Kazan: the Kremlin, Kul Sharif and Tatar cooking

Kazan joins Russian and Tatar cultures as nowhere else: nearly half its people are Tatars, and its mosques and churches have stood side by side for centuries. A visit begins at the white Kremlin above the meeting of the Volga and Kazanka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

Inside stands the Kul Sharif Mosque, with its turquoise dome and four minarets. It is named after the scholar Kul Sharif, who died with his students defending the city in 1552, and was rebuilt between 1997 and 2005 on the site of the Kazan Khanate's principal mosque; it holds 6,000 worshippers. Beside it are the sixteenth-century Annunciation Cathedral and the leaning Söyembikä Tower. We arrange your visit with an Arabic-speaking guide and plan the day around prayer times.

From there you walk down Bauman Street, closed to traffic, and into the Old Tatar Quarter, with its wooden houses and mosques. Then the Tatar table: triangular echpochmak pies of meat, onion and potato; belish, meat and grain baked in a crock; chak-chak, honey-soaked pastry that brides traditionally brought to their new home; and strong tea served hot with milk. Most restaurants in the centre serve halal meat as standard.

On the second day, a morning boat from Kazan's river port takes you to Sviyazhsk, at the meeting of the Volga and Sviyaga. Founded as a fortress in 1551, its Assumption Cathedral and Monastery joined the UNESCO list in 2017. In the evening we bring you back to the Kazanka embankment to see the Kremlin lit above the water.