The Registan is the single most photogenic public square in Central Asia: three Timurid madrasas facing each other, all tiled in the haftrang blues. The trick is light. Mid-morning kills it. Sunset turns the tiles liquid. Blue hour is when they stop being blue and start being something else.

For interior shots, Tilla-Kari madrasa on the right has a gold-leaf ceiling that no photograph fully captures. Wide angle, low ISO, tripod allowed inside.

Itchan Kala, the inner walled city of Khiva, is fully UNESCO-listed and partially restored. Some say overly so. It is also the most photogenic single square kilometre in Asia. Climb the unfinished Kalta Minor minaret at sunset and you can frame the entire walled city in a single shot.

Khiva is also the smallest of the three — you can photograph it in a long day. Sleep there one night to catch sunrise inside the walls without other tourists.

• Trains: the Afrosiyob bullet train Samarkand–Bukhara–Tashkent is the easiest way to move. Book 1 month ahead.
• Currency: the som is volatile. Carry US dollars in cash to exchange. ATMs work in Tashkent and Samarkand, less reliably elsewhere.
• Food: plov, lagman, shashlik. Vegetarianism is a foreign concept here. Bread is sacred — don't put it upside down.
• Equipment: tripod for blue hour, wide angle for interiors, 50mm for portraits in the bazaars. Dust protection on the lens.

Original in Spanish: guía de Uzbekistán. The photodump version: Uzbekistan photodump.