The village of Konigil, eight kilometres northeast of Samarkand on the banks of the Siab river, has been making paper since the 8th century. The Mukhtarov family runs a workshop where they make paper the old way — soaked mulberry bark pounded under a water-driven hammer, the pulp pressed onto cloth, the sheets polished smooth with shells and seeds. The result is a tough, slightly yellow paper that takes ink the way nothing modern does.
The visit is part workshop, part demonstration, part garden walk along the river. Allow an hour and a half. There is a small cafe with plov and bread. Combine with the Hazrat Daud cave shrine if you have a half day to spare for the surrounding countryside.