Tour MTAC 20: Uzbekistan – Tadjikistan –from Fergana valley to Pamir mountains

MTHC 20. Uzbekistan-Tadjikistan, from Ferghana  to the borders of Pamir

See info about Tadjikistan

Itinerary:

UZBEKISTAN: Tashkent – Urgentch – Khiva – Bukhara – Gijduvan – Samarkand – Kokand - Fergana – Rishtan – Marguilan - Andijan      

TADJIKISTAN: Khodjent - Uratepe – Artouch – Pendjikent – Duchambe -  HISSAR - KURGAN TUBE  - VAKHSH - KOULOB – NUREK - ISKANDERKUL - ISTARAVSHAN – KHODJENT - TACHKENT

When to go?
Uzbekistan: the months of spring and autumn are the most appropriate. June to August can be very hot. Winter is also possible if you visit only the cities.
In Tadjikistan preferably from late May  to late September, if the conditions are still very rough in altitude
Transport: air and vehicle
Season: from April to November
Duration: 18 days / 17 nights
Accommodation: 2-3-4 * Hotels, guest houses

Your Program
This program will lead you to explore the beautiful cities of Uzbekistan.  Most of Uzbek heritage in 10 days. We offer over a 3 day stay for exploring the historic cities of Tadkistan through high passes of the Pamir Mountains.
A meeting  the Tajik Culture Tajik culture is the heir of the ancient Iranian-speaking Central Asian cultures (Sogdian, Bactrian) and their encounter with the world of Islam and the culture of Iranian Khorassan a little over a thousand year old. It reached its greatest influence at the time of the Somoni Dynasty (9th to 10th centuries), which was replaced by Turkic dynasties in the second millennium AD but Tajik culture has never ceased to live, even playing a important role in the relative iranisation of Uzbek culture. The Tajik cultural era is now shared between the two countries, recent political, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Long before the emergence of this culture, the areas visited during this trip were already issue rivalries. From the Bronze Age, the development of urbanization (Bactria, Ferghana, Sogdiana) stirs the trade but also the rivalry between sedentary and nomadic. Persians, Sogdians, Bactrians, Scythians, and Greco-Macedonians confront each and everyone to leave their mark, still detectable in the basement. At the beginning of our era, taking advantage of the development of caravan routes of the Silk Road, Buddhism out of India and through these regions implanting them for centuries, as evidenced by the splendid collections of the Museum of Antiquities national Dushanbe. Later still, the various dynasties have left their mark as evidenced by the monuments of Istaravshan, "Little Samarqand mountains." Finally, without addressing the harsh highlands altitude Great Pamirs, this trip allows you to discover some of the most beautiful landscapes of Central Asia, as in the valley of Zarafshan the confines of the Pamirs and in the upper valley the Amu Darya, the Oxus of the ancients.
 

Day 1: Tashkent
Morning arrival in Tashkent. Welcome and transfer to the hotel. Breakfast at the hotel. City tour. Capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent was once an important trading center, at the crossroads of caravan routes connecting Europe and India. Discover the Perspective of Independence, the Navoi theater, all Khazret Imam complex, located in the old city, the mausoleum Kaffal Chachi and the Kukeldash Madrasah. Lunch. Visit the Museum of Decorative Arts. Dinner. Overnight at hotel.
 
Day 2: Tashkent -Urguench - Khiva
Breakfast. Transfer to airport for flight to Urgench. Arrival in Urgench. Transfer to Khiva, an ancient city of more than twenty centuries. Jewel of the ancient Uzbek architecture, the city is left entirely in the hands of historians, archaeologists and architects who restore and preserve its treasured monuments. The city is full of wonders to discover as Ichan Kala, Ark Kounia and madrasas of Moukhamed-Amin and Allakouli Khan. Lunch. Visit the mausoleum Seyeid Alaouddine and Pahlavan-Mahmud,  Juma Mosque and palace Tachkhovli. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Day 3: Khiva -Bukhara
Breakfast. Departure to Bukhara. Day in the wilderness Kizyl Kum (Red Sands). Lunch - pik nik en route. Arrival in Bukhara in evening. Transfer to the hotel. Dinner and overnight at hotel

Day 4: Bukhara
Breakfast. Lunch. Discover Bukhara. City tour on foot from the Poyi Kalon, one of the most beautiful places in the city. visit the mosque and minaret of Kalon or "Pedestal of the Most High", adorned with magnificent facades. Discover the Mir Arab madrasa, madrasah of Ulugbek (XV century) madrasa Abdulazizkhan (seventeenth century). Visit all Liabi Hauz, the merchant houses, the mosque Magoki Attori to Labi Hauz, sublime pool with trees surrounded by a group of majestic buildings. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Day 5: Bukhara
Discovery Samanids mausoleum, known as the "Pearl of the Orient" (ninth-tenth century), mausoleum Chashma Ayub with its famous well, meaning "the source of the prophet Job". Visit the Bolo Hauz mosque and the citadel Ark. Visit Sitorai Mokhi Khossa, secondary residence of the last Emirs of Bukhara Lunch in city. Discover Chor minor madrasa. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Day 6: Bukhara - Gijduvan - Samarkand (270 km)
Breakfast. Departure to Samarkand route . Stop in Gijduvan, visit of Ulugbek Madrasa (XVth century) and the most famous of the ceramist workshop. Visit Sardoba (reservoir of water) and the ruins of Malik Karavanserai (twelfth century). Arrive in Samarkand. Accommodation at hotel. Lunch. Start of visit. Samarkand has retained the glazed domes, the brightly colored walls and mausoleums are all gems of Central Asian architecture. Discovery of Gour Emir tomb of Tamerlane. Diner in guest house (optional). Overnight at hotel.

Day 7: Samarkand
Breakfast. True "threshold of paradise" for artists and dreamers, Samarkand has retained its glazed domes, its brightly colored walls and mausoleums are all gems of Central Asian architecture. Visit the famous Registan Square. Discover the Bibi Khanum Mosque and market atmosphere that surrounds it. Visit the Necropolis Shahi Zinda. Lunch in city. Continuation of city tour: visit the museum of Ulugbek and his observatory ruins .. Visit the museum "Afrasiab". Dinner. Overnight at hotel.

Day 8: Samarkand - Tashkent
The morning visit architectural complex of Khodja Akhrâr, Nadir Divan Begi, the mausoleums of 'Abd-i Darun and Ishrat Khana, mosque Khazret Khizr (XIX century). PM free. Depart in comfortable fast train  Afrosiob to Tashkent (300 km-2h 10 min). Overnight at hotel in Tashkent.

DAY 9: Tashkent - Kokand - Rishtan - Fergana (300km)
Depart to Kokand by mountain pass Kamchik, 2250m. Kokand was the center of the Kokand Khanate, founded in the eighteenth century by Cheibanids khans dynasty. Visit the palace of the last khan of Kokand, Khoudayorkhan, which dates from the late nineteenth century, the madrasa Norboutabey (seventeenth century), the Jomi mosque, the largest in the city, dating from the nineteenth century. Continued road to Margilan via Rishtan where you visit the workshops of potters, known in the country. Arrival in the evening. Dinner in city and overnight at hotel in Fergana.

DAY 10: Ferghana - Margilan - Andijan  - Marguilan (150km)
Morning visit of the factory "Yodgorlik" where  silks are woven in the traditional way. You can see all stages of the development process of silk from cocoon to fabric film, spread over several buildings. Lunch. Excursion to Andijan. Visit the archaeological site of Khuva or was found a large statue of Buddha. Then continue the road to Andijan. Visit the Juma Mosque, the bazaar and the park Babur. Come back to Marghilan. Dinner and overnight hotel in Marguilan .

DAY 11: Ferghana - Khujand (Tajikistan) (320km)
Departure to Khujand. Border crossing Uzbek / Tajik called Andarkhan / Patar. Change of vehicle and road to Khujand, Tajikistan visa required. PM arrival to Khujand and transfer to hotel. Northern capital of Tajikistan, Khujand is the second largest city. It would be the Alexandria-eskhate founded by Alexander the Great in the IVth century. BC and over the centuries was conquered by the Arabs, Genghis Khan and the challenge of the khanates of Bukhara and Kokand. Traversed by the Sir Darya, the city alone brings all urban areas of the country, a wide main street, buildings aging Stalinists, the ruins of a citadel (forbidden access) and various monuments of a past there is more. Prior to any visit, a stroll through the bazaar to any Soviet architecture but nicely decorated has given life and color to this day. Then you will discover the main attractions of the city. You focus on the complex of  Sheikh Muslihiddin: a mausoleum, minaret, a madrasah and a mosque up this religious place where new photos are not always welcome (women must provide a scarf and everything world must take off their shoes). All newly opened museum is open for visit, while one of the last statues of Lenin erected in Central Asia still remains a real curiosity. Dinner in city , overnight at the hotel.

DAY 12: Khujand -Uratepe - Artuch
Drive to Ura Tepe, former Istaravshan, ancient city of more than 2700 years, where the old bazaar and then Cyropol of Alexander the Great offer a downtown, Shahr-e-Kukna, traveled streets monuments that reveal some fairly well preserved. Madrasa of Sultan Abdulatif (called Kok Gumbaz, or blue dome) dates from the fifteenth century and decor reminiscent of madrasahs in Bukhara. Pretty villages clinging to the mountain along the road that leads to Shrakristan, where you can enjoy a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. Arrival in the evening to Artuch, located at 2 200m above sea level. Accommodation  in the former base camp for mountaineers. Each house has four bedrooms, with two beds, sheets and blankets. The toilets are outside and are common to the entire camp.

DAY 13: Artush -Pendjikent
Morning walk to the lake Tchoukurak, visit a village. Transfer to  Pendjikent: The Sogdian ancient city is today proud of its small museum exhibit halls including some interesting examples from all periods of occupancy and paying tribute to Rudaki, the great poet of the Samanid court. The bazaar of the city still offers a nice moment of life and we appreciate all the archeological site of Bunjikath which showed most of the ancient city, particularly prosperous in the fifth century. The excavations revealed the foundations of temples and palaces, as well as places of worship that demonstrate the incredible ecumenism then: Hinduism, Buddhism or Zoroastrianism lived without difficulty. Accommodation at the hotel.

DAY 13: Pendjikent - Dushanbe
In the morning, explore the city: the bazaar, the Museum of History, the ethnography, Ismoil Samani Mausoleum, Rudaki Park and gardens. If time permits, trip to Hissar Fortress, capital of the former province of Bukhara. 18th century, the site also has two madrassas. Arrive in Dushanbe. Night: Hotel

DAY 14: Dushanbe - HISSAR - KURGAN TUBE
Departure to Kurgan Tube. Visit the Hissar fortress (19th century), the history museum, archaeological excavations Adjinoteppo in which was founded a statue of Buddha. Meals included: Breakfast / Transfers: 2 hours 30 / Night: Hotel in Kurgan Tube

DAY 15: KOURGANTUBE - Vakhsh - KOULOB
Road to the small town of Koulob. Along the way, stop in and visit Vakhsh archaeological excavations Khukbuk (9th and 10th centuries). Visit of the local market in Kulob.  Hotel in Dushanbe
Meals included: Breakfast / Transfers: 3:30 / Night: Hotel

DAY 16: KOULOB - NUREK - Iskanderkul
En route, visit the Nurek water reservoir. Transfer to Iskanderkul and homestay accommodation. Walk around the lake and waterfalls. Night possible in Saritag village.
/ Transfers: 4h / Meals: Full board / Night: Homestay 

DAY 17: Iskanderkul - Istaravshan - Khujand - border - TASHKENT
Transfer to Khujand. Along the way, stop and explore the Istaravshan Mougtepe fortress (10th century) medersas Khazrati Shoh and Khoudoeri Valami. The pass Shakhriston (3 372m altitude). Border crossing, arrived in Uzbekistan and transfer to Tashkent. Meals included: Breakfast / Transfer: about 6:30 / Night: Hotel
(A little more than an hour is needed to reach the border between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The duration of the passage is, as always, variable, and time will be a minimum (make sure well in advance of be in possession of an Uzbek visa with multiple entries. Change of vehicles)

DAY 18: TASHKENT -Departure
According to the flight schedule, possible visit of the Uzbek capital. Transfer to the airport and fly to the departure ...
End of our services

Note:
The program will be specified in accordance with the schedule of the international flights of arrival and departure.
We are absolutely open to any suggestions to increase the range of our services for the complete satisfaction of our clients.
Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss your individual needs. Customized tours can be conducted in English, French, German, Spanish or Italian. Each departure is conducted in the designated language only.
Please contact us for price: info@marakandatravel.com