Uzbekistan
A museum of forbidden Soviet art lost at the end of the world, then rusted ship hulls stranded in the middle of the desert
Uzbekistan
A journey through remote western Uzbekistan, far from Samarkand and Khiva: Nukus, capital of Karakalpakstan, home to an improbable museum of forbidden Soviet avant-garde art, saved from destruction by a collector who brought it to this isolated city beyond the reach of Moscow's authorities, then the Kyzylkum Desert and the dried-up shores of the Aral Sea, where rusted ship hulls have rested for decades on ground turned to sand.
When
April to May | Sept to Oct
Price
From 2 400€ excl. flights
(based on 2 people sharing)
How long
6 nights
Ideal length
Days 1-2
The first chapter unfolds in Nukus, capital of the autonomous region of Karakalpakstan, home to one of Central Asia's most surprising art museums: over ninety thousand works of Soviet avant-garde art banned under Stalin, saved by collector Igor Savitsky, who took advantage of the city's remoteness to quietly assemble this collection away from Moscow's censorship. The Savitsky Museum, nicknamed the "Louvre of the desert," reveals a little-known chapter of 20th-century art history.
Day 1
The Savitsky Museum and forbidden avant-garde
A guided visit to the Savitsky Museum, discovering Soviet avant-garde paintings saved from destruction, spanning expressionism, constructivism, and Turkestani art little known in the West.
Day 2
The ancient fortresses of Karakalpakstan
An excursion to the mud-brick fortresses of Ayaz-Kala and Toprak-Kala, remains of the ancient kingdom of Khorezm dating back over two thousand years, standing amid the desert.
Days 1-2
The road to the Kyzylkum Desert and the former port of Moynaq, once a thriving fishing town on the shores of the Aral Sea, the fourth-largest lake in the world before Soviet irrigation projects diverted its feeding rivers from the 1960s onward. The sea has since retreated over a hundred kilometres, leaving behind a salt desert where the rusted hulls of fishing boats now lie stranded, one of the most striking sites of this ecological disaster.
Day 1
The Moynaq ship graveyard
A visit to the Moynaq ship graveyard, where the rusted hulls of trawlers stranded by the Aral Sea's retreat have rested for decades, and the small local museum tracing this ecological disaster.
Day 2
A night in a yurt in the Kyzylkum Desert
A drive through the Kyzylkum Desert to a yurt camp, a traditional dinner prepared by a local family, and a night under a starry sky far from any light pollution.
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