Bread is treated as a sacred staple in Uzbekistan. The BBC visits a bakery where 10,000 loaves of the fabled Samarkand bread are hand-rolled, individually stamped, and baked in a tandoor every day.

Samarkand, 190 miles from the capital, has some of the most fantastical sites. Registan, located in the heart of the old city, was the public square during King Timur's reign in the 14th century.

On the list of exotic locales in the tall tales and adventure stories of our childhoods are the names of a scattering of ...