[News Culture] In Uzbekistan, history is not sealed behind museum glass. It rises above city squares in turquoise domes, passes through crowded bazaars and survives in the hands of bakers, weavers, blacksmiths and performers.
EBS1’s “World Theme Travel,” airing at 8:40 p.m. from Aug. 3 through 6, sets out across the Central Asian nation in a four-part journey led by travel writer Seo Byeong-yong.
The series moves from Bukhara and Tashkent to Samarkand, the Fergana Valley, Kashkadarya and Nurata, tracing how the legacy of the Silk Road continues to shape the country’s architecture, food and everyday life.
Bukhara and Tashkent, Where the Past Still Breathes
The journey opens in Bukhara, where more than 2,000 years of history remain woven into the fabric of the city.
The Ark of Bukhara, once the seat of royal power, still dominates the old quarter. Nearby, the Poi Kalyan complex rises above the skyline, while the carved wooden columns of the Bolo Haouz Mosque turn shifting sunlight into a quiet architectural spectacle.
Bukhara reveals its character most vividly in its markets. Beneath the city’s historic trading domes, merchants sell jewelry, textiles and handmade goods much as traders once did along the Silk Road.
A blacksmith shapes scissors into the form of storks. Traditional puppeteers keep an old performance culture alive. These are not staged remnants of the past, but working traditions that remain part of the city’s present.
At Mol Bozor, the livestock market, bargaining voices compete with the cries of animals. The scene is noisy, crowded and unpolished, offering a closer look at Bukhara as a place where people live rather than simply a destination visitors admire.
Tashkent presents a different face of Uzbekistan. Wide boulevards and modern buildings define the capital, yet customs rooted in faith and community remain central to daily life.
During Kurban Hayit, families distribute meat and share meals with neighbors. Food becomes a way of reinforcing communal ties, while dishes such as Samarkand-style lamb roshi introduce the spices and cooking traditions that run throughout the country.
Samarkand, City of Empire and Blue
The route from Tashkent to Samarkand follows the legacy of Amir Timur, the conqueror who remains one of the most powerful figures in Uzbekistan’s national history.
His image is found throughout the capital, but the journey also looks beyond monuments to explore the religious and cultural traditions that shaped his world.
At the Hazrati Imam Complex, an ancient Quran manuscript offers a rare connection to centuries of Islamic scholarship. Its significance lies not only in its age, but in the generations of belief and learning preserved within its pages.
Samarkand then delivers the visual centerpiece of the journey.
At Registan Square, three monumental madrasas face one another across an open plaza, their façades covered in intricate mosaics and luminous blue tiles. The Gur-e-Amir mausoleum balances imperial grandeur with delicate ornament, while Shah-i-Zinda unfolds as a dazzling corridor of tombs, patterns and sacred color.
Yet Samarkand is not defined by architecture alone.
At a silk carpet workshop, artisans dye thread and tie each knot by hand. Elsewhere, a nonvoy presses rounds of dough against the blazing walls of a traditional oven.
The city’s beauty lies in that contrast: the monumental legacy of an empire existing alongside ordinary skills refined over generations.
The Fergana Valley, Tradition Made by Hand
In eastern Uzbekistan, the fertile Fergana Valley has long been a center of agriculture, craftsmanship and trade.
In Namangan, the smell of freshly baked bread and samsa spills into the streets. The savory pastries vary by town and household, filled with different combinations of meat, vegetables and seasoning.
The doppa, a traditional embroidered cap worn across Uzbekistan, carries a similarly local identity. Its colors and patterns change from region to region, turning a familiar item of clothing into a record of place and belonging.
Margilan is renowned for silk. Here, artisans still draw thread from cocoons, dye it by hand and weave it into richly patterned fabric.
The process is slow and exacting, but that patience gives the finished cloth its distinctive texture and depth. In an industrial age, the survival of this craft speaks to the value placed on knowledge passed directly from one pair of hands to another.
In Andijan, a family of tightrope performers preserves another inherited tradition. Their work is more than entertainment; it is a skill embedded in family life and identity.
Regional dishes including opka suti and tandir kebab add to the valley’s distinct character, while residents relaxing in public parks reveal a quieter rhythm of life beyond the workshops and markets.
Into the Mountains and Across the Kyzylkum
The scenery becomes harsher and more expansive as the journey moves south toward Kashkadarya.
Mountains rise above dry plains, and the region’s food reflects a culture shaped by difficult terrain and long distances. Markets sell qurut, a salty dried dairy product once valued by nomadic communities for its durability.
At roadside restaurants, meat is roasted over juniper wood, absorbing a deep, smoky aroma. Much of the cooking centers on the tandir, a clay oven made by mixing earth with animal hair before shaping and drying it over several days.
The oven itself embodies the region’s relationship with food: practical, labor-intensive and built to last.
In the mountain village of Gelan, isolation has helped preserve a way of life largely untouched by rapid urban development. Residents farm and work against a dramatic natural backdrop, following routines shaped by the seasons rather than the pace of the city.
The final stretch leads through Nurata and into the Kyzylkum Desert.
By day, red sand and searing sunlight dominate the horizon. At night, the temperature falls and an immense sky opens above the desert, filled with stars.
Lake Aydarkul offers one last change of scenery. Its calm water appears almost improbable amid the surrounding dryness, bringing the journey to a close with a moment of stillness after days spent crossing cities, valleys, mountains and sand.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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