From Castile to Samarkand: The Spanish Embassy the Silk Road Forgot

On the eighth of September, 1404, after seventeen months on the road, a Castilian nobleman named Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo walked into Samarkand and ran out of words. He had left El Puerto de Santa Maria near Cadiz in May 1403, crossed the Black Sea, survived a shipwreck, wintered in Constantinople and ridden the length of Persia. Nothing in Castile had prepared him for what he found: orchards heavy with fruit, tiled domes the colour of deep water, ambassadors from China waiting in the same courtyard as he was, and a bazaar that seemed to sell the entire world.

He wrote it all down. His diary, published in Spanish in 1582 as Embajada a Tamorlan, remains the most detailed eyewitness account of Timur’s court ever written by a European. This September marks 622 years since he arrived. The journey that cost him seventeen months now takes about nine hours.

Why Spanish travellers feel strangely at home in Samarkand

If you have stood in the Patio de los Leones in Granada or under the arches of the Mezquita in Cordoba, Samarkand will not feel foreign to you — it will feel familiar, then overwhelming. The Alhambra reached its finished form in the fourteenth century. Timur’s Samarkand rose in exactly the same decades, at the other end of the same civilisation. The visual grammar is shared: the horseshoe arch, the glazed tile laid in geometry that never repeats, the honeycombed muqarnas vault, the courtyard built around water and shade.

What changes is the scale. At the Registan, three madrasas face one another across a single square, each facade a cliff of turquoise and gold. At Shah-i-Zinda, a narrow lane of tombs climbs a hillside where every doorway is a different masterpiece of ceramic. At the Gur-e-Amir, Timur himself lies under a ribbed dome that Spanish visitors routinely describe as the most beautiful room they have entered. This is Al-Andalus with the volume turned up — and almost nobody in Spain has seen it yet.

Autumn on the Silk Road: the season Clavijo described

Clavijo arrived in early September, and he was right to. From September through November the desert oases of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva settle into their best weather of the year: daytime temperatures around 22 to 28°C, dry air, cool evenings, and light that turns the tilework molten in the last hour before sunset. It is also harvest season. The bazaars fill with melons, grapes, pomegranates, figs and new-pressed cotton-seed oil — the same abundance Clavijo devoted pages to describing to a king who could not believe him.

For Spanish travellers this matters twice over. Autumn is when Uzbekistan is most comfortable to walk, and it is also outside the July–August peak, when the same cities can pass 40°C. If you can travel in late September or October, you will see the country as its own people prefer it.

Getting there is no longer an expedition

Spanish citizens need no visa for stays of up to 30 days — you land, you are stamped, you go. Madrid and Barcelona reach Tashkent in roughly nine to eleven hours with a single connection through Istanbul or the Gulf, and from August 2026 a new Etihad and Uzbekistan Airways codeshare puts Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Nukus, Termez and the Fergana Valley on a single ticket.

Inside the country, the Afrosiyob high-speed train covers Tashkent to Samarkand in 2 hours 8 minutes at 230 km/h, and since 2026 the high-speed network reaches all the way to Khiva. The route Clavijo rode for weeks is now a morning’s travel with a coffee and a window seat.

A Clavijo route, built for you

The itinerary almost writes itself: Tashkent to begin, then Samarkand for the Registan, Shah-i-Zinda, the Gur-e-Amir and Ulugbek’s observatory; Shahrisabz, where Timur was born, over the mountain pass; Bukhara for its living old town of caravanserais, minarets and courtyard houses; and Khiva, the walled desert city where the Silk Road finally stops. Ten to twelve days is comfortable. Eight is possible. Fourteen lets you add the Nuratau mountains, a yurt night by Aydarkul lake, or the silk workshops of the Fergana Valley.

GoUzbekistan builds these journeys privately, one traveller at a time. We are the brand of Lochin Express Plyus LLC, a licensed tour operator based at Islam Karimov Street 21 in Bukhara, working in Uzbek tourism since 2007 and holding tour-operator licence No. 662280 from the Committee for Tourism Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Our founder and CEO, Nusratullo Naimov, is from Bukhara; so are our guides and drivers. There is no agency in Madrid between you and the country.

Ready to follow the ambassador? Tell us your dates, your pace and what you actually want to see, and we will design the trip around you — create your own custom tour, or explore our tours for ready-made Silk Road itineraries. Questions in Spanish are welcome: write to info@gouzbekistan.com or call +998 93 963-00-00.

Plan your Uzbekistan trip — in your language

العربية

السياحة في أوزبكستان تعني سمرقند وبخارى وخيوة على طريق الحرير، بقباب فيروزية ومدارس من القرن الخامس عشر. الخريف هو أجمل موسم: طقس معتدل وأسواق مليئة بالفواكه. صمّم رحلتك الخاصة مع فريقنا المحلي في بخارى عبر إنشاء رحلتك الخاصة أو تصفّح جولاتنا الجاهزة.

Deutsch

Eine Usbekistan Reise fuehrt Sie auf der Seidenstrasse von Samarkand ueber Buchara bis Chiwa – visumfrei, sicher und im Herbst bei angenehmen Temperaturen. Unsere Seidenstrasse Rundreise wird individuell fuer Sie gebaut, mit deutschsprachiger Reiseleitung auf Wunsch. Jetzt Ihre Reise individuell planen oder unsere Rundreisen entdecken.

Espanol

Los viajes a Uzbekistan recorren la Ruta de la Seda entre Samarcanda, Bujara y Jiva, con cupulas turquesa y madrasas del siglo XV. Los espanoles no necesitan visado para estancias de hasta 30 dias y el otono ofrece el mejor clima del ano. Disena tu viaje a medida o descubre nuestros circuitos.

Francais

Un voyage en Ouzbekistan, c est la Route de la Soie en vrai : Samarcande, Boukhara et Khiva, sans visa pour les Francais jusqu a 30 jours. L automne est la plus belle saison, avec des journees douces et des bazars debordant de fruits. Creez votre circuit sur mesure ou parcourez nos voyages.

中文

乌兹别克斯坦旅游就是重走丝绸之路：撒马尔罕的雷吉斯坦广场、布哈拉的古城和希瓦的城墙，秋季气候宜人，最适合出行。我们是位于布哈拉的持牌地接社，可为您量身定制行程。欢迎定制您的专属线路或浏览我们的经典行程。

Русский

Туры в Узбекистан — это Шёлковый путь целиком: Самарканд, Бухара и Хива, бирюзовые купола и медресе XV века. Осень — лучший сезон: мягкая погода и базары, полные фруктов. Мы лицензированный туроператор в Бухаре и собираем маршрут под вас. Составить свой тур или посмотреть готовые туры.