Bukara old town is full of old Islamic architecture, in particular tiled mosques and similar buildings mainly with blue colouring. They're really vivid in real life, I'm not sure if the photographs really do it justice.

This is the tallest minaret in Uzbekistan, I believe they used to throw unfaithful wives off the top as punishment, but there wasn't any of that in evidence while we were there!

Here's a mandatory overlander shot, bikes parked somewhere inside a hotel. OK, so we're not quite in the lobby just yet but down the corridor and under the stairs is a start. The owner did seem a bit worried that we would drop oil over his nice tiles.

Bukara's other big landmark is the castle, its pretty big but doesn't look too difficult to scale if required.

Next day we made the shortish hop across to Samarkand. It is a bigger and more modern city than Bukara but also has its share of ancient relics. They obviously need a bit of TLC now and again, but spot the workers in this photo and see if you fancy their job!

The most impressive building in Samarkand is the Registan. They're pretty huge and have different pictures designed into the tiles. The building on the right here has lions.

Everywhere has its markets too. They are organised into sections so that all the fresh fruit stalls are together, all the spice stalls etc. Without knowing the local language its pretty much impossible to differentiate one stall selling only tomatoes from the next, but I'm sure there are deals to be done!

Next day we headed for the border and Tajikistan......