Why this ride
From Samarkand it runs 1521 km to Khiwa; allow about 20 h 53 of riding. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Uzbekistan Silk Road Route: Samarkand to Khiva
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 1521 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 20 h 53
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Samarkand
Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, and a name that has meant romance to travellers for two and a half thousand years. It sits in the green valley of the Zeravshan River, with the Pamir-Alay mountains rising to the south, on the great trade route that carried silk, paper, spices and ideas between China and the Mediterranean. Alexander the Great took the city, then called Marakanda, in 329 BC, and the mound of its ancient site, Afrasiab, still lies on the northern edge of the modern town. The paper trade is said to have reached the Islamic world here in the eighth century, when Chinese prisoners taught the craft after a battle on the Talas River.
Read the complete Samarkand write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Samarkand is where the day begins. Next is Bukhara.
2. Bukhara
Bukhara is a city made of brick and memory, a trading hub on the Silk Road with a history of more than two thousand years, and its old centre is one of the best preserved in Central Asia. The Zeravshan River once watered the oasis around it, and the town's wealth came from carpets, silk, gold embroidery and its position between east and west. Genghis Khan's army burned much of it in 1220, but the city recovered and became a great centre of Islamic learning, with scores of madrasas and mosques.
Read the complete Bukhara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bukhara comes up about 541 km into the recorded legs. Next is Khiva.
3. Khiva
Khiva rises out of the desert like a stage set that someone forgot to take down. The walled inner town, Itchan Kala, is built of mud brick and glazed tile on the edge of the Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts, in the fertile oasis of Khorezm along the lower Amu Darya. Its sand-colored walls, about ten meters high, enclose a maze of lanes, madrasas, mosques and minarets that was inscribed by UNESCO in 1990, among the first sites in Uzbekistan to be listed. Khiva was for centuries a khanate famous for its slave market and for the raiding caravans that crossed the steppe, and it kept its independence until the Russians took it in 1873.
Read the complete Khiva 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 1521 km.
Leg by leg
Samarkand to Bukhara
Samarkand → Bukhara is 541 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bukhara to Khiva
Bukhara → Khiva is 981 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.