UZBEKISTAN

ANOTHER HUGE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC, Uzbekistan is mandatory for history buffs. It contains three of the greatest Silk Roads cities, Khiva, Bukhara, and the gob-smacking Samarkand.
Ferghana, squeezed between Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (thanks, Stalin) is a microcosm of everything that is good about central Asia: truckloads of melons, peaches, grapes, fine arts and crafts, hearty, flavoursome food, cultural wonders, and a thriving black-market.
The history stretches back to before Genghis was an upstart with a bad attitude, and Uzbekistan produced an arguably even greater conqueror, Amir Timor.

FERGHANA

BUKHARA

KHIVA

SAMARKAND

NURATAU MOUNTAINS

TASHKENT ETC