This book is about my visits to three wonderful cities in Uzbekistan: Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. With years of travelling, I have developed a habit of seeing a place first and forming my own impression, and then reading about it. Uzbekistan was not an exception to this habit. I mentioned to a couple of my very good acquaintances in Uzbekistan that I would like to process my observations and I asked them if they could recommend a book that could help me to understand the people and culture of their land better. Their recommendation included two books: one was written by a very distinguished nineteenth century traveller, Armin Vambery, and the other one was a diary of legendary ruler Babur who lived in the fourteenth – fifteenth centuries. Reading their books I was reflecting on my own travels and thought that it would be interesting to include their observations in my notes: the same places but through the journey of time.