Among the endless steppes and ancient cities that remember Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, we will also build our own, special route — expressive and contrasting, like a Sogdian pattern on a chapan robe. We will see medieval mosques and madrasahs, touch on handicraft traditions and learn how the lagman differs from the naryn, and the dumlyam from the basma. We will visit the famous «Heliocomplex», built by Soviet scientists in the 1980s, and marvel at the beauty of modern wineries. We will learn to “read” traditional ornaments, choose ikat and feel the famous Uzbek hospitality.
— how the ancient Koran of Caliph Osman ended up in the Tashkent Khast-Imam complex;
— how many trade domes of Bukhara can be seen from the height of the Kalyan minaret;
— why Ulugbek’s star tables compiled at the Samarkand Observatory became the main reference book for astronomers of the Middle Ages;
— who invented the buttermilk pattern, and why in Soviet times the production of alocha and bakhmal was prohibited in Uzbekistan.
