Author: Dilshod Karimov, Cultural Heritage Specialist and Travel Guide

I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit staring at pottery shards in museum basements. The State Museum of History in Tashkent holds what might

I used to think death rituals were universally about burial or fire, but the Zoroastrians had a third option that still unsettles me. The Chilpik Structure

I used to think wine regions had to look a certain way—rolling hills, châteaux, maybe some fog. Ancient Vines Growing Where Empires Once Traded Silk and

I’ve always thought of Urgench as one of those places you pass through without really seeing. The modern city sprawls across the dusty plains of

The walls around Khiva weren’t supposed to survive this long. I mean, when you think about fortifications in Central Asia—those endless stretches

I used to think rush weaving was just something grandmothers did to keep busy. Then I spent three weeks in the Fergana Valley watching a woman named Gulnara

I used to think street food in Uzbekistan would taste like Turkey, maybe Georgia—something familiar enough that I could pretend I understood it.

I used to think algae was just pond scum. Then I met Gulnara Karimova in Khiva’s old city, her hands stained green-brown from hours of working with

I used to think silk came from some kind of industrial vat. Turns out, in Margilan—this city tucked into the Fergana Valley in eastern Uzbekistan—they’

I used to think pilgrimage sites were all about grandeur—towering domes, crowds of tourists, that sort of thing. Then I visited Zangiata, tucked away on