Programme and details
Uzbekistan · 7 Days / 6 Nights · Private Tour
The Buddhist Silk Road: Tashkent, Termez and Samarkand
Tashkent – Termez – Fayaz Tepe – Kara Tepe – Zurmala – Samarkand – Did you know? A 7th-century mural shows envoys from Korea Uncovered by road builders in 1965, the Ambassadors' Painting at Afrasiyab shows delegations bearing gifts, Chinese with silk among them, and two men in feathered hats thought to be envoys from Korea's Goguryeo. Read more → – Tashkent, with an optional extension to Bukhara
The monk Xuanzang set out for India in 629. His road ran through Samarkand, and in Termez, on the Amu Darya, he counted about ten monasteries and a thousand monks. This week follows his ground: the alabaster Buddha of Fayaz Tepe in the State Museum of History in Tashkent, three days among the excavated monasteries of Termez, where Japanese archaeologists dug with Uzbek colleagues, and the 7th-century wall paintings of Afrasiyab in Samarkand. The seven days fit a Friday arrival and a Thursday departure, the days of the nonstop flight from Tokyo.
| Duration | 7 days / 6 nights, or 9 days with Bukhara |
| Price | on request |
| Format | Private, or a small group on your dates |
| Where | Tashkent, Termez and Samarkand; Bukhara as an option |
| Getting around | Flights Tashkent – Termez – Tashkent, about 1 h 20 min each way; the Uzbekistan's high-speed train: Tashkent to Samarkand in 2 hours 30 minutes, Tashkent to Bukhara in about 4 hours. Tickets are tied to your passport. Read more → fast train Tashkent – Samarkand, 2 h 30 min |
| Best time | March–April and October–November; May and September with early starts in Termez |
Ideal for travellers who follow Xuanzang and the Buddhist ,A network of caravan routes between China and the Mediterranean. Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva grew rich as stops along it. for anyone interested in archaeology, and for guests from Japan who want a week that matches the Narita flight.
Kara Tepe — cave sanctuaries cut into a hill with three peaks, excavated by Kyuzo Kato from 1998 and by a Rissho University team from 2014 to 2017.
Afrasiyab — the hill of ancient Samarkand, with wall paintings of the mid-7th century showing envoys at the court of the Sogdian king.
Itinerary
Day by Day
Day 1 · Tashkent — Arrival
Your guide and driver meet you at Tashkent International Airport and take you to your hotel. The nonstop flight from Narita lands on Fridays at 16:10, so the evening is yours for a walk and dinner. If you still have the energy, ride the Did you know? A metro designed to ride out a magnitude-9 earthquake The three original lines of the Tashkent Metro were built to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 9.0, and the tunnels lie unusually shallow, only 8–25 m below the street. Read more → for a few stops: every station is decorated in its own way, and since 2018 you may photograph them.
Good to know: Tashkent is four hours behind Japan. We plan the first day around your flight, whichever route you take.
Overnight in Tashkent
Day 2 · Tashkent – Termez — The Fayaz Tepe Buddha and the flight south
We start at the State Museum of History, which reopened in July 2026 after renovation. Its best-known piece comes from Termez: an alabaster Buddha found at Fayaz Tepe in 1968. Seeing it first tells you what once stood on the bare hills you will walk over in the next days. The building itself, behind its marble screens, is one of the ten modernist buildings of Tashkent added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2026.
After lunch, the transfer to the airport and the flight to Termez, about an hour and twenty minutes. Your guide and driver in Termez meet you on arrival.
Good to know: We choose the flight to Termez for your dates; there are several each day.
Overnight in Termez
Day 3 · Termez — The Archaeological Museum, Sultan Saodat and the Zurmala stupa
The Archaeological Museum of Termez opened in 2002, when the city marked its 2,500th anniversary; you will know it by its turquoise dome. Inside are around 27,000 items: Bactrian and Kushan sculpture, coins, wall paintings and finds from the Buddhist monasteries.
Before lunch, Sultan Saodat, the family necropolis of the Termez sayyids, which grew from the 10th to the 17th century along one long passage. In the late afternoon, the Zurmala stupa: built in the 1st–2nd centuries AD from about 1.2 million mud bricks, it still stands around 13 metres tall and was the first Buddhist building identified in Central Asia.
Good to know: About 60 km north-east of Termez lies Dalverzin Tepe, the Kushan city where Soka University excavated a Buddhist temple with Uzbek colleagues in 1989–1993, 1995 and 2006–2007. If you would like to see it, tell us when you book, and we will check whether a visit can be arranged for your dates.
Overnight in Termez
Day 4 · Kara Tepe – Fayaz Tepe – Old Termez — The monasteries and the Japanese digs
We leave early for Kara Tepe, a hill with three peaks that the monks turned into a monastery town, with sanctuaries cut into the slopes and corridors around some of the caves for walking around the sacred image. Kyuzo Kato began to dig here with Uzbek archaeologists in 1998 and came back every spring and autumn. From 2014 to 2017 a team from Rissho University excavated the northern hill with Uzbek colleagues every September, with Kato as its adviser. He became an honorary citizen of Termez in 2002.
Next door is Fayaz Tepe, the monastery where the Buddha you saw in Tashkent was found. It was founded in the 1st century AD and abandoned around the 5th. The plan is easy to follow: a temple with a courtyard of 33 by 20 metres, the monks’ cells, service rooms and the stupa standing apart, now under a protective dome with a glass window.
After lunch and a break, Old Termez on the Amu Darya, a city until Genghis Khan’s army took it in 1220, and the shrine of ,Did you know? Legend says al-Hakim at-Termizi founded Termez Locals call the 9th-century Sufi al-Hakim at-Termizi “Termez-ata”, father of Termez, and by tradition count him as the city’s founder. In fact Termez is about a thousand years older; the name honours a life spent for the good of people. Read more → a 9th-century Sufi scholar, with its white marble tombstone of the early 15th century.
Good to know: The visit to Kara Tepe is arranged in advance, and we confirm it for your dates. There is almost no shade on the hills: bring a hat and water. Al-Hakim at-Termezi is a working shrine: cover shoulders and knees; women may want a scarf.
Overnight in Termez
Day 5 · Termez – Tashkent – Samarkand — By air and by fast train
A morning flight back to Tashkent, about an hour and twenty minutes, and then the Afrosiyob, the fast train to Samarkand, 2 h 30 min. Your driver takes you from the airport to the station, and in Samarkand you are met and taken to your hotel.
Xuanzang went from Samarkand to Termez overland; today the quickest way between the two cities is through the capital. In the evening, rest after the journey: the old city is waiting for you tomorrow.
Good to know: We choose the flight and the train for your dates and book the tickets; they need the full name and passport number of every traveller.
Overnight in Samarkand
Day 6 · Samarkand — Afrasiyab and its 7th-century murals
The morning belongs to Afrasiyab, the hill where Samarkand stood from around 500 BC until the Mongols took it in 1220. In its museum are the wall paintings of the mid-7th century, found in 1965: envoys, among them a delegation from Tang China, arriving at the court of the Sogdian king. They were painted only a few decades after Xuanzang came through the city. On the slope of the same hill is ,Did you know? Why Shah-i-Zinda means 'the Living King' The necropolis grew around the shrine of Qutham ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. Legend says he did not die in battle but went down a deep well to a garden of paradise, where he lives on. Read more → a lane of tiled tombs from the 11th to the 15th centuries.
In the afternoon, the ,Did you know? The Registan's sun-carrying lion went on a banknote The Sher-Dor Madrasah (1619–1636) is named for the big cats with the sun on their backs on its portal. The image appeared on the reverse of Uzbekistan's 200-som note of 1997. Read more → with its three madrasahs, the oldest built by Did you know? Ulugh Beg measured the year to within 25 seconds Working at his Samarkand observatory, Ulugh Beg put the tropical year at 365 days 5 h 49 min 15 s, about 25 seconds too long, closer than Copernicus a century later. Read more → in 1417–1420, and ,Did you know? Timur's tombstone went to Persia and came back The dark-green jade slab on Timur's grave in Gur-e-Amir was carried off by Nader Shah in 1740. It broke, and on his advisers' urging he sent it back to Samarkand. Read more → the mausoleum where Amir Timur (Tamerlane, 1336–1405), founder of the Timurid empire, which had its capital in Samarkand. Born near Shahrisabz. is buried.
Good to know: At Shah-i-Zinda, cover shoulders and knees. More on the city in our guide to Samarkand in 1, 2 or 3 days.
Overnight in Samarkand
Day 7 · Samarkand – Tashkent — Home or onward
A free morning, perhaps for Samarkand's main bazaar, right next to Bibi-Khanym: Samarkand bread, dried fruit, nuts and halva. Read more → next to the .Did you know? 95 elephants hauled stone for Timur's great mosque Bibi-Khanym, begun in 1399 after Timur took Delhi, was the largest mosque of his empire. Some 200 stonecutters worked on site and 95 elephants brought from India hauled the loads; the courtyard was meant to hold 10,000 people. Read more → Then the Afrosiyob back to Tashkent and the transfer to the airport. On Thursdays the nonstop flight to Narita leaves at 22:05 and lands at 09:40 the next morning.
If your flight leaves on another day or by another route, we plan the last day around it.
Extension · Bukhara, 2 more days
Instead of going back to Tashkent on day 7, take the fast train from Samarkand to Bukhara, under two hours. One theory traces the city’s name to the Sanskrit vihara, a monastery. You spend the afternoon and the next day in the old town: Poi-Kalyan with the Kalyan minaret, which Genghis Khan’s army left standing in 1220, the Ark fortress, the 10th-century Samanid Mausoleum and Lyabi-Hauz.
On day 9, the train back to Tashkent, a little over four hours, and your flight home.
Two nights in Bukhara
Accommodation
Where you stay
| City | Stay |
|---|---|
| Tashkent | A comfortable hotel, 1 night |
| Termez | A comfortable hotel, 3 nights |
| Samarkand | A comfortable hotel, 2 nights |
| Bukhara (extension) | A comfortable hotel, 2 nights |
We confirm the hotels for your dates before booking.
Price
Price
The price is given on request: it depends on the dates, the hotels, the size of your group, the language of the guide and whether you add Bukhara.
Good to know
Conditions
- Our guides work in English and Russian. If you would like a guide who speaks Japanese, tell us when you book: we will check who is available for your dates.
- Citizens of Japan can visit Uzbekistan without a Entry rules depend on your passport. Once you are here, each stay must be registered within three days, and hotels do it for you; customs and registration rules are in our guide. Read more → for up to 30 days. Other passports: check the rules before booking, and we will check them with you.
- The best months are March–April and October–November. In May and September afternoons in Termez average about 33 °C, and from June to August 38–40 °C, so in the warm months we see the open sites early in the morning.
- The visit to Kara Tepe is arranged in advance; we confirm it for your dates.
- At shrines and at Shah-i-Zinda, cover shoulders and knees; women may want a scarf.
- Tell us about allergies and diets: we take them into account when we plan your meals.
- Read before you go: Uzbekistan tours from Japan, our guide to Termez and the Registan. Want more days in the south? See The Buddhist South: Termez and Did you know? Central Asia's largest ancient gold hoard came from Surkhandarya In 1972 archaeologists at Dalverzin Tepe, an ancient Kushan city in Surkhandarya, found 115 gold objects weighing 36 kg in all: ingots and jewellery of the 1st century AD. It is the largest gold treasure ever found in Central Asia. Read more →.
- Reservations are confirmed with passport copies only.
Cancellation policy
| Cancellation timing | Penalty |
|---|---|
| 21 days before the service | 20% |
| 20–7 days | 50% |
| 6–0 days | 100% |
🌿 Responsible tourism: we allocate part of our profits to good causes and are preparing for GSTC certification.
Expert opinion
Pluses
- Museums before ruins: the Did you know? A Buddha between two monks, carved at Fayaz Tepe Among the finds at Fayaz Tepe is a niche of the 3rd–4th century with the Buddha seated between two monks. Most of the monastery’s reliefs and wall paintings are now in the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan in Tashkent. Read more → Buddha in Tashkent and the Archaeological Museum of Termez come before the sites.
- Three days in Termez: ,Did you know? Monks at Kara Tepe left inscriptions in Indian scripts The cave monastery of Kara Tepe kept inscriptions in Kharoshthi and Brahmi, scripts that came from India. They even preserve monks’ names — Buddhashira, Buddhamitra, Jivananda — and many pilgrims came here from India itself. Read more → Fayaz Tepe, Did you know? Zurmala is thought to be the oldest standing structure in Uzbekistan The Zurmala stupa near Termez was raised in the 1st–2nd century AD. Its mud-brick core still stands about 13 m high and 14 m across; once it was faced with red fired brick and stone panels carved with Buddhist scenes. Read more → and Old Termez without rushing.
- Fits the Narita flight: Friday arrival at 16:10, Thursday departure at 22:05.
Minuses
- Little shade: Kara Tepe and Fayaz Tepe are open hills with almost no shade: bring a hat and water.
- One long travel day: on day 5 you fly from Termez to Tashkent and take the fast train to Samarkand.
- Meals mostly extra: only breakfasts are included; lunches, dinners and drinks are paid on site.
AroundCA numbers
How we counted
By the AroundCA programme: we count only what is written in the day-by-day programme of this tour. If the programme gives no figure, we show nothing.
- Hotel changes
- 2
- Walking
- Medium
Walking: Medium: excavated sites on open ground in Termez, museums and walking tours in Samarkand, without long hikes.
Best time
Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov
March–April and October–November: afternoons of 18–27 °C in Termez, before and after the summer heat.
Better to avoid
Jun–Aug
June to August: afternoons in Termez average 38–40 °C.
A typical day
On day 4 you leave early for Kara Tepe, where Kyuzo Kato and a Rissho University team dug with Uzbek colleagues, and walk next door to Fayaz Tepe, the monastery where the Buddha you saw in Tashkent was found. Lunch and a break; in the late afternoon, Old Termez and the shrine of Al-Hakim at-Termezi.
What the price includes
What is included
- Meeting at Tashkent airport and the transfer back for your flight
- Flights Tashkent – Termez – Tashkent
- Afrosiyob train tickets Tashkent – Samarkand – Tashkent (Samarkand – Bukhara – Tashkent with the extension)
- Accommodation: 6 nights with breakfast (8 with the extension)
- A private car with driver for transfers and sightseeing in every city
- A guide on all sightseeing days, in English or Russian
- Entrance tickets on the programme and the arrangements for Kara Tepe
Not included
- International flights
- Lunches, dinners and drinks
- Photo and video fees at the sites
- Tips and personal expenses
Extra cost on site
- Lunches, dinners and drinks
- Photo and video fees at the sites
- Tips and personal expenses
Good for
- Travellers following Xuanzang and the Buddhist Silk Road
- Guests from Japan who want a week that fits the Friday–Thursday Narita flight
- Archaeology lovers who like to see the finds first and then the sites
Maybe not for you if
- Travellers who want to see Khiva as well: it is not on this route
- Summer trips: from June to August afternoons in Termez average 38–40 °C
- Anyone who does not enjoy walking on open ground: the sites in Termez are excavated ruins with little shade
Questions about this tour
How much does the tour cost?
The price is given on request: it depends on the dates, the hotels, the size of your group, the language of the guide and whether you add Bukhara.
Is there a guide who speaks Japanese?
Our guides work in English and Russian. If you would like a Japanese-speaking guide, tell us when you book, and we will check who is available for your dates.
How does the tour fit the flight from Japan?
Uzbekistan Airways flies nonstop from Narita on Fridays, landing in Tashkent at 16:10, and back from Tashkent on Thursdays at 22:05. The seven days run from that Friday to that Thursday. If you fly via Seoul or on other days, we shift the programme to your flights.
Where is the Buddha found at Fayaz Tepe?
The alabaster Buddha found in 1968 is in the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan in Tashkent, which reopened in July 2026. We see it on day 2, before the flight to Termez.
Can we visit Kara Tepe and Dalverzin Tepe?
The visit to Kara Tepe is arranged in advance, and we confirm it for your dates. Dalverzin Tepe, about 60 km north-east of Termez, is not in the standard programme: tell us if you are interested, and we will check whether a visit can be arranged.
Do we need a visa?
Citizens of Japan can visit Uzbekistan without a visa for up to 30 days. For other passports, check the rules before booking, and we will check them with you.
Didn’t find your answer? Ask about this tour →
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Tick what you’d like to add — it goes into your request, and the manager confirms the final price.
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Arrival, departure, transfers
© Photos
Kara Tepe Buddhist site, Termez — Marat Nadjibaev / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0; Archaeological Museum, Termez — Jonibek Qo'zimurodov / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0; Fayaz Tepe Buddhist site, Termez — Prof. Mortel / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0; Al-Hakim at-Termezi mausoleum, Termez — 4pf3154f7 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0; The Afrosiyob train at Tashkent Central station — Nikolai Bulykin / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0; The 7th-century Ambassadors' Painting in the Afrasiyab Museum, Samarkand — Nassima Chahboun / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
