The Great Silk Road

The Great Silk Road is one of the most ambitious transportation arteries in the history of mankind. This trade route сonnected the East and the West and caused the emergence of the many unique towns, historic monuments, customs, and even nations.

The Great Silk Road started in China. Then crossed the whole Middle asia, Caucasus and ended in Europe, in the Apennines. The total length of the path was more than 7 thousand kilometers.

The cities of Middle asiahave always been and remain the most ancient, impressive and distinctive cities ever existed on the Great Silk Road. Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan, Turkestan in Kazakhstan and the monument of Tash-Shabat in Kyrgyzstan today make up the necklace, which includes main tourist routes of Middle asia.

A huge tourist potential of the Great Silk Road is forcing states to pool their efforts to preserve the monuments located on the route of the famous highway. Not so long ago, member countries of the Great Silk Road, including China, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and others, have decided to jointly prepare to apply to UNESCO for inclusion of the Great Silk Road in the World Heritage List.

This means, possibly, the emergence in the near future on the tourist market of a new grand tour, which will pass through the territory of a dozen of states. It promises to become one of the most ambitious projects of the tourist industry in recent years. The full tour on the Great Silk Road, of course, will be a serious competitor to at least one of the great long-day tour on the Trans-Siberian Railway (Russia).

In this section we are pleased to present a list of cities in Middle asia, in which are already organized tours under the title «The Great Silk Road». In the list we also included the cities of Azerbaijan. Although not being located in the Middle asiaregion, this is an integral part of the journey.The Great Silk Route in Middle asiaUzbekistan

- Termez
- Urgench
- Samarkand
- Bukhara
- Khiva

Kyrgyzstan

- Tash-Rabat
- Osh
- Suyab
- Balasagun

Kazakhstan

- Otrar
- Taraz
- Sairam (Ispidzhab)
- Turkestan (Yassy)

The Great Silk Road in Azerbaijan (Strabonsky way)

- Baku
- Barda
- Shemakha
- Gianja
- Nakhichevan
- Sheki
- Kabala