Rabati Malik Caravanserai and Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Deggaron Mosque.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. 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

   about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Mir Sayid Bakhrom Mausoleum. Next is back through Deggaron Mosque.

4. 4. back through 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

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

5. 5. 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 at Rabati Malik Caravanserai. That is the ride.