Rudolph A. Furtado · CC0 The Silk Road beyond monuments
Why markets, workshops and ordinary streets matter as much as the famous tiled facades.
A route made by exchange
The Silk Road was a network rather than one road. Food, craft, language and ideas moved alongside valuable goods.
Historic architecture gives the journey scale, while bazaars and workshops show how exchange remains part of daily life.
Make time to stay
A slower morning in a neighbourhood or market often reveals more than another rushed monument. Build unstructured time into city itineraries.
A yurt, the traditional home of the Kyrgyz
The round felt dwelling of the nomads is still part of life in Kyrgyzstan: it shelters shepherds on the summer pastures, appears in city courtyards for holidays and welcomes travellers at yurt camps. Here is how a Kyrgyz yurt is built, what its parts are called, and the numbers behind it.
Five reasons to visit Kyrgyzstan
Mountains and lakes in four seasons, nomadic traditions you can join, horse games and falconry, the places travellers ask about first, and the question of when to come: what actually draws people to Kyrgyzstan.
Five activities to do around Bishkek
Ala Archa on foot, horse riding in Chunkurchak or Chon Kemin, a cultural walk through the capital, paragliding above the city and rafting on the Chu river: five ways to fill a day, or a day trip, from Bishkek.
Issyk Kul in pictures
A photo album of Kyrgyzstan's best-known lake, following a route around it: Cholpon Ata and the northern shore, Grigoriev gorge, Karakol, Jeti Oguz and Kok Jayik, Skazka canyon and the southern shore, and the Chon Kemin valley on the way back.