Osh claims to be around three thousand years old, and for once the claim does not feel absurd. The city sits at the eastern edge of the Fergana valley, where the flat, hot cotton country runs into the first folds of the Pamir-Alay, and it has been a stopping point on the Silk Road for as long as caravans have crossed this region. With about two hundred thousand people, it is Kyrgyzstan's second city and, in temperament, the southern capital: louder, hotter, more Uzbek-influenced and rather prouder than Bishkek.
The thing you cannot miss is Sulaiman-Too, a rocky ridge that rises abruptly from the middle of the city. For centuries it has been a place of pilgrimage, with caves, shrines and a tradition that Muslims and earlier believers considered it sacred. On top is a small stone house said to have been used by Babur, the Fergana prince who went on to found the Mughal dynasty in India. The mountain is on the UNESCO list, and the climb up its stone steps is short enough to do before breakfast, with views over rooftops and the distant mountains.
The Jayma bazaar, stretching along the Ak-Buura river, is the other essential. It is huge and noisy, a place to buy fruit, spices, bread, felt, knives, melons and anything else you can imagine. Eat samsa, the baked pastries, straight from the oven, and lagman or plov for lunch. Sellers will not mind if you wander for an hour without buying. This is also where the long Pamir Highway begins, running south through Sary-Tash to Tajikistan, so riders tend to arrive here with a to-do list and leave with stories.
The town is large enough that fuel, spare parts, banks, SIM cards, laundries and hotels are all easy to find, and that makes it an important reset point before the mountains. Traffic is busy and hot, with shared taxis weaving through, so ride defensively. Spring and autumn are the best seasons; July and August can be brutally hot on the plain. Fill your tank before heading south, because the high country has few reliable pumps.