Uzbekistan

Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva - three cities that were already ancient when the Silk Road made them legendary, and that have survived conquest, earthquake and Soviet restoration to remain among the most architecturally extraordinary places in the world. The tilework alone - the blues of the Registan, the geometry of the Shah-i-Zinda - represents a mathematical and aesthetic achievement that took centuries to develop. Tashkent is a Soviet-era capital that has been reinventing itself with considerable energy, and the food - plov cooked in vast kazan pots, samsa from clay ovens - is the best argument for the Silk Road that does not involve looking at tiles.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Samarkand's backstreets, Bukhara's guesthouses, Fergana Valley craft routes and the plov masters whose timing and fat ratios are the subject of serious local debate.