The road from Altyaryk to Andizhan rolled through an attractive rural landscape with the road lined by long single-storey terraces of houses extending for the length of the village and gas pipelines camouflaged by vines. The flowers were glorious.
Andizhan is a smart, modern-looking town and we found a nice hotel in the hope that we could soak up some of the Uzbek soms we had left over. Not much hope with a price of £32 including a delicious breakfast. Nothing much to see in Andizhan, which is known primarily for a massacre in 2005. Zahiruddin Babur lived and studied in Andizhan as a boy within the Ark-Ichy citadel which no longer exists after an earthquake in 1902. He inherited his father’s kingdom and captured Samarkand at the age of 14 before he was defeated and driven into Afghanistan by the Uzbek Shaymanids and went on the found the Mughal Empire in India.
