Uzbekistan & Tadjikistan - August 1998

Samarkand, Bukhara and Fann mountains

Samarkand... the name of this city recalls so many things: the Thousand and One Nights, Sheherazade, Aladdin, the Silk Road, Tamerlane. However, today, Samarkand atmosphere is closer than an Ex-SSSR city than the legendary oriental city you can imagine. The Thousand and One Nights reviewed and corrected by Staline. Fortunately, the buildings which did the glory of this city are still standing.

The city of Bukhara is less known but has also beautiful buildings which, it seems, impressed Gengis Khan himself.

Tadjikistan finally. This country, bordering Uzbekistan, is only made of mountains and has no real natural resources. Poverty and politic instability are the lot of the local community since the fall of communism. But it doesn't prevent the fann mountains from being quite beautiful and their inhabitants from being welcoming.