Samarkand shops the way it always has: by the kilo at Siab, by the knot at the silk carpet factory, by the sheet at the Konigil paper mill. Suzani embroidery, Gijduvon-glazed ceramics and dried apricots all haggle in som, cash preferred.
Central Asia's oldest working market, under blue metal canopies beside Bibi-Khanym. Rows of dried apricots, sun-black raisins, salted kurt balls and non bread stamped with chekich. Open daily 06:00–19:00, busiest Sunday. Sellers offer free tastings.
Family kiln near Registan producing Samarkand-style ishkor-glazed plates in copper green and manganese brown, fired with saxaul wood. Watch throwing and brushwork before buying; the workshop signs and dates each piece on the foot.
Suzani specialist off Registan Street stocking antique Nurata and Shakhrisabz panels alongside new silk-on-cotton work. Old pieces show natural madder and indigo that bleed slightly at the seams; new chain-stitch machine work is priced separately and labelled.
The metal end of Siab bazaar where smiths hammer pichok knives with bone or horn handles and stamped Damascus-pattern blades. Also brass teapots, chekich bread stamps and copper mortars. Trade winds down around 18:00.
Working atelier on Hodja Akhror Street where roughly 400 weavers knot silk carpets by hand at up to 1,000,000 knots per square metre, dyed with pomegranate rind, indigo and walnut husk. Free guided tour of dye vats and looms.
Courtyard teahouse behind Bibi-Khanym doubling as a curated craft counter: hand-blocked cotton napkins, embroidered skullcaps and pomegranate-motif tea sets. The green tea comes with kandalat sugar crystals from Siab across the road.
Boutique chain with a Samarkand branch stocking modern adras and ikat clothing woven in Margilan, plus leather goods and lacquer miniatures. Fixed prices, card accepted — a rarity here — and clear labelling of hand versus machine weave.
Glass-roofed mall in the new Silk Road Samarkand complex east of the centre, with Uzbek brands, a supermarket for vacuum-packed halva and a duty-free-style souvenir floor. Open 10:00–22:00, air-conditioned through the 40°C summer.
Water-powered mill 8 km northeast of the centre reviving 8th-century Samarkand mulberry paper: bark is boiled, pounded by a wooden hammer wheel on the Siab canal, then polished with agate. Sells sheets, notebooks and paper dolls.
Samarkand halva is flour-and-sesame based, cut from wheel-sized slabs, and sold alongside amber navat crystals grown on strings and parvarda pulled sugar. Vendors slice tasting slivers off the wheel before you commit to weight.
Cluster of studios on the lane below the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis: miniature painters working on silk paper, papier-mâché mask makers and woodcarvers cutting walnut Quran stands from a single block with no glue or nails.
The madrasa student cells now trade as small shops around the inner courtyards — karakul hats, chapan robes, kilims and camel-wool socks. Quality varies sharply cell to cell; the courtyard-corner cells hold the older kilims.