UZBEKISTAN

After only 18 years of independence, a travel map of the wonderful country of Uzbekistan has been published. Isn’t it incredible that, after all these years of having nothing but a generalized regional map of Central Asia, nobody thought of doing a country map? Well, they did, and we did, and we struggled quite a bit to prepare the artwork in the process, because it is a damnably difficult country to map. Never before in the history of humankind (sorry, I tend to get a bit carried away when I’m excited, and I am just think we’ve finally created a map of UZBEKISTAN!!!). The map is single-sided and portrays roads by categories, place names with correct current spellings (such as Samarqand for Samarkand), and as many points of interest as we could locate accurately. Inset maps of Toshkent (Tashkent) and Samarkand (also known as Samarqand) are included. Even the bizarre-looking subway system of Toshkent is shown. What remains of the Aral Sea is shown. The historic walled city of Xiva is shown, as well as the known stretches of the various ancient Silk Road routes. The country is loaded with fascinating-sounding cities Kattaqo’rg on is my favourite; I have no idea how to pronounce it, but Qo’qon sounds so unusual as to be tempting to visit. Uzbekistan is exotic, different, a feast for the jaded traveller. Ever since I read the Rubiat of Omar Khayan I’ve had a vision of faraway Samarkand and a desire to visit.