In my basement in Lincolnwood, IL, I found the Second Revised Edition of the Encyclopedia of World Travel, published by Doubleday in 1973. The section titled "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" contained the following paragraphs about Central Asia:

"Travelers heading east into the steppes of central Russia will see legendary cities most people have only read about. Tashkent, Alma-Ata, and Samarkand are three stopovers on Intourist's list. Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, can be reached in four hours from Moscow by jet. The capital of the short, moon-faced Uzbeki people is a bustling city, and a showplace for Soviet industrial development. Visitors are taken to the cotton-growing collectives (this reublic rovides more than 60 percent of all Russian cotton), the Central Asian State University, and the Palace of Young Pioneers.

While all of these cities are little known today, many world conquerors--Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane--marched through them, often destroying them in the process.

Samarkand is one of the few cities where buildings from the past still stand. A group of mausoleaums and mosques conected by an open gallery with arches remains. Their wonderful filigree ornaments, medallions, columns, black, white, and lilac mosaic with gold stars and threads, recall the richness of the Arabian nights. Visitors will see the beautiful, blue-domed mosque in which rests the Tomb of Tamerlane, and the Registan, a magnificent fifteenth-century structure on the central square.

Alma-Ata, capital of Kazakhstan, is a city that has a spectacular setting, with the huge Tien-Shan mountain range behind it. Many peaks are snow-covered with apple orchards. The city itself offers many parks, including the Gorky Rereation Park on the banks of the Malaya Almatinka, with snow-covered summits behind it. This itinerary also includes a trip to the famed high mountain skating rink, the Alma-Ata film studios, and a collective farm.

All three cities show many examples of the new Soviet-style construction, from hotels to factories to railroad shops."