Uzbek South
Surkhandarya
Buddhist stupas, the Amu Darya, and the country's warmest winters.
Best months
Typical stay
From Tashkent
Elevation
Uzbekistan's southern tip, hard against the Amu Darya and the Afghan border. Termez is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia — Alexander wintered here, and centuries earlier this was a major Buddhist centre with monasteries carved into the loess bluffs.
Termez is Uzbekistan's oldest continuously inhabited city and once a major Buddhist centre — Fayaz-Tepe stupa dates to the 1st century.
History
A layered past
Founded around the 6th century BCE, Termez was a key Kushan Buddhist site in the first centuries CE — the Fayaz-Tepe monastery and Kara-Tepe cave complex still stand. Later a Silk Road crossing, later still the Soviet Union's staging ground for the war in Afghanistan.
Best time to visit
When to come
October–April. Summer here is punishing.
What we do here
Ways to experience Surkhandarya
01
Fayaz-Tepe monastery
1st–3rd century Buddhist stupa on the desert plain outside Termez.
02
Al-Hakim at-Termezi complex
The 9th-century Sufi's shrine, in a garden by the river.
03
View across the Amu Darya
From the fortress at Kampyr-Tepe, Afghanistan lies a bowshot away.
Pairs well with
Where travellers go next
Good to know
Questions travellers ask
Is the Afghan border a concern?+
Termez is safe and calm. The border sits across the Amu Darya; the friendship bridge is closed to tourists but you can see it.
When to visit?+
October to April. Summer temperatures regularly clear 45°C.
