Samarkand

Introduction

Gur-e Amir Mausoleum

© hammarn

Samarkand is a city in the south of Uzbekistan and together with Bukhara forms one of the more popular cities to visit in the country.

Events and Festivals

Shark Taronalari

Shark Taronalari is Uzbekistan’s international world music festival. First held in 1997 in Samarkand, the festival has attracted a growing number of performers and participants through the years. It usually takes place every summer. Folk singers who practice traditional musical genres such as uran khai (throat singing) and makom (sacred classical, melodic Uzbek music) come to the festival to perform.

Getting There

By Plane

Samarkand Airport (SKD) offers flights with Uzbekistan Airways to/from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Simferopol and Tashkent. A few other airlines fly to St. Petersburg and Moscow as well, and there are also flights to Kiev.

Sleep

Upscale

Keep Connected

Internet

You can find Internet cafés in most of the cities. The speed varies but is generally better in more popular cities and areas.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Mobile connection works in most parts of Uzbekistan and the services are cheap. There are several popular mobile service providers in Uzbekistan like Ucell, Beeline, MTS (MTC in Cyrillic), Perfectum Mobile. A foreigner can get a SIM card after showing his passport. For activating the cell phone connection a person has to be registered. Generally some vendors are not aware of the law and refuse to sell to foreigners.

Avoid data roaming as prices are extremely high.

Post

Uzbekistan postal services are not developed as in most developed countries worldwide, but all letters and parcels are delivered (after customs check) to its destinations. Uzbekistan postal services "OZBEKISTON POCHTASI" have introduced many new services recently and level of service is increasing. EMS Falcon (company affiliated with Ozbekiston Pochtasi) can deliver letters and parcels within Uzbekistan fast.

If you want to send packages abroad, use international companies like FedEx, DHL, TNT or UPS, as they offer fast and reliable services at very reasonable rates.

External Links