On a chilly October morning, he introduced himself to us. “My name is Dilshod,” he said, and he would be our driver for the whole day. We departed from Itchan Kala, the well-preserved walled city of Khiva, when most other tourists hadn’t woken up yet and the streets of the old town were still quiet. But we had to start early because apart from taking us to Bukhara, which would be our final destination for the day, Dilshold would first make a detour to the ruins of some of the region’s ancient city-fortresses – the latter was James’ idea.

At first glance, this part of Uzbekistan might appear as a desolate place sitting at the western edge of the Kyzylkum Desert – the world’s 15^th largest desert. But this vast oasis – known as Chorasmia, Khwarazm, and Khorezm throughout its history – formed by the Amu Darya river delta had been inhabited since antiquity due to its fertile soil. The Iranian Khorezmian civilization, whose language was closely related to the one spoken by the Sogdians, had settled on this land since the Bronze Age. When the mighty Achaemenid Empire controlled this region, people from Khorezm even took part in the second Persian invasion of Greece led by Xerxes in the fifth century BCE. Around one and a half centuries later, however, Khorezm had already become independent from its former Persian overlords.

Khorezm managed to stay free even when the tide had turned in favor of the Greeks following the conquest of Central Asia by Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE. Successive Hellenistic powers, including the Seleucid Empire and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, largely kept Khorezm out of their control, a period which saw the growth of fortresses in this region. From the 11^th to the 13^th centuries CE, this western part of Central Asia was ruled by the Khorezmian Empire, a Sunni Muslim power that was culturally Persian but of Turkic origin which also controlled much of modern-day Iran. However, in the aftermath of the Mongol invasion, this Turkic people further cemented their position as the dominant ethnic group in Khorezm.

After around two hours since we left Itchan Kala, we arrived at our first fortress for the day: Kyzyl-Kala. With flat lands as far as the eye could see, this partially-reconstructed ancient monument which was initially built between the first and fourth centuries CE was undeniably striking. As we drew closer to it, it became clearer that what previously appeared to be small needles puncturing the façades of the structure were in fact wooden beams that support the millennia-old edifice. On the southeast side, a flight of stairs provide access to the upper gallery. However, as we went up there, it required a little imagination to picture how this place must have looked like during its heyday since not much from that time is left today.

Kyzyl-Kala was a nice introduction to what this part of Uzbekistan has to offer, but I was particularly excited to see the next fortress, thanks to a model of it that I saw at the Toshhovli Palace a few days earlier which really piqued my interest. Toprak-Kala was a short drive away from Kyzyl-Kala, but as we arrived at the second site it immediately dawned on me that the sheer size of this ancient citadel was an indication that it probably served a much more important function than the fortress at the first location. Some even suggest that this larger compound might have been built in the second century CE, which means what we saw was most likely even older than Kyzyl-Kala.

It was mind-boggling to think that when the defensive walls of this citadel were still standing, a palace, hundreds of rooms, several halls serving different purposes, residential quarters, and temples were contained within the perimeter. The architectural model in Khiva even gave away the site’s Zoroastrian past with the existence of a fire temple. However, centuries of abandonment eventually took its toll as most of the citadel was almost completely buried in desert sands when it was rediscovered in the 20^th century. But as we were standing at the highest point of the compound, I couldn’t help but feel grateful that at least parts of this ancient monument still last to this day, no matter how worn out. This state of preservation allows us to get a better understanding of the ancient peoples who once ruled this land and managed to build something so extraordinarily massive, even for today’s standards.

To visit our next fortress, we had to go to the edge of the desert less than an hour away from Toprak-Kala. Dilshod must have taken countless tourists to these sites as he seemed to know the roads in this region like the back of his hand. Before long, we were already surrounded by the harsh landscape of the Kyzylkum Desert. And as I was looking out of the car’s window, a butte with an ancient structure on top of it came into view, with the backdrop of a higher hill where an even larger man-made compound overlooked the former. Together, they made the entire scene look very dramatic.

Ayaz-Kala comprises three fortresses that were built roughly between the fourth century BCE – when Khorezm gained independence from the Achaemenid Empire – to the eighth century CE. The decision to build these defensive structures right at the edge of the desert was primarily to prevent raids from the nomadic tribes in the region. And judging from the scale of the monuments, the threat might have been very serious. As soon as Dilshod pulled over at the site’s parking area, we had to continue on foot to reach Ayaz-Kala I, the site situated on the higher hill. The hike should’ve been easy, but the soft sand made it a lot harder than it might appear at first. Certainly, conquering it centuries ago when this fortress still served its main purpose must not have been a straightforward affair.

Going up to the fortress proved to be a short but good exercise, and once we were there, we were treated with the views of the vast desert everywhere we looked. We walked alongside ancient walls and chambers of this fortification that was built over 2,000 years ago, and I couldn’t help but feel amazed by how such ancient man-made structures still stand to this day – at least parts of them. As we drew closer to the southwestern edge of the hilltop compound, we saw Ayaz-Kala II again – that fortress on a butte that we saw earlier – but this time from a bird’s eye perspective. The smaller structure that Ayaz-Kala I overlooks was in fact commissioned much later between the sixth to the eighth centuries CE. The third fortress, however, was in a supposedly worse state of preservation, which partially explains why we were unaware of it and therefore skipped it.

I don’t remember that walking down from Ayaz-Kala I to reach the carpark was much easier than going up, so  I was impressed by a young boy who ran gleefully on the terrain as if it was solid ground. We spotted Dilshod and his car amid other vehicles, and soon afterward we bid adieu to Khorezm (or Xorazm in modern Uzbekistani spelling) and headed straight to Bukhara… or so we thought. Less than an hour later, our driver suddenly made a brief stop at yet another ancient fortress which he thought we might be interested in checking out. Guldursun-Kala was built in the 12^th century CE, roughly a century before the conquer of the Khorezmian Empire by the invading Mongol forces, led by none other than Genghis Khan himself. Needless to say, it was a nice impromptu stop before going back to the long and mostly straight highway connecting Khiva and Bukhara.

Although we managed to make simple conversations with our driver, for the most part he didn’t really speak English. But that was not the problem. Quite the opposite from the calm-mannered driver who took us from Bukhara to Khiva five days earlier, at times Dilshod made me rather nervous. On the long stretches of the highway, he often checked his phone and watched videos while driving at a high speed. As a result, I stayed fully awake throughout the entire journey to provide a second pair of eyes to our oft-distracted driver.

Fortunately, we arrived in the already-dark Bukhara in one piece. Although we only had several hours in the city – just enough to rest before waking up very early the next morning to catch the train to Tashkent – we were reminded of why we loved Bukhara. The owner of the hotel where we stayed seemed visibly concerned and disappointed that we wouldn’t have enough time to have breakfast at his place, a reminder of the Bukharan hospitality that we adored. However, sometimes when we travel we have to make things work, especially when it comes to flight or train schedules. I certainly hoped we could have spent one more day in this city, but it was time for us to explore the last destination in our two-week trip across Uzbekistan: Tashkent, the nation’s modern capital and primary international gateway.