Uzbekistan - Central Asia - page 180

also a 6am bus to Samarkand (18,000S, 8½
hours). There are a couple of morning buses to
Tashkent (24,000S, 13 hours), or take a shared
taxi (65,000S, nine hours).
All of the above leave from the bus station , a
straight shot west on either Jurabaev (marshrut-
kas 18 and 20) or Navoi (marshrutkas 6, 7 and 8).
Trains to Termiz from Tashkent/Samarkand
no longer go through Turkmenistan thanks to
a brand-new track opened in 2009 that links
guzor and Termiz via Boysun and Jarkurgan.
There's a train to Tashkent on all odd dates of the
month (platskartny/kupeyny 48,000/72,000S,
14 hours) with stops in Boysun, Karshi and Sa-
markand. The return trip departs Tashkent on
even days at 9.20pm.
Local trains depart several times daily to De-
nau (2700S; three hours), and continue another
hour to Sariosiyo at the Tajik border.

Alexander¨the¨Great . Behind the fortress,
a path leads 4km to the Zukarnay¨Petro-
glyphs , which date to the Bronze Age. Ask
the curator at the museum how to find the
trail. If it's too hot to walk, there are some-
times guys with motorcycles hanging out
near the museum who will whisk you out
there for a couple of thousand som.
Beneath Alexander's fortress you'll en-
counter the anomaly of several hundred
trout occupying a pool and well next to a
16th-century mosque and a 9th-century
mausoleum. This is the Chashma¨Spring
(admission US$1) , formed, it is said, where the
Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law Hazrat Ali
drove his staff into the ground. The 'holy'
fish live off the mineral-laden waters of the
spring and canals that feed it.
Accommodation in Nurata itself is pret-
ty grim. Your best bet is the dilapidated
Hotel¨Nur ( % 323 00 16; s/d without bathroom
US$7/12) , 500m from Chashma Spring on the
road to the centre, which is the only hotel
in town and has a ground-floor restaurant.
Close to the centre, Mr Nemat runs a pleas-
ant homestay ( % 523 18 74) with a hammoni
(bath), and can prepare meals and organise
excursions.
2 ¨Activities
After briefly taking in Nurata's sights, you'll
want to hightail it to the yurt camps to
the north of Nurata. There are four within
shooting distance. Two are about 60km due
north of Nurata in Yangikazgan; two others
are further east in Dungalok near the shores
of manmade Lake Aidarkul, formed from
the diverted waters of the Syr-Darya in 1969.

Nurata
% 436 / POP 30,000
To the north of the featureless Samarkand-
Bukhara 'Royal Road', the Pamir-Alay
Mountains produce one final blip on the
map before fading unceremoniously into
desertified insignificance. The Nura-
tau Mountains, which top out at 2169m,
have in recent years become the centre of
Uzbekistan's growing ecotourism move-
ment. Modest Nurata town makes a logical
base for jumping off to the mountains or to
one of several nearby yurt camps.
Nurata itself is most famous for its old,
circle-patterned suzani, which can sell for
thousands of dollars at international auc-
tions, but it also has a few quirky tourist at-
tractions, most notably an old fortress¨of¨

GOING¨LOCAL¨IN¨THE¨NURATAU¨MOUNTAINS
South of Lake Aidarkul, there is great hiking and bird watching in the mountains of the
Nuratau-Kyzylkum¨Biosphere¨Reserve , which is also the site of a wonderful
community-based tourism project (www.nuratau.com). Families in several villages have
converted their homes into rutic guethouses where they welcome guets with over-
whelming hospitality. The area is ideal for hiking and horse-riding. You can also enjoy
the fresh mountain air and sleep on a tapchan (tea bed) under the tars. In winter you
can even observe authentic kupkari matches (a traditional polo-like game played with
a headless goat carcass). This is a great opportunity to experience the traditional life of
a Tajik-speaking mountain farmer family in their element - and a great way to ward of
architecture burnout if you've seen one too many medressas.
For further information, check the website or contact the office ( % 72 452 1200, +998
902 650 680; [e-mail]) in Yangiqishloq, a small town 70km wet of
Jizzakh. Regitration can be done in the guethouses or in the oice. Alternatively, you
can arrange a trip to the mountains with a hometay through mot tour companies or
through the Antica B&B in Samarkand.