Registan, Samarkand

There are many Unesco world heritage sites, but Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, it's really 5 star, 10 out of 10, unbelievable, and it beats all the superlatives you can think of. The only thing remotely compatible is the Taj Mahal in India.

I had expected to see ruins  but in fact, these mosques and madrisas,  and other buildings here are almost in almost perfect condition. They cover such a vast area and they are so ornately decorated and tastefully decorated it has a something of a surreal atmosphere to it.

Today we come at night just to see the whole thing as the sunsets and with the lights on it certainly will have a different atmosphere than tomorrow, when we have a guide and have the whole thing explained to us. However, even today there is no shortage of people who are willing to give us a little bit of a guide here and there, and explain the history including a guy who sells cloth but it seems to us he's more interested in explaining the history than selling cloth, and anyway he seemed to know we're not the buyers of that kind of stuff.Read more