13 days / 12 nights – Tour Silk Road Adventure

Departure from Frankfurt/Main, arrival in Ashgabat (ca. 1-2 days).
Trainride to Dashoguz (1 day) and Kohne Urgench (1 day) afterwards drive to Khiva (2 days).
Busride to Bukhara (3 days).
Trainride to Samarkand (2 days), Taschkent (1 day) and Almaty (2 days).

Tour-Program:
Frankfurt – Ashgabat – Dashoguz – Kohne Urgench – Khiva – Bukhara – Samarkand – Taschkent – Almaty – Frankfurt

Departure from Frankfurt/Main to Ashgabat.

1. Day: Arrival in Ashgbat. Check In at the hotel. Time for rest. Breakfast. Tour of the city. Dinner (B/D)
2. Day: Breakfast. Visit to a Basaar.Trainride to Dashoguz. Lunchbox. Overnight on the train. (B/D)
3. Day: Arrival to Dashoguz at 08:00. Breakfast. Departure to Kohne Urgench. Tour of Kohne Urgench and afterwards, drive to turkmen – Uzbek Border. Bordercrossing. Drive to Khiva. Check In at the hotel. Dinner. (B/L/D)
4. Day: Breakfast. Sightseeingtour in Khiva (UNESCO World Heritage Site, the old city fortress Itchan Kala with its minarets, medresses and masoleums). (B/D)
5. Day: Breakfast. Busride to Bukhara, approx. 7 hours. Picknick on the way in at typical uzbek teehouse – “choyhona”. Check In at the hotel. Dinner in the Medresse Nodir Divan Begim. (B/P/D)
6. Day: Breakfast. Sightseeingtour of the city (UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Masoleum of the Samanids, Kaljanminarett, Kaljan Mosque and Medresse Mir – i – Arab). Dinner. (B/D)
7. Day: Breakfast. Trainride to Samarkand. Check In at the hotel. Sightseeingtour of the city ( previously UNESCO World Heritage Site , the Registansquare). Dinner. (B/D)
8. Day: Breakfast. Continued excursion of Samarkand (UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ulugbeck Observatorium, Afrosiab, Gur Emir Masoleum). Dinner. (B/D)
9. Day: Early breakfast. Trainride to Tashkent. Check In at the hotel. Sightseeing tour of the city (Khast Imam Complex, Old City). Dinner (B/D)
10. Day: Breakfast. Visit to a local Basaar. Trainride to Almaty. Dinner – lunchbox. Overnight on the train. (B/D)
11. Day: Breakfast – lunchbox. Lunch in the train restaurant. Arrival in Almaty. Check In at the hotel. Dinner. (B/L/D)
12. Day: Breakfast. Sightseeing tour. (B/D)
13. Day: Departure to Frankfurt/Main. Arrival in Frankfurt.

Explanation of abbreviations:

B- Breakfast
L- Lunchbox
P- Picknick
D- Dinner

Hotels:

Tashkent Palace 4*
Asia Khiva 3* or. Malika 3*
Asia Bukhara 3* or. Omar Khayyam 3*
Asia Samarkand 3* or. Grand Samarkand 3*
Hotel Kazakhstan 3* in Almaty
Hotel Grand Turkmen or Ak Altyn 4*in Ashgabat

Services included:

• Double room accommodation (based on twin rooms): Ak-Keme**** or Golden Dragon**** or Silk Road Lodge*** Hotel in Bishkek
• Transportation (German minibus or bus with a/c)
• Mineral water (1 litter per person per day)
• Full board from Day 1 till day 3 according the program;English speaking guide according the program
• Entry fees to museums
• Porterage service at hotels and airport according the program.

Services not included:

• Single room accommodation in Hotels
• Alcoholic and soft drinks
• Cost for Kyrgyz and Kazakh visas
• Fees for video and photo shootings
• Tips and private expenses of tourists

Price: starting at 2900.- EURO (plus taxes/fees at time of ticketing)

Optional we create your individual tour along the Silk Road even longer or shorter. Just send us your details we create your tailormade Silk Raod Adventure.

Your Request

Make a tour request here or call us +49-69-95 90 97 00!!!

The Silk Road
The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network. The German terms Seidenstraße and Seidenstraßen “the Silk Road(s)” were coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. The term Silk Route is also used. Although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century. The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938. The fall of the Soviet Union and ‘Iron Curtain’ in 1989 led to a surge of public and academic interest in Silk Road sites and studies in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Use of the term ‘Silk Road‘ is not without its detractors. For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China, which at sea was conducted mostly through India and on land was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians. Going as far as to call the whole thing a “myth” of modern academia, Ball argues that there was no coherent overland trade system and no free movement of goods from East Asia to the West until the period of the Mongol Empire. He notes that traditional authors discussing East-West trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route as a silk one in particular.

History
From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand and Khotan to China. Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel (“Balas Ruby“) mines in Badakhshan, and, although separated by the formidable Pamir Mountains, routes across them were apparently in use from very early times.

Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE. British Museum.
Some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk dating from 1070 BCE have been found in Ancient Egypt. The Great Oasis cities of central Asia played a crucial role in the effective functioning of the Silk Road trade. The originating source seems sufficiently reliable, but silk degrades very rapidly, so it cannot be verified whether it was cultivated silk (which would almost certainly have come from China) or a type of “wild silk”, which might have come from the Mediterranean region or the Middle East.

Following contacts between metropolitan China and nomadic western border territories in the 8th century BCE, gold was introduced from Central Asia, and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes, adopting the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (depictions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade and steatite.[citation needed] The tomb of a Scythian prince near Stuttgart, Germany, dated to the 6th century BCE, was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks. Similar animal-shaped pieces of art and wrestler motifs on belts have been found in Scythian grave sites stretching from the Black Sea region all the way to Warring States era archaeological sites in Inner Mongolia (at Aluchaideng) and Shaanxi (at Keshengzhuang) in China.

The expansion of Scythian cultures, stretching from the Hungarian plain and the Carpathian Mountains to the Chinese Kansu Corridor, and linking the Middle East with Northern India and the Punjab, undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as Aswan. These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighbouring settled populations for a number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, they also encouraged long-distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. Soghdian Scythian merchants played a vital role in later periods in the development of the Silk Road.

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