Tashkent to Samarkand

Michael Portillo continues his railway tour through Uzbekistan on Tashkent’s suburban electric railway to one of the most spectacular and secretive pieces of Soviet Cold War engineering. Hidden high in the mountains, Michael discovers an installation straight out of a Bond movie - a solar furnace that concentrates the sun’s rays into a beam so hot it cuts through steel.

From Tashkent, he picks up the high-speed train west to Samarkand and discovers how China’s Belt and Road Initiative is re-establishing old Silk Road routes with new railway connections. Arriving in the legendary ancient city fulfils a lifelong ambition for Michael. He is overwhelmed by the magnificent architecture of the Registan and moved by traditional music played at its heart. Finally, at one of Central Asia’s most important archaeological sites, Afrosiyob, 7th-century Sogdian wall paintings reveal the diverse and cosmopolitan history of this former Silk Road capital.