Photo Album: Uzbek Ancient Towns

A few hundred years old minaret in the old city of Khiva.

Here are some shots from my last year’s Central Asia trip, on the magically medieval-looking ancient towns in Uzbekistan. If you stare hard enough, you might just spot flying carpet among the minarets 🙂

Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva – these names invoke images of the 1001 Arabian Night in my mind. Islamic architecture is one of the wonders in these ancient towns, but after visiting a few of these historical cities, I regretted to have sticking to the well-trodden famous cities tour route, they all somehow look and feel rather alike – welcome to the reconstructed glory cities, in a film-set mode….

Uzbek traditional hats hanging for sale on the old city wall of Khiva.

A tourist sitting on a wall to draw sketches of the old city of Bukhara.

Residents in the old city of Khiva.

For many Uzbek couples, ancient towns are the best spot for filming wedding photos.

Near the Registan area of Samarkand.

traditional instrument musicians in Samarkand.

Graveyard in Samarkand - new and old collided.

Bukhara - Blacksmith at work, using the traditional method.

The beauty of Islamic architecture.

puppet show props.

The fort in Bukhara.

Khiva - playing kiddy cards, didn't we all at one point played the same game?

Home made bread (non) baked in the earth oven.

"non" (bread) is the staple diet in Uzbekistan.

Taking an evening stroll on the city wall of Khiva, simply blissful.

old and celebrated graves are marked with prayer flags (just color fabric).....in a distance, a minaret, usually the tallest structure in ancient towns.