Traveling around Uzbekistan

I spent three weeks in Samarkand last summer with the wrong lens. Here’s the thing about Uzbekistan’s architecture—those turquoise domes, the

I used to think toys had to come from factories. Then I watched an elderly craftsman in Bukhara’s old quarter carve a wooden horse from mulberry

I never thought I’d feel nervous about boarding a train in Central Asia. But there I was, standing on Platform 3 at Tashkent’

I used to think restoration meant making things look new again. Then I spent three days in Khiva watching a master craftsman named Rustam Yusupov argue

I used to think palm weaving was just basket-making with a sunburn. Then I watched a seventy-something craftsman in Khiva—his name was Akmal, or maybe

I used to think museum management was just about keeping dust off old things. Then I spent three days wandering through Khiva’s labyrinthine museum

I’ve stood in a lot of old buildings, but the Tillya Kori Madrasah hits different. The name itself—Tillya Kori, meaning “gold-covered”

The pomegranates at Alay Bazaar don’t look like much at first glance. I mean, I’ve spent enough time wandering through markets across Central

When Ancient Astronomers Built a Fortress That Doubled as a Cosmic Calculator I’ve spent way too many hours staring at satellite images of the Kyzylkum

I’ve always thought medieval Islamic astronomy was some dusty footnote in textbook margins, you know? Turns out—and this hit me when I was standing