Old Silk Roads: A journey through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

Written by Caroline Eden
Caroline Eden is the author of several books on Central Asia including Samarkand, Red Sands and her latest, Cold Kitchen. Read the full feature in Issue 7 of The Explorer Magazine. 

One of the best things about travelling in Central Asia is peeling back the region’s ancient history which collectively takes in Alexander the Great, powerful khanates, nomadic empires and, of course, the Silk Roads. Join author Caroline Eden as she ventures through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and uncovers centuries of Silk Road secrets, from art to cuisine.

1. Rishtan: A centre of ceramic art
2. Kokand: A Silk Road crossroad
3. Osh: Silk Road meets Soviet
4. Issyk-Kul: Alpine beauty
5. Bishkek: Kyrgyzstan's capital city
6. More Silk Road inspiration
7. Final thoughts & trips breakdown

Rishtan: A centre of ceramic art

Rishtan is one of the oldest centres of ceramic art in all of Central Asia. Today, its resident ceramicists follow an 800-year-old tradition, dating back to the era of the Silk Roads (stretching from roughly 200BC to AD1400).

It is early autumn, harvest time in Uzbekistan, and I am sat in a café in the small city of Rishtan with master-ceramist Alisher Nazirov. Over a plate of carved melon, Nazirov tells me that there are two main centres of pottery and ceramics production in Uzbekistan: Rishtan, here in the Fergana Valley – a geographical knot shared by three countries, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – and Gijduvan, near the old Silk Road city of Bukhara.

In Rishtan the work is usually turquoise, dark blue and brown on a cream background whereas in Gijduvan, ceramics tend to have a characteristic greenish-brown hue.

“Teapots and plates are decorated with pomegranate and flowers, and the legendary Huma bird, emblem of Uzbekistan. Every artist has their own style to draw this fantastical bird,” Nazirov said. There are many masters here but the true masters are few. “There are maybe six out of two-to-three hundred others. The tradition has now become a bit mixed up as so many try to do it.”

Find out more about our Silk Road tours

Kokand: A Silk Road crossroad

Kokand was a vital hub on the Silk Road; its strategic location made it a crossroads and key trading centre in the Fergana Valley. It connected merchants, scholars and travellers between China, Central Asia and the Middle East, and served as a strong spot for goods like silk, spices and ceramics.

With a dedicated worldwide following, I wasn’t entirely surprised to find out that Nazirov’s work is on display at the grand Khan’s Palace in the nearby city of Kokand, which is where I was headed next. Leaving by road, the taxi passed beautiful canopies of pink-ish and green grapes, arching and dangling over everyday life that went on below them.

One of the oldest cities in Uzbekistan, and a former trading hub on the Silk Roads, Kokand was once a powerful 19th-century khanate, along with Khiva and Bukhara, and its palace reflects that with its dazzling blue-tiled exterior.

After wandering through a network of rooms – there are 113 in total though not all are accessible – rich with murals, carpets and painted ceilings, and admiring pomegranate trees in the courtyard, I bought some Kokand halva, a fudge-like sweet dotted with nuts and dried fruit. Each one was a morsel of edible art.

“An aroma distracted us, one that a Silk Road traveller from the 14th-century would recognise: the toasty smell of ‘non’ bread – round, golden, chewy and ubiquitous throughout Central Asia – baking somewhere.”

Osh: Silk Road meets Soviet

Understood to be over 3,000 years old, Osh is Kyrgyzstan's oldest city, and legend says it was founded by either King Solomon or Alexander the Great. It's located close to the Uzbekistan border, and served as another significant Silk Road trading hub, although today there is an undeniably Soviet feel.
 

Halva is an ideal Silk Road snack and therefore perfect for the onwards road trip to Osh, an ancient city in the heart of the Fergana Valley, across the border in Kyrgyzstan. Driving in, the view is immediately dominated by the Throne of Solomon, a jagged pile-up of grey rock, shadowing pilgrims 150 metres below.

At the top is a prayer-room that a teenaged Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty, diarist and devoted lover of melons, had built for himself in 1497. It is one of the holiest sites in Central Asia because some say the Prophet Muhammed prayed here, while others believe that it was here biblical Solomon ruled from his throne.  

The city of Osh sprawls about the Ak-Buura River which meanders right through the ancient market. At the bazaar, I drank green tea in an old rose-garlanded chaikhana or traditional teahouse. During the era of the Silk Roads, traders and travellers would arrive at such places to refresh themselves, and while quenching their thirst with chai, they’d deliver tales of conflicts, swap political opinions and gossip. Tea is never rushed in Central Asia and there are various spice route teas to taste. Black tea infused with cumin or green tea rich with saffron, are both worth a try.

Issyk-Kul: alpine beauty

Issyk-Kul was a SIlk Road retreat beside one of the world's largest and deepest mountain lakes. Traders could pause along this Silk Road stop – it served as a strategic rest point and source of fresh water amid the mountainous terrain of Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, travellers today can lap up the alpine lake's tranquil beauty.

Leaving the Fergana Valley behind, I went on to Issyk-Kul, the world’s second largest alpine lake after Titicaca in Bolivia. This is Central Asia’s mountain-ringed ‘beach’ where, in the warmer months, Kazakhs, Russians and Kyrgyz go to sunbathe and swim. A branch of the Silk Roads once ran from the lake, across the border to Kashgar in Xinjiang, China, homeland of the Muslim Uyghurs.

The water though was freezing, goosebump-inducing, and as the cold water hit my chest I tried to recall the local lore that states this inland sea is warm as it reaches down to the Earth’s molten core. On an earlier trip, I had stretched my beach towel by the lapping waves next to a woman who told me that she had never tasted fresh peaches before coming here.

“In Siberia we only have cans, they are nothing like these fresh ones.” Fruit in Kyrgyzstan is indeed delicious. Enjoying lakeside life here is nothing new. Rumour has it that in the 14th-century, the ruthless conqueror, Tamerlane – who now rests in Samarkand’s Gur-e-Amir – had a castle overlooking Issyk-Kul.  

Bishkek: Kyrgyzstan's capital city

Bishkek lies near ancient Silk Road routes and served as a key resting and resupply point for caravans crossing the Tien Shan mountains. Today there's a more of a modern feel to the city, and with vast remnants of the Soviet-era, too.

From the lake it is an easy drive to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Gone are the dusty camel caravans of the old Silk Roads but bazaars such as Dordoi, a sprawling market covering the equivalent of 160 rugby fields and forged entirely from shipping containers, is very much an example of modern Silk Road trade with goods for sale from China, Russia and the Caucasus.

A giant commercial labyrinth of shoes, honey, car parts, you name it. My local friend Jalil Mukanbetov calls it “the Dordoi Republic”. As he led me past thousands of these steel boxes, an aroma distracted us, one that a Silk Road traveller from the 14th-century would recognise: the toasty smell of ‘non’ bread – round, golden, chewy and ubiquitous throughout Central Asia – baking somewhere. 

Bread baking is a time-honoured process and it is famously hard to imitate. Back across the border in Uzbekistan, in the capital Tashkent, the Soviets tried to mechanise bread production in the 1970s, but people spurned the state-made bread for their beloved tandoor ovens. Right across Central Asia these golden discs of bread are served at every meal still today, along with steaming cups of chai.