara) - a summer palace of the last emir of Bukhara (19 century).

Lunch in chaykhana "Chor-Bakr" (some kinds of shish kebab, ballaza-nakhot - Bukharian shurpa (soup), which is cooked all the night long).

Continuation of excursion:

• Necropolis of Chor-Bakr (10-16 c.) – "the city of shadows", a family residency of spiritual leaders of an award  of "nakshbandia" (4 km from Bukhara).
• Madrassah Chor Minor (19 c.) - is a tiny madrassah with four different minarets.
• Khanaka Fayziabad (16 c.) - a  dervish monastery .
• Khanaka  Baharzi and Buyan Kuli Khan (13 c.) - uniquely saved monument of 13-th century, the mausoleum of sufy and its student, the Mongolian khan who converted to Islam.

At 07:00 pm dinner and a folklore concert in age-old madrassah Nodir Devan Begi. The ancient building of the 16 century, where the concert take place, is one of the most beautiful and richly decorated madrassah. During the concert you will see performance of the national philharmonic society, performing national Uzbek dances in live musical accompaniment, and the demonstration of fashionable clothes made from handwork fabrics with national elements - harvest of creative imagination of Bukhara designers. (You may reserve a table for dinner during sightseeing excursion through your guide.)

Overnight.

Breakfast.
Transfer to Shahrisabz (298 km).
Excursion in Shahrisabz:

• Ak-Sarai Palace (1380-1404 y)
• The Ensemble of Dorus-Saodat (14 c.)
• The Ensemble of Khazrati Imam (14 c.)
• Mausoleum of Djakhangir (14 c.)
• Architectural complex of Dor-ut-Tilovat; Mosque Kok-Gumbaz (1345 y.), Gumbazi Saidon (15-17 cent.)
• Mausoleum and necropolis of sufi sheikh Shamsiddeen Kulyal (15 century).

Lunch at chaykhana in the mountains.

Transfer to Samarkand (100 km) through picturesque mountain pass (only for cars). If the pass is closed, then moved to the bypass road (140 km).
In this case, at will you may visit the house of original carpetweaver Sharif bobo, where you can have a rest and green tea with eastern sweeties, and will familiarize with the Karshinsky method of carpetweaving from a pure sheep wool, with possibility of acquisition of the pleasant samples.

Arrival in Samarkand. Accommodation in the hotel. Dinner. Overnight.

Breakfast.

Sightseeing excursion in Samarkand - one of the most majestic cities of Uzbekistan, the beloved capital of the great Tamerlane:

• Mausoleum of Gur-Emir (14-15 centuries) - there are the tombs of Tamerlane and his family in it.
• Registan Square (15-17 centuries): the madrassah of Ulugbek, Tilla-Kori, Sher-dor.
• Mausoleum of Shahi Zinda (12-15 centuries): there is one of the alleged graves of Kusama ibn Abbas (cousin of Prophet Muhammad) here.
• Alekseev's Orthodox Cathedral, built in 1912. In 1996 it was re-lightened by Patriarch Alexei II.

Lunch at chaykhana (Samarkandian pilaf).

Continue the excursion:

• Bibi Khanum Mosque (14 c.) - built in honor of the beloved wife of Tamerlane.
• Ulugbek's Observatory (15 c.) - astronomer, scientist, ruler, beloved grandson of Tamerlane, who was killed on the orders of his own son.
• Mausoleum of saint Daniel. According to legend, Tamerlane in his campaign to Asia Minor, made a pilgrimage to the mausoleum of the saint and decided that his capital Samarkand should be rich and prosperous too, and the remains of the saint with great honors sent to Samarkand.

Dinner. Overnight.

Breakfast. Transfer to Tashkent (350 km) by car.
Arrival in Tashkent. Lunch at the restaurant. Transfer to the airport. Departure Tashkent.