This once mysterious nation now grants visa-free travel to 90 countries, part of a plan that may change its character forever.
And then came the late 19th century. The Soviets invaded – controlling the country until 1991 – after which Uzbekistan spent several decades under the isolationist rule of President Islam Karimov, notorious for human rights abuses and enforcing slave labour in the country’s ubiquitous cotton fields.
Unsurprisingly, in a city long defined by the iron rule of dictators – captured by Alexander the Great in 329 BC, ravaged by Genghis Khan in the 13th century, capital of Tamerlane’s Empire throughout the 14th – this thunderous surge into modernity is largely welcomed by Samarkand’s citizens, and by a government looking to the Gulf, and the glittering United Arab Emirates, for inspiration.
“The Eternal City is even better than Madinat Jumeirah,” says Roland Obermeier, general manager of the Samarkand Regency hotel. “Everybody goes to Registan Square, to these architectural monuments – but we have our own, so people can stay in the resort and not necessarily go to the Old City.” He pauses, adding: “People go to Paris just for Disneyland.”Credit:The Disneyfication of Samarkand is an ongoing debate, and one that is likely to rage on for some time.
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