Sights in Tashkent
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History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan
The History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan is a must-stop for anyone looking for a primer on the history of Turkestan from ancient times to the present.
The 1st floor has ancient Zoroastrian and Buddhist artefacts, including a small Buddha from a Kushan temple excavated at Fayoz-Tepe near Termiz. On the 2nd floor English placards walk you through the Russian conquests of the khanates and emirates, and there are some foreboding newspaper clippings of revolts in Andijon and elsewhere being brutally suppressed by the Russians around the turn of the 20th century. The 3rd floor, naturally, is dedicated to Karimov. A placard contains what is surely one of Karimov's more iro…
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Yunus Khan Mausoleum
Across Navoi from the Navoi Literary Museum are three 15th-century mausoleums. The biggest, on the grounds of the Tashkent Islamic University, bears the name of Yunus Khan, grandfather of the Mughal emperor Babur. The mausoleum itself sits locked and idle, but you can check out its attractive Timurid-style pishtak (entrance portal). Access is from Abdulla Qodiri kochasi.
Two smaller mausoleums are east of the university grounds, accessible via a small side street running north from Navoi - the pointy-roofed Qaldirgochbiy and the twin-domed Shaykh Hovandi Tahur. Next to the latter is a mosque with beautifully carved wooden doors and attractive tilework.
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Chorsu Bazaar
Tashkent's most famous farmers market, topped by a giant green dome, is a delightful slice of city life spilling into the streets off Old Town's southern edge. If it grows and it's edible, it's here.
There are acres of spices arranged in brightly coloured mountains; Volkswagen-sized sacks of grain; entire sheds dedicated to candy, dairy products and bread; interminable rows of freshly slaughtered livestock; and - of course - scores of the pomegranates, melons, persimmons, huge mutant tomatoes and whatever fruits are in season. Souvenir hunters will find kurpacha (colourful sitting mattresses), skull caps, chapan and knives here.
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Moyie Mubarek Library Museum
The official religious centre of the republic is located 2km north of the Circus, on Zarqaynar kochasi. Here you'll find the newly restored Moyie Mubarek Library Museum, which houses the 7th-century Osman Quran (Uthman Quran), said to be the world's oldest. This enormous deerskin tome was brought to Samarkand by Timur, then taken to Moscow by the Russians in 1868 before bring returned to Tashkent by Lenin in 1924 as an act of goodwill towards Turkestan's Muslims.
It is Tashkent's most impressive and important sight. The museum also contains 20,000 additional books and 3000 rare manuscripts. The library is next to the spartan Telyashayakh Mosque.
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Fine Arts Museum of Uzbekistan
The four floors of the Fine Arts Museum of Uzbekistan walk you through 1500 years of art in Uzbekistan, from 7th-century Buddhist relics, to the art of pre-Russian Turkestan, to Soviet realism, to contemporary works.
There are displays of East Asian and South Asian art and even a few c-19th century paintings of second-tier Russian and European artists hanging about. Nineteenth- and 20th-century Central Asian masters are well represented, and there's an impressive section on Uzbek applied art - notably some brilliant old plaster carvings (ghanch) and the silk-on-cotton embroidered hangings called suzani.
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Peoples' Friendship Palace
Downtown Tashkent's largest park, sprawling southward from Halqlar Dustligi metro, is a haven for joggers, Sunday strollers, and appreciators of Uzbek eccentricity. Soviet architects had a field day in Navoi Park, erecting a pod of spectacularly hideous concrete monstrosities, the most eye-catching of which is the Peoples' Friendship Palace, which appears like a moon-landing station from a 1950s film set. Looming inside is an enormous concert hall with 4200 seats.
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Museum of Applied Arts
The Museum of Applied Arts occupies an exquisite house full of bright ghanch and carved wood. It was built in the 1930s, at the height of the Soviet period, but nonetheless serves as a good sneak preview of the older architectural lurking in Bukhara and Samarkand. The ceramic and textile displays here, with English descriptions, are a fine way to bone up the regional decorative styles of Uzbekistan, and there's a pricey gift shop to trap impulse buyers.
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Navoi Park
Downtown Tashkent's largest park, sprawling southward from Halqlar Dustligi metro, is a haven for joggers, Sunday strollers, and appreciators of Uzbek eccentricity. Soviet architects had a field day here, erecting a pod of spectacularly hideous concrete monstrosities, the most eye-catching of which is the Peoples' Friendship Palace, which appears like a moon-landing station from a 1950s film set. Looming inside is an enormous concert hall with 4200 seats.
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TV Tower
The TV Tower, a 375m three-legged monster, the epitome of Soviet design, stands north of the InterContinental. The price of admission gets you up to the 100m viewing platform. You'll need your passport to buy a ticket. To go up to the next level (about 220m) you'll have to grease the guard's palm - 2000S should do the trick. At 110m there's a revolving restaurant that serves a decidedly mediocre set Russian meal (3100S).
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Kulkedash Medressa
The grand 16th-century Kulkedash Medressa sits beside Tashkent's principal Juma (Friday) mosque on a hill overlooking Chorsu Bazaar. The 15th-century mosque was once a place of execution for unfaithful wives. The mosque was a sheet metal workshop and the medressa a storage space during Soviet times. Both were renovated in the mid-90s, and on warm Friday mornings the plaza in front overflows with worshippers.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Tashkent Land
Just north of the InterContinental, Uzbekistan's largest amusement park, Tashkent Land, has a handful of creaky Soviet rides. It's an amusing diversion, just don't expect Walt Disney World.
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Earthquake Memorial
The New Soviet men and women who rebuilt Tashkent after the 1966 earthquake are remembered in stone at the Earthquake Memorial. Newlyweds flock here to have their photos taken on weekends.
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Romanov Palace
East of the square across Rashidova kochasi, the animal-festooned facade of the Tsarist-era Romanov Palace faces the Art Gallery of Uzbekistan, and is now closed to the public.
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