Samarkand

... is in south–eastern Uzbekhistan, close to the border with Tajikistan. It's about 170 miles south–west of the capital, Tashkent, which is close to the borders with both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. (Uzbekhistan is approximately 750 miles across in its longest dimension, from north–west to south–east.)

Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in central Asia, believed to have been founded in the 7th or 8th century BC. In more recent times its fame has been drawn from its position on the Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean.

The phrase "the golden road to Samarkand" comes from a poem written in 1913 by the English poet and dramatist James Elroy Flecker. The Golden Journey to Samarkand became a hymn to travellers in the East. Flecker died from tuberculosis in January 1915, aged just 30. His death was described at the time as "unquestionably the greatest premature loss that English literature has suffered since the death of Keats."