Deggaron Mosque and Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Deggaron Mosque

   In the village of Hazara, in the Zarafshan valley between Bukhara and Samarkand, stands one of the oldest mosques in Central Asia. The Deggaron mosque dates from the eleventh century, and from the outside it looks almost humble: a square, squat brick building with a cluster of low domes. Inside, it is a revelation, with massive brick columns supporting a forest of small domes and arches, the brickwork laid in patterns that play with light and shadow. It is a rare survivor of the pre-Mongol architecture of the region, and it forms part of the Silk Roads listing for the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor, inscribed by UNESCO in 2023.

   Read the complete Deggaron Mosque write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Deggaron Mosque is where the day begins. Next is Rabati Malik Sardoba.

2. 2. Rabati Malik Sardoba

   Halfway between Samarkand and Bukhara, the old caravan road crosses a stretch of steppe that is flat, dry and almost empty, and in the eleventh century someone decided that a traveller crossing it deserved a proper stopping place. Rabati Malik, the Rabat of the King, was built in the 1070s by a Karakhanid ruler named Shams al-Mulk Nasr, on one of the main branches of the Silk Road. The caravanserai itself is now mostly collapsed, and what remains is a tall brick entrance portal, ornamented with carved terracotta, standing alone in the plain like the front of a theatre set.

   Read the complete Rabati Malik Sardoba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rabati Malik Sardoba comes up 23 km in. Next is Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum.

3. 3. Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum

   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.

   Read the complete Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   46 km in you reach Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum. Next is Rabati Malik Caravanserai.

4. 4. Rabati Malik Caravanserai

   Only the portal of Rabati Malik is left standing, but what a portal it is: a tall brick façade with a great arch, framed by fluted columns and decorated with intricate brick patterns, rising beside the road between Bukhara and Samarkand in the steppe of central Uzbekistan. It was built in the eleventh century by the Karakhanid rulers as a royal caravanserai, a fortified palace and rest stop on the Silk Road, and travellers once found shelter, water and protection here behind its massive walls. The rest of the building was destroyed over the centuries, but archaeologists have traced its plan, and the portal itself has been restored. Across the road, a sardoba, a domed brick reservoir, collected water for the caravans and is still in good condition.

   Read the complete Rabati Malik Caravanserai write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rabati Malik Caravanserai, about halfway. Next is Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex.

5. 5. Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex

   Dabusiya is an ancient settlement on the Zeravshan, the river that rises in the Tajik glaciers, flows past Samarkand and Bukhara, and then dwindles into the sands before reaching the sea. Of the old fortified town, there are now mounds, a few ruined walls and a clear sense of where the river used to run. In its prime, around the sixth century, it lay on the route between the two great oases, and it was famous in the early Islamic period; the geographers write of its markets and of a decisive battle that was fought in the area in the eighth century. The Kasim Sheikh complex in the label belongs to the same shrine tradition as many sites near Navoi: a saint's tomb, a mosque and a small cluster of domes and arches that turned a hill into a pilgrimage place.

   Read the complete Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kasim Sheikh Architectural Complex sits at 91 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai.

6. 6. back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Rabati Malik Caravanserai write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Rabati Malik Caravanserai comes up 114 km in. Next is back through Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum.

7. 7. back through Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   137 km in you reach back through Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum. Next is back through Rabati Malik Sardoba.

8. 8. back through Rabati Malik Sardoba

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Rabati Malik Sardoba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Rabati Malik Sardoba, late in the day. Next is Deggaron Mosque.

9. 9. Deggaron Mosque

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Deggaron Mosque write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 158 km.