UZBEKISTAN || Silk Road Part 1 - travel vlog (Tashkent, Khiva, Khwarezm Fortresses) 15 Degrees North

Описание: 15° North are travelling again! This time we are in Central Asia in Uzbekistan, travelling the Silk Road. In Part 1 of our odyssey across the desert, we visit Tashkent, Khiva and its Itchan Kala & the Khwarezm Fortresses
Jérémy and Ben here again! We love to travel and to satisfy our wanderlust, we are on a quest to visit as many countries as we can in the world. We love to escape Manchester (our home) to experience the best culture, cuisine and attractions that the world has to offer. If you’re a tourist like us and just need a good itinerary for what to do and how to do it when you’re in Uzbekistan, we will show you the best things to put on your itinerary.
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Transcript:
Uzbekistan is a country in Central Asia sandwiched between Kazakhstan to its north and all the other “Stans” to its south. A former Soviet Republic, it gained independence from the USSR in 1991, becoming a country for the very first time.
Tashkent is its capital and the logical starting point for anyone coming to visit the country. And there are increasingly more and more people coming to see this previously undiscovered country. Until 2018 Uzbekistan was completely closed to tourists, following the isolationist policies of its then dictator. But when he died in 2016, his successor decided to open up and welcome tourists. Their new leader realised that tourism could well be its biggest asset, because scattered across the Kyzylkum Desert that covers most of the country, are the remarkably well-preserved remnants of the mysterious and glamorous Silk Road.
Tashkent, like many Soviet cities, has an impressive metro system, in which each of the stations have been elaborately decorated. The metro is like the rest of the city – exceptionally well-planned. But this isn’t just by coincidence – oh no – it’s because the original Tashkent was completely demolished in an earthquake in 1966. This meant that the Russians were able to rebuild Tashkent as the “model Soviet city” and you can really tell.
The city is vast and sprawling, with wide sweeping avenues and enormous civic buildings spread out across the city centre. Tashkent is the biggest city in Central Asia and it’s not a city that you want to get around on foot. Ignoring the temperatures in the high thirties, the distance between monuments is vast. Thank heavens for that metro then!Or you can take a taxi. And even that is unusual, because almost every car on the road is a white Chevrolet, making even the traffic look like its been city-planned by the government!
Tashkent is nice, for sure, but the real reason we went to Uzbekistan was to head out onto the Silk Road. We decided to head to Khiva first, the furthest stop on our trip, before heading back to Bukhara, Samarkand and then looping back to Tashkent again. The stops closest to Tashkent are linked by high speed bullet-trains, but to get to Khiva we needed to jump on a fourteen hour overnight train. Sleeping in Soviet-era carriages, we had our own cabin and settled down for the night heading west. Only to wake up in the middle of the desert!
Eventually, we arrived at our destination. Khiva. The walled city of Khiva dates back fifteen hundred years and its centre, known as Itchan Kala, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inside these walls are over three hundred protected buildings, most of which date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Historically, Khiva was the capital of a Khwarezmian Civilisation, which covered the western portion of Uzbekistan, as well as southwestern Kazhakstan and most of Turmenistan. Khiva was an important stop on the Silk Road. So, what exactly was that? The civilisations in Europe and Asia have always been separated by vast deserts and mountains, but between the second century BCE and the fifteenth century, trade routes were established between the two. A network of linked cities were established spanning over 4000 miles, linking China in the East to Istanbul in the West. It was incredibly rare for one person to travel the length of the Silk Road, with goods being traded merchant to merchant in various trading posts along the route. Trading posts like Khiva. And these trading posts became extremely wealthy, due to the amount of money and goods passing through their gates. Silk, spices, tea, ivory, cotton, wool and precious metals, all were traded along the route. It also traded philosophical ideologies and… well, it brought the Black Death to Europe too. However, when a route was discovered that linked Europe to Asia by sea in the fifteenth century, this sprawling network collapsed almost overnight. There was no longer any need for the Silk Road and cities that had been inexorably linked to the rest of the world suddenly became cut off, isolated and bankrupt.