Konigil Village and the Meros Paper Mill

The Meros paper workshop

• Founded 1996
• Mulberry bark, no chemicals
• Every step on show

In 1996 the brothers Zarif and Islam Mukhtarov set out to bring back Samarkand paper, a craft that had died out generations before. Their workshop in Konigil makes it the old way: young mulberry branches are stripped of their bark, the inner layer is soaked and boiled, beaten to pulp by wooden hammers, then formed sheet by sheet, pressed, dried and polished smooth with a stone. You watch every step, and the masters are happy to explain it.

The water wheel and the river

• Water-powered hammers
• Shady garden
• Teahouse by the river

The workshop runs on the river: a wooden water wheel, the charkhpalak, turns the heavy hammers that beat the bark, just as it would have centuries ago. Around it the grounds are a shady garden of tall trees and channels of running water, with small bridges, a teahouse by the river and benches in the shade — cool and green even in high summer.

Crafts, bread and a shop

• Clay-oven bread
• Ceramics and textiles
• Paper souvenirs

Konigil is more than the paper. In the grounds you can watch bread and pastries come out of a clay oven, browse ceramics and textiles, and visit the shop, where the paper is turned into notebooks, postcards, bags, dolls and even dresses. It is one of the few souvenirs from Uzbekistan that is truly made a few metres from where you buy it.

The story of Samarkand paper

• A Silk Road inventionSamarkand was one of the first places outside China to make paper, from around the 8th century. Tradition says the secret came with Chinese papermakers taken prisoner after the Battle of Talas in 751; historians still argue how much of that story is true. Either way, Samarkand paper became famous across the Islamic world and was prized for manuscripts and books for centuries, before factory-made paper pushed it out.
• Why it lastsThe paper is made only from natural materials and is never bleached, which gives it its warm, slightly yellow tone. It is strong and very long-lasting — far more durable than ordinary paper — which is why it is used today not only for souvenirs but also for restoring old manuscripts.
• A living villageKonigil sits on the Siab river among orchards and old trees, about 13 km from the centre of Samarkand. Alongside the paper mill the village is growing into a centre for traditional crafts, and it is a pleasant, unhurried contrast to the busy monuments of the city.

Before you go

• Getting thereKonigil is about 13 km from Samarkand — around twenty minutes by car. It pairs naturally with the Imam al-Bukhari complex, about forty minutes further on, for a half-day out of the city.
• How long it takesAn hour to an hour and a half is enough for the workshop, the garden and the shop. With Imam al-Bukhari added, plan about five hours from Samarkand and back.
• When to goThe workshop works during the day, so go in the morning or early afternoon. The shady garden makes it one of the more comfortable visits on a hot summer day.
• Lunch and shoppingThe teahouse by the river is a good place for tea or a plate of plov (paid separately). Bring some cash for the shop — the paper notebooks and postcards make light, unusual gifts.

What we can arrange

All of it we book ourselves. Write once with your dates and you get an answer with a price, not another search form.

• A hotelfrom a family guesthouse to the big complexes
• A car with a driverairport pickup, day trips, transfers between cities
• A guide for the dayin the language you are comfortable in
• Train ticketsTashkent — Samarkand — Bukhara, booked ahead
• A table for dinnerthe tea houses and restaurants we use ourselves