Sights in Uzbekistan
-
A
Turki Jandi mausoleum
Deep in the old town is the tiny, decrepit Turki Jandi mausoleum favoured for getting one's prayers answered. It's the resting place of a holy man known as Turki Jandi, his two sons, several grandsons and numerous other relations. Its importance is signalled by the hundreds of other graves around it - allegedly in stacks 30m deep! It's under slow, devoted restoration and was closed when we visited.
reviewed
-
Statue of Timur
Tashkent's main streets radiate from Amir Timur Maydoni, where a glowering bust of Marx has been replaced by a suitably patriotic Statue of Timur on horseback. A glance under the statue reveals that the stallion has been divested of a certain reproductive appendage. Just who stole it is one of Tashkent's great mysteries. Fortunately the horse's formidable family jewels remain intact - for now.
reviewed
-
B
Chashma Ayub 'mausoleum'
Nearby Ismail Samani Mausoleum in Samani Park, is the peculiar Chashma Ayub 'mausoleum', built from the 12th to 16th centuries over a spring. The name means 'Spring of Job'; legend says Job struck his staff on the ground here and a spring appeared. Inside you can drink from the spring. It is now, sadly, overshadowed by a glistening new glass-walled memorial to Imam Ismail al-Bukhari next door.
reviewed
-
C
Crying Mother Monument
North of Mustaqillik maydoni is the Crying Mother Monument. Fronted by an eternal flame, it was constructed in 1999 to honour the 400,000 Uzbek soldiers who died in WWII. The niches along its two corridors house their names. Karimov has built a nearly identical monument near the centre of most major Uzbek cities. Hey, at least he's not building Turkmenbashi-style monuments to himself.
reviewed
-
D
Char Minar
Photogenic little Char Minar, in a maze of alleys between Pushkin and Hoja Nurabad, bears more relation to Indian styles than to anything Bukharan. This was the gatehouse of a long-gone medressa built in 1807. The name means 'Four Minarets' in Tajik, although they aren't strictly minarets but simply decorative towers. Unesco restored one collapsed tower and fixed another in 1998.
reviewed
-
E
Seattle Peace Park
At the other end of town, Babur Park is home to the poignant Seattle Peace Park, a collection of small tiles designed by Tashkent- and Seattle-based schoolchildren in the 1980s. The tiles, many of which are cracked or missing, recall the Cold War era with messages like 'You can't hug your child with nuclear arms', in Russian or English.
reviewed
-
F
Water Tower
Beside Bolo-Hauz Mosque (opposite the Ark) is a now-disused 33m water tower , built by the Russians in 1927. If you are going to climb this, you best not be afraid of heights or rickety-looking Soviet structures. The views of the Ark and beyond are worth the sum1000 demanded by the local shepherd or whoever else is around.
reviewed
-
Kosmonavtlar Station
It's worth taking the metro to reach some of the sites around town, if only to visit some of the lavishly decorated stations. A must is the Kosmonavtlar Station with its unearthly images of Amir Timur's astronomer grandson, Ulugbek and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, among others.
reviewed
-
Monument to Alisher Navoi
Near the Oliy Majlis is a vast promenade and a post-Soviet Monument to Alisher Navoi, Uzbekistan's newly chosen cultural hero.
Continuing south you'll find some amusement park rides and a large man-made lake, which you can traverse in hired peddle boats in the warm months.
reviewed
-
G
Senate
The shiny white edifice on the west side of the square is the brand new Senate building. Its ample size and appearance suggest that it was built to outdo America's Senate building. The president's office and most ministries take up the southern portion around Gagarin maydoni.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
H
Kalon Mosque
At the foot of the Kalon Minaret, on the site of an earlier mosque destroyed by Jenghiz Khan, is the 16th-century congregational Kalon Mosque, big enough for 10,000 people. Used in Soviet times as a warehouse, it was reopened as a place of worship in 1991.
reviewed
-
Dishon-Qala
The Dishon-Qala was old Khiva's outer town, yet another creation of the 'builder khan' Alloquli, and surrounded by its own 6km wall. Most of it is buried beneath the modern town now, but part of the Dishon-Qala's wall remains, 300m south of the South Gate.
reviewed
-
Zindon
Behind the Ark is Zindon, the jail, now a museum. Cheerful attractions include a torture chamber and several dungeons, including the gruesome 'bug pit' where Stoddart and Conolly languished in a dark chamber filled with lice, scorpions and other vermin.
reviewed
-
I
Abdul Aziz Khan Medressa
The student rooms (across from Ulugbek Medressa) at the 16th-century Abdul Aziz Khan Medressa are occupied, rather typically, by souvenir shops. This is another unrestored gem, built by its namesake to outdo the Ulugbek Medressa in size and splendour.
reviewed
-
J
Amir Timur Museum
The richly decorated Amir Timur Museum is a must for aficionados of kitsch and cult-making. Murals show Timur commissioning public projects and praising his labourers, yet conspicuously overlooking his bloody, skull-stacking military campaigns.
reviewed
-
K
Navoi Literary Museum
Besides memorabilia of 15th-century poet Alisher Navoi and other Central Asian literati, the Navoi Literary Museum has replica manuscripts, Persian calligraphy, and old miniatures that offer a glimpse of life in the 15th and 16th centuries.
reviewed
-
Imam Ismail al-Bukhari Islamic Institute
Northwest of the Barakhon Medressa is the Imam Ismail al-Bukhari Islamic Institute, a two-year post-medressa academy with about 200 students. It was one of two medressas in Central Asia left open in Soviet times (the other was in Bukhara).
reviewed
-
Ishratkhana Mausoleum
If you prefer your ruins really ruined, it's worth the slog out to the Tomb Raider-style, 15th-century Ishratkhana Mausoleum. With a preponderance of pigeons and an eerie crypt in the basement, this is the place to film your horror movie.
reviewed
-
Medressas
Southeast of Samani Park are two massive medressas, one named for the great Shaybanid ruler Abdulla Khan, and one for his mother called Modari Khan (mother of the khan). The latter is locked, the former contains yet more crafts shops.
reviewed
-
Mustaqillik Maydoni
Further west, good-luck pelicans guard the gates to the newly refurbished Mustaqillik Maydoni, where crowds gather to watch parades on Independence day and whenever else Karimov feels the need to stir up a bit of nationalistic spirit.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
Mausoleum of Abu Bakr Kaffal Shoshi
Near the mam Ismail al-Bukhari Islamic Institute is the little 16th-century Mausoleum of Abu Bakr Kaffal Shoshi, an Islamic scholar of the Shaybanid period. Enter through the back to view his large tomb and five smaller ones.
reviewed
-
Khodja Abdi Darun Mausoleum
Across the street from the Ishratkhana Mausoleum is the Khodja Abdi Darun Mausoleum, which shares a tranquil, shady courtyard with a mosque and a hauz (artificial stone pools). To get here take marshrutka 22 or 32.
reviewed
-
Barakhon Medressa
Across the street from the Moyie Mubarek Library Museum is the 16th-century Barakhon Medressa, which houses the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, whose grand mufti is roughly the Islamic equivalent of an archbishop.
reviewed
-
L
Museum of Art
Museum of Art has mostly 20th-century paintings by Bukharan artists, some of which can be purchased in a gallery on the ground floor. It's in the former headquarters of the Russian Central Asian Bank (1912).
reviewed
-
Hoja Zayniddin Mosque
Across from the Ark on Hoja Nurabad, the interior of the 16th-century Hoja Zayniddin Mosque has some of the best very old, original mosaic and ghanch work you're going to see anywhere.
reviewed