Overview: In the Central-Asian (former Soviet) republic of Uzbekistan, Dan Cruickshank admires tiles of Samarkand and trading domes in Bukhara, then travels trough Azerbaijan, visiting the Fire Temple and Monastery at Surkhany, in Baku. In Iran (alias Persia), we marvel at the Imam mosque in Naghsh-i Jahan Square in Isfahan, a Persian rug in Shiraz, the Behistun Inscription in Kermanshah and the Ancient Achaemenid empire's capital Persepolis. Finally to Syria, visiting the Al-Hamidiyah Souk in the capital Damascus.