Bukhara is a city that feels like a lived-in museum. For more than two thousand years it has been a trading town on the routes across Central Asia, and in the ninth and tenth centuries, under the Samanid dynasty, it was one of the great centres of Islamic learning, home to scholars such as Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. Genghis Khan sacked it in 1220, but the Kalyan Minaret, built in 1127, survived, and legend says even the conqueror was impressed. Today the old city is a remarkable ensemble of mosques, madrasas, caravanserais and domed bazaars, and it entered the World Heritage list in 1993.
The heart of the old town is the Lyabi-Hauz, a pool surrounded by mulberry trees and teahouses, flanked by madrasas and a khanaqah. Nearby, the trading domes, built in the sixteenth century, still house shops selling carpets, ceramics, knives and silk. The Ark fortress, the residence of the emirs, rises on its mound to the northwest, and the tiny Samanid Mausoleum, one of the oldest Islamic buildings in Central Asia, is a masterpiece of brickwork. The city has a slow, warm rhythm, especially in the evenings, when families gather around the pool.
For riders, Bukhara is an oasis in a vast, flat landscape. The roads in and out cross cotton fields, irrigated farmland and stretches of desert, and they are long, straight and sometimes rough. The main highway east toward Samarkand has been upgraded in places, but surfaces can vary, and there are many police checkpoints. Traffic includes slow trucks, horse carts and drivers who seem to have their own rules. Summer temperatures often exceed forty degrees, so spring and autumn are the best times to visit, when the days are warm and the evenings cool.
Bukhara is a city of about a quarter of a million people, with fuel, restaurants and accommodation, including many guesthouses in old merchants' houses. Fuel quality and availability can be an issue in Uzbekistan, and many vehicles run on gas, so fill up whenever you can. Local food includes plov, the rice dish cooked with meat, carrots and spices, and samsa baked in tandoor ovens. Park the bike securely at your guesthouse, walk the old city on foot, and sit by the pool with a pot of green tea as the sun goes down.