Navoi is a strange and rather brilliant city. It does not appear on any old caravan map, because it was founded in 1958 in the middle of the Kyzylkum desert, to house the workers of the gold and uranium industries and to give the Soviet planners a clean slate. It was named after Alisher Navoi, the fifteenth-century poet who wrote in Chagatai Turkic and who has become the national literary hero. Wide avenues, tidy parks and rows of apartment blocks give it the air of a model town, and in the heat of the afternoon it is remarkably quiet.
The older story is a few kilometres away, at the Mir Sayid Bakhrom mausoleum, which lies in the village area once known as Karmana, an old trading town on the road between Samarkand and Bukhara. The mausoleum is a rare survivor from the Karakhanid period, a small, handsome building of brick with carved portals and tilework, attached to a Sufi saint of the Islamic Middle Ages. The saint's tomb is still visited and is surrounded by a grove of ancient trees, in a pleasant old cemetery. There is a pervasive feeling that this ground has been holy for a long time, and the quiet is real.
For riding, the contrast between old Karmana and new Navoi is the whole point. Navoi has broad streets that are easy to ride, with little traffic, while the roads out to the villages are narrower, with bumps, irrigation ditches and sandy shoulders. The big highway between Samarkand and Bukhara passes close by, and it is a long, straight ribbon with a heavy flow of trucks and the occasional herd of camels. Dust devils spin across the fields in summer, and winds can be strong. April and May, and the long golden autumn, are the best seasons.
Fuel, food and rooms are easy to find in Navoi, and the central bazaar sells fruit, nuts, dried apricots and flat bread. At the mausoleum, you may find a caretaker who will unlock the door and show you the interior, and you should leave a small gift. If you are travelling in summer, drink plenty of water, and wear a light scarf to cover your neck and face.