Jahongir Hotel

Suzani textiles cover the walls of Jahongir's rooms, hand-embroidered in the bright reds and indigos traditional to the region. The hotel occupies a house built in the second half of the 19th century by a local tea merchant, its ground floor raised in baked brick and its upper storey framed with a double-wall timber technique once used to guard against earthquakes. That gap between the frames still does its job: rooms stay cool through the Samarkand summer and hold their warmth in winter. The layout follows the old pattern too, rooms set at right angles around a central courtyard, with an iwan open to the garden. It is a short walk to Registan Square, the old city's central monument, and near enough to reach on foot before breakfast. Rooms are simple: double, twin, single, family and a junior suite, each with a private bathroom, air conditioning and a flat-screen television. Most look onto the courtyard garden, where ceramic artwork and carved niches, once used to store bedding and dishes, now hold shelving or decorative suzani. Breakfast and tea are served outdoors, under the garden's shade. The house has stayed close to its original form, plaster and clay still visible under later finishes. It remains family-run, and it shows.