The Stone City

Tashkent

A Silk Road capital and a three-million metropolis — where Soviet modernism meets Eastern bazaars, and the metro is a museum.

~ 2nd century BC

Founded

~ 3 million

Population

455 m

Elevation

Metro lines

Iconic places

The face of Tashkent

Chorsu Bazaar under its blue dome — the heart of old Tashkent

A metro as a museum

Tashkent has three million residents, four airports in the surroundings and a metro built in the Soviet era as both a nuclear shelter and a museum. Each station is its own project: Pakhtakor with cotton mosaics, Kosmonavtlar with portraits of Gagarin and Kondratyuk, Alisher Navoi in the style of an oriental palace.

Khast Imam complex — the spiritual centre of the capital

After the 1966 earthquake

The city survived the 1966 earthquake, after which the centre was rebuilt in Soviet modernist style — hence the wide avenues, concrete ensembles like the Uzbekistan Hotel and the ceremonial Independence Square. Yet old Tashkent survives alongside: Chorsu Bazaar under its blue dome, 16th-century mosques at Khast Imam, the narrow lanes of Eski-Shahar.

Amir Timur Museum and its ceremonial square

The gastronomy capital

Today Tashkent is the most convenient gateway to the country: an international hub, developed gastronomy (every district has its own plov), modern hotels from Hyatt to Wyndham and nightlife unmatched elsewhere in the region.

Practical info