The Kyzyl Kum — "Red Sand" in Turkic — is the eleventh-largest desert on earth, sprawling across Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. From Zarafshan it surrounds the city completely, a flat, rust-coloured expanse of saxaul scrub, low dunes, and dry salt flats that runs to the horizon in every direction.
In spring, after rare rains, the desert briefly blooms with red and yellow wildflowers and the saxaul puts out fresh green growth. In summer, temperatures top forty-five degrees Celsius and the heat haze blurs the horizon. The air is desperately dry year-round. For travellers with their own transport and the right paperwork, the desert highway south from Zarafshan to Bukhara, six hours through nothing, is one of the great empty drives of Central Asia.