Samarkand Paper Mill, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Just a few miles away from the historic city center of Samarkand, a small village Konigil is located. There, you can find an old-styled workshop run by a family of enthusiasts who are continuing century-old traditions of paper-making in Uzbekistan.



The paper factory is using old technology and manual labor. The mechanisms are driven by the small river of Siab, using a wooden watermill. All materials and dyes are natural, just the way they were used centuries ago.



Guests and tourists can participate in the actual process of paper making, starting from collecting woods and preparing it for a lengthy process of boiling, drying, and stretching the paper.



The local artisans will show you old skills and techniques that they ancestors were using to make finest quality paper which was exported along the Great Silk Road to medeival Europe, including France, Italy, Germany and Spain.