Tashkent (Uzbek: Toshkent) is the capital city of Uzbekistan and the most populous city of former Soviet Central Asia. Most package tours to Uzbekistan or even many travellers just pass by Tashkent, but this is a mistake – it is completely worth staying 2 days in Tashkent.
Tashkent is a historical city, it was a relevant hub in the Silk Roads. Unfortunately, a devastating earthquake in 1966 destroyed 70% of its buildings, and the oldest areas were the most affected. This is why there are only a few historical buildings, and these are much less spectacular than those in Samarkand or Bukhara.
The Soviet authorities reacted quickly to the earthquake and started reconstructing Tashkent, following the urban models of the time. Still today, when you arrive in Tashkent after travelling in Uzbekistan, it will feel like you are now in another country.
Tashkent is much less touristic than the iconic Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan and that is why it is much more authentic. In Tashkent you will meet the real urban Uzbekistan and people from all over Uzbekistan live here, to study or work.
Tashkent is the only city in Uzbekistan where there is some nightlife – not much for what you would except in a city of 3 million people with so many youngsters, and it is controlled by the authorities, but it is definitely fun and worth exploring.
Finally, Tashkent features some interesting museums that tell you a lot about Uzbek culture, and even more about current culture – how they see themselves. All of this makes Tashkent a must destination during you trip to Uzbekistan, especially considering that you will probably fly from or to Tashkent airport.
Check out other posts about Uzbekistan in DriveMeFoody!
Arriving in Tashkent
Tashkent Islam Karimov International Airport (TAS) has flights to many airports, including Istanbul. Actually, it is a great option to start your trip in Uzbekistan.
The airport is in the South of the city, approximately 8 km away from the city centre (20 minutes by car with no traffic). A taxi should cost you around 35.000 som (€3) if your hotel books it for you, but when you arrive in the airport all drives will try to overcharge you.
The new circle line of Tashkent Metro, currently under construction, will also arrive in the airport.
You can arrive to Tashkent from other cities in Uzbekistan by train. There are high-speed trains to Samarkand (2h10) and Bukhara (4h).
There is no high-speed train to Khiva, but there is a regular direct train Tashkent-Khiva that takes 16h (you can cut it to 11h if you travel high-speed to Bukhara and take the regular train from there). Anyway, the fastest option to travel to or from Khiva is the flight to Urgench (1h).
Train tickets are quite cheap, around €10 or less and can be easily purchased in the official Uzbekistan Railways website: https://railway.uz/en/
Tashkent’s train station lies Southeast of the city centre, and reachable by Metro (Toskent station).
Don’t forget to buy a travel health insurance with good coverage and service before you travel to Uzbekistan.
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Moving around Tashkent
The most convenient way to move around Tashkent is using the public transport, especially by metro.
Travelling by metro is very fast and trains are reasonably frequent (every 5 minutes). Metro stations are quite far from each other, usually around 20 minutes on foot – an advantage of this is that metro trains reach a high speed. Tashkent Metro opens from 5 am to midnight.
The Tashkent Metro network has 4 lines, but you will probably only use the first three lines: Chilonzor (red), O’zbekiston (blue) y Yunsobod (green). A new outer circle line is under construction, which will connect Taskent’s suburbs and the airport.
Buses complete the public transporte system. These are useful for shorter distances or to arrive from the metro to your final destination, because distances in Tashkent are sometimes long.
In both metro and bus, a single ticket costs 1.400 som (€0.13). You can easily pay with a contactless bank card. If you still don’t have it, don’t forget to get your Revolut card to get rid of low currency exchange rates and commissions.
Don’t forget the metro is a tourist attraction by its own right! Check out our Guide to Tashkent Metro.
Where to stay in Tashkent
In Tashkent you won’t find the typical guesthouses of other cities in Uzbekistan like Samarkand or Khiva. Tashkent is, in many ways, more like any other big city than like other cities in Uzbekistan. Accommodation in Tashkent is made up of hotels, usually large, some of the Soviet era and some modern, and Airbnb-like apartments.
In any case, accommodation in Tashkent is cheaper for the same quality than in the touristic cities of Uzbekistan.
It is very important that your hotel is close to a metro station. Also, we recommend you to stay close to Amir Temur Square (the centre of the New City), where there is a livelier atmosphere, or in the Old Town, close to Chorsu.
Hotel Uzbekistan, in Amir Temur square was the main hotel in Soviet times, an institution and one of the most interesting examples of Soviet architecture in Tashkent. Many travellers choose to stay there because of the experience, but some say it needs a good renovation.
We stayed in Shodlik Palace, between the Old and New cities, also from the Soviet era, but more modern.
Short history of Tashkent
Tashkent has more than 2000 years of history. According to the ancient chronicles, between the 5th and 3rd c. BC there was a city in this area called Chach (later Chachkand, origin of the modern name of Tashkent), that became the capital of a principality.
Like the rest of modern Uzbekistan, Tashkent was conquered by the Arabs in the beginning of the 8th c. By the end of the 9th c. the Samanids, a Persian dynasty led by Ismail Samani, gained independence from the Abbasid Caliphate, and dominated the current Uzbek capital too.
Genghis Khan destroyed the city in 1219 and decimated its population. But Tashkent was a city next to an oasis in a strategic location on the silk roads and the gate to the fertile Fergana Valley, so it will eventually recover its splendour.
Tashkent was indeed a strategical city for Amir Timur, as it lay by a key pass in his campaigns against his enemies by the East. Under Timurid rule, Tashkent was rebuilt and became an important trade, cultural and religious hub, albeit always subordinated to Samarkand and later to the Bukhara Khanate under the Shaybanid dynasty.
In 1598, after a war between Bukhara and the Kazakh Khanate, successor to the Golden Horde, Tashkent and other cities along the Syr Darya went under Kazakh control until the 18th c. so the history of Tashkent and Samarkand started diverging.
In 1784, Yunus Khoja established Tashkent as an independent state, but it was later conquered by the Khanate of Kokand (in Fergana Valley) un 1809. At that times, Tashkent was one of the wealthiest cities in Central Asia with a population over 100.000.
In 1865, Russian General Chernyayev, disobeying the Tsar’s orders and heavily outnumbered, conquered Tashkent thanks to a surprise attack by night. Tashkent was then incorporated into the Russian Empire as capital of the Turkestan region.
The Transcaspian railway arrived in Tashkent in 1889 and brought Russian culture and population. By the early 20th c. 20% of Tashkent’s population were Russians. The Russians prompted a big development of Tashkent, planning a New City, West of the Old Town, with parallel avenues connected by circular boulevards.
The train also brought the winds of the Russian Revolution. After the establishment of the Soviet Union, Tashkent was chosen as the capital of the Turkestan ASSR, that in 1924 was split into the current Central Asian republics. Tashkent then became the capital city of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.
During World War II, many Soviet industries relocated far from the frontlines and, in particular, to the area around Tashkent. Refugees from the war zones and German communists also arrived in Tashkent, so its population quickly raised to one million.
The development of Tashkent continued until the 1966 earthquake, which a 7.0 magnitude. It destroyed 70% of the city, especially the old town. Tashkent was soon rebuilt following the Soviet urban planning of the time, with wide and long avenues, ample squares and parks and the iconic buildings a capital of a Soviet Republic deserved
In 1991 Uzbekistan became an independent state, under the authoritarian rule of Islom Karimov. In the following years, many Soviet landmarks disappeared and urban development continued as Tashkent’s population surged to the current 3 million.
Now there are many modern buidings in Tashkent, some of them quite kitsch and a new financial centre with huge international hotels like Hilton. Monuments to Lenin and Stalin have given way to others to the glory of Uzbekistan and President Karimov.
Today Tashkent is a city with and old heart hidden between Soviet urban planning and the enormous neoclassical architecture since independence. It is the city with the most bustling atmosphere in Uzbekistan, where there are more opportunities, where most things happen, as economic investment has been very centred in the capital in the last decades.
But you will also feel more the control of an authoritarian state, with tourist police everywhere (even if there are not so many tourists), especially in the metro, and even in pubs.
What to do in Tashkent
Ciudad vieja
Zarkaynar Historical Street
Metro: G’afur G’ulom is the nearest station (O’zbekiston line, blue).
When you leave the metro you will see wide avenues with large housing buildings. Zarkaynar historical street is approximately 1 km from the metro, following a circular avenue that surrounds the Abdulla Qodiriy Park (currently closed)
Suddenly, these monstruous buildings disappear and you will arrive to what seems and completely different city, with wood and stone houses, irregular streets, yellow water and gas pipes crossing the streets and a more relaxed lifestyle.
This part of Tashkent is more reminiscent of the old quarters of Samarkand than to the New City, it is really like travelling from old Uzbekistan to modern globalisation in just one metro statio.
Just before taking Zarkaynar historical street, you will see the Ohun Guzar Mosque, rebuilt in 1850, which survived the earthquake.
Centre for Islamic Civilisation
A huge neo-Timurid building is emerging in the middle of Tashkent’s Old City – the Centre for Islamic Civilisation. You will see its large turquoise dome from far away. Closer, you will realise its imposing dimensions.
During our visit, the iwans were still not decorated, but we expect them to be very colourful and flashy – in post-Soviet Uzbekistan kitsch historicism is trendier than modern architecture.
The Centre for Islamic Civilisation should have opened in 2021, but the works are delayed. It will feature a library, exhibition halls with ancient manuscripts, archaeological artifacts and Islamic artwork and conference halls.
Hazrati Imom Complex
Walking a but further North from the Centre for Islamic Civilisation you will arrive in the Hazrati Imom (or Hastimom) Complex, which includes the most important historical buildings in Tashkent Old City.
This complex is made of Hazrati Imom Mosque, Muyi Muborak Madrasah, where the oldest Qur’an in the world is kept, Baroq Khan Madrasah and Tillya Sheikh Madrasah.
The Hazrati Imom Mosque serves as an entrance to the complex. This large mosque was built in just a few months in 2007, imitating the 16th century architectural style, by order of president Islom Karimov with little budget constraints – sandalwood columns from India, marble from Turkey and gold to cover the internal domes.
Muyi Muborak Madrasah (literally “sacred hair”), was built as a sufí khanaqah in the 16th century. Nowadays it is a Qur’an library-museum. It guards the oldest Qur’an known, written on deerskin. According to the legend, this Qur’an was written by Uthman, Profet Mohammad’s son-in-law. However, scientific analyses date it 100 years later, in the 8th c.
This ancient Qur’an was displayed on the stand at the Bibi Khanum Mosque in Samarkand. It is still venerated by Uzbek and foreign Muslims, so the visit is quite expensive: 60.000 som (nearly €6). The exhibition includes some other historical Qur’ans and Qur’an written in other languages.
The Baroq Khan Madrasah stands at the end of the complex. This 16th-century madrasah was built for local students, so it doesn’t have any rooms, only lecture halls, and thus only one floor.
Baroq Khan was a nephew of the founder of the Shaybanid dynasty, who substituted Amir Timur’s heirs in the beginning of the 16th c. He was a governor of Tashkent before he rose to Supreme Khan.
The Madrasah was developed by joining two mausoleums (the two smaller domes) and a khanaqah.The 1868 earthquake destroyed its main dome, which was only reconstructed in the 20th c.
Between both madrasahs, Tillya Sheikh Mosque (“golden sheikh”) is a congregational mosque built in 1890 by a rich Tashkent merchant. Then, this was the largest mosque in the city, it has an outdoor summer area and a winter building for prayers. We couldn’t enter during our visit.
Finally, in the northwestern corner of the Hazrati Imom Complex, you will find the Tomb of Abu Bakr Qaffol, built in the 16th c. Qaffol was a polymath and poet from Tashkent who lived in the 10th century.
Chorsu (Main bazaar)
Metro: Chorsu (O’zbekiston line, blue). It lies 20 minutes on food from Hazrati Imom Complex.
Chorsu means “domed market”, and this is the main bazaar in Tashkent. Actually, the market has overgrown the large domed building and there are hundreds of outdoor stalls and shops around it. From the Metro station exit, you can find the flower market, shops selling carpets, clothes, antiques…
When you visit Tashkent, you cannot miss Chorsu. The bustling activity of buyers and sellers is absolutely impressive. Inside the domed building, fresh produce – especially meat and dairy – are sold in the ground floor, while in the top gallery you will find dred fruits and some sweets. Spices are sold outdoors.
As well as enjoying a the atmosphere of a completely local market (not for tourists), it is a great idea to buy spices in Chorsu – Samarkand cumin is lovely and coriander is full of aroma – as well as pistachios, halva (it is different to the Turkish version) or dried melon. Pickled vegetables in Uzbekistan are great too, but more difficult to transport.
You can haggle a bit, but don’t expect to get more than 20% down from the initial price.
Ko'kaldosh Madrasah
Upon leaving Chorsu, by the bustling main street, between stalls selling food and clothes for which there is no more space in the market, is the Ko’kaldosh Madrasa, built under Shaybanid rule (16th c.).
This madrasah stands on what once was Tashkent’s Registan, which today can barely be imagined between wide modern avenues and the market.
The Ko’kaldosh Madrasah has had a complicated history – it was used as a caranvaserai in the 18th c., as a fortress by the Kokand khans… and it also suffered damage during some earthquakes.
After Uzbekistan’s independence, the Ko’kaldosh Madrasah was restored and is now, again, an active madrasah, with actual students who receive Islamic education and live in hujras.
New City
Amir Temur Square
Metro: Amir Temur Xiyoboni (Chilonzor line, red) / Yunus Rajabiy (Yunusobod line, green).
Amir Temur square is the heard of Tashkent’s New City. The Russians opened it at the end of the 19th c., shortly after General Chernyayev’s victory. However, today we mainly see its redevelopment after the 1966 earthquake.
Amir Temur Square follows roughly a semicircle. The parallel streets and crescents that define the New City span from it in all directions.
Nowadays the square is dedicated to Amir Temur, known as Tamerlane in the West, the great emperor of the late 14th century, now considered Uzbekistan’s national hero.
However, during Soviet rule a it was first Stalin who stood here. Karl Marx took over during the 1960s de-Stalinisation. After Uzbekistan’s independence, the square’s name was changed to Amir Temur and the statue was unveiled in 2000.
On the background, Hotel Uzbekistan was an institution in Soviet times and one of the best examples of Soviet brutalist architecture in Tashkent. It shines best at dusk.
Alrededor de la plaza se encuentra una sala de conciertos, el Museo de la Dinastía Timúrida que visitamos después y la Torre del Reloj.
La Torre del Reloj se construyó tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial para alojar el reloj de una ciudad de Prusia Oriental. Un relojero de Tashkent que iba con las tropas soviéticas que llegaron a la ciudad propuso salvarlo antes de volar el edificio, se lo llevó a su ciudad natal, lo arregló y lo colocó en esta torre construida ad hoc.
En 2009 se construyó una réplica a la derecha de la torre original, que alberga un restaurante.
Tashkent’s New City spans West of Amir Temur Square, following three main parallel streets that start at the square and make up Kashgar Park. Two outer rings demarcate the New City.
Kashgar Park is an ample pedestrian area with a nice historicist fountain. There are always stalls where you can buy food and other stuff and fairs are organised in holidays.
Museum of the Timurid Dynasty
On the northwestern corner of Amir Temur Square stands the Museum of the Timurid Dinasty, which president Islom Karimov ordered to celebrate the national hero and his heirs.
The building, in neo-Timurid style, is probably the most kitsch in Tashkent – especially its interior, with a huge blue and golden dome from which a flashy and heavy lamp hangs and grandiose columns that are actually made of plastic.
The museum explains the history of Amir Timur and his dynasty and displays some artifacts of those times. However, most objects are actually copies – the visitor is informed where the originals are, showing Russian and Western plunder: St. Petersburg’s Hermitage is the main place, but there are quite a few antiques in the Louvre, British Museum and in Berlin and Vienna.
There are also pieces of some large Timurid buildings as well as models of the most representative buildings of that period in Samarkand, Bukhara and other cities.
The Museum of the Timurid Dynasty is interesting, probably more to understand Uzbekistan today – how Uzbeks see themselves – than to learn Timurid history. Nevertheless, if you are short on time, we recommend more visiting the National Museum of Uzbekistan.
A ticket costs 25.000 som (roughly €2). If you want to take photographs, you must pay a permit (15.000 som) – here they do control if you have the permit, unlike in all historical buildings in Uzbekistan that we visited.
The Museum of the Timurid Dynasty opens Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm.
Palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Romanov
Metro: Mustakillik maydoni (Chilonzor line, red), although we recommend walking from Amir Temur Square to delve into Tashkent’s New City.
Leaving Kashgar Park and very close to Independence Square (Mustakillik maydoni) stands the Palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Romanov, cousin of Tsar Nicholas II. The Grand Duke was banished to Turkestan after a series of scandals and supposedly stealing her mother three diamonds to give them to an American lover.
Nikolai settled in Tashkent, where he promoted some important public works and built his palace in 1890. He assembled a noteworthy art collection, that is now on display in the Fine Arts State Museum (O’zbekiston Davlat Sa’nat Muzeyi) in Amir Temur street, south of Amir Temur square.
Independence square (Mustaqillik maydoni)
Metro: Mustaqillik maydoni (Chilonzor line, red).
Mustaqillik maydoni is the largest square in Tashkent, measuring 7 hectares. A fortress stood here until the 19th century, and in Soviet times this huge space was used for military parades and other celebrations.
The largest Lenin statue ever once stood on this sqaure. After Uzbekistan’s independence, it was changed for a monument showing a mother with a baby on her arms and a globe with the map of Uzbekistan, which represents Uzbekistan’s place in the world.
Mustaqillik maydoni features other monuments, as well as fountains, including one with over 500 water jets. Behind all the ensemble stands the new Presidential Palace, much larger than Islom Karimov’s “White House” that is now a museum extolling the virtues of the first president of independent Uzbekistan.
Unfortunately, during our stay in Tashkent Mustaqillik maydoni was closed to the public, which we have learnt is quite usual.
Anyway, even if you can just get a glimpse of the square from the fence, there are enough reasons to go to Mustaqillik maydoni, because there are other very interesting places around it.
On the other side of the Metro station stands the Art Gallery of Uzbekistan, with works of 20th-century Uzbek artists. However, the most interesting museum is certainly the National Museum of Uzbekistan.
National Museum of Uzbekistan
Metro: Mustakillik maydoni. The National Museum of Uzbekistan (O’zbekiston tarixi davlat muzeyi) is on Sharof Rashidov Shoh street, around 400 metres of the Palace of Nikolai Romanov.
The National Museum of Uzbekistan was opened as V.I. Lenin Museum in 1970, to celebrate 100 years since his birth. The building was designed in a brutalist and orientalist style and it is certainly one of the most interesting Soviet architecture pieces in Tashkent, even if is not as large as other buildings of the time.
The National Museum of Uzbekistan has two very different sections – Uzbekistan’s past and Uzbekistan’s present.
The first floor hosts a typical national history museum, with an interesting archaeological collection, with many artifacts, some old paintings, from prehistory to the Timurid era, coming from all over the country. Even if the exhibit is quite dated, 90s style, it is still an interesting museum.
The second floor will probably astonish you. It is something you can only find in a country like Uzbekistan, under an authoritarian regime. It is an exhibition and explains and glorifies how Uzbekistan is today – the high-speed railway, Uzbekistan airlines, the cotton industry and other economic sectores, the army and police, schools and hospitals…
We were lucky enough to visit the museum along with a school trip. The teacher explained her pupils (in English) how good Uzbekistan’s president was and how great thinks worked in their country… always observed by a policeman.
Therefore, the National Museum of Uzbekistan is something you cannot miss in Tashkent. You will not only learn about Uzbekistan’s history here, but also a lot about Uzbekistan today.
Other places of interest
Outside of Tashkent’s city centre – Old City and New City – there are a few other places worth visiting.
The first 4 places in this list are quite close, South of the city centre and can be all be reached on one single walking tour, while the TV Tower lies on the northern side of Taskent.
Memorial for Cosmonauts (Kosmonavtlar)
Metro: Kosmonavtlar (O’zbekiston line, blue)
Just two metro stations (with a change) away from Amir Temur square, you can’t miss the Memorial for Cosmonauts, and mostly the Kosmonavtlar Metro station, dedicated to Uzbek and Soviet cosmonauts and their special missions (there is also place for Ulugh Beg, the king and astronomer).
The Memorial for Cosmonauts (Kosmonavtlar) lies on a modern area just South of Tashkent’s New City.
This monument was unveiled in 1984 to celebrate cosmonauts and scientists related to space exploration. It is made of two distinct statues. First, a bust of Vladimir Dzhanibekov, the most famous cosmonaut in Uzbekistan, Hero of the Soviet Union, who took part in five space flights.
The other monument is more abstract and interesting and it is dedicated to Ulugh Beg, Amir Temur’s grandson, who built an observatory in Samarkand and took astronomical measurements who were a reference in his time and for centuries later.
White House (Islom Karimov Memorial Complex)
Metro: Kosmonavtlar (O’zbekiston line, blue). Just 600 metres from the Memorial for Cosmonauts stands the White House, Islom Karimov’s presidential palace and his memorial.
The Islam Karimov Scientific and Enlightenment Memorial Complex is one of those Central Asian bizarre museum that no traveller should miss – however, it is not often visited. Entrance is free.
The White House (Ok Saroy) was the first presidential palace of independent Uzbekistan, during Islom Karimov’s tenure (between 1990 and his death in 2016). His successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, decided to build a new huge palace in Mustakillik maydoni and transform the White House as a museum to contribute to Karimov’s personality cult.
In front of the White House there is a statue of president Karimov. The palace was closed during our visit, but a local told us that you can see the president’s desk and personal objects.
Anyway, that’s nothing compared to The Islam Karimov Scientific and Enlightenment Memorial Complex, in another building next to the palace.
There are only two halls in this museum. In the first hall, there are photographs of Islom Karimov, worth seeing, but the best is in the next hall – a collection of portraits of Islom Karimov, from a style reminiscent of Soviet state painting with children, flowers and flags, to hyper-realistic and futuristic paintings, like this one of Karimov and himself launching satellites to space.
Alisher Navoi Park
Metro: Milly Bog’ (Chilonzor line, red). You can walk from the White House (20 minutes) or take a bus from there (13, 51 or 196, 1 stop) to Magic City.
If you walk from the White House, you will cross river Chirchiq and, taking a left on Beshyogoch street, you will see Humo Arena, the modern ice hockey stadium, the largest in Central Asia, with a capacity of 12.500.
Continue walking on Beshyogoch street to arrive in Magic City, one of the most kitsch places in Tashkent. This open air shopping centre imitates the architecture of different European cities – on one street Paris, with a gothic church and all, in another London, with something that looks like the Big Ben and even Tower Bridge… there is also a copy of Samarkand’s Registan.
Magic City seems very popular for locals and it is quite nice, with a lake, cinema, aquarium and bowling. Here you will get a glimpse of Tashkent’s everyday life. This shopping centre is joined to Alisher Navoi National Park.
Alisher Navoi National Park is the most important park in Tashkent. This large green area South-West of the New City bears the name of Alisher Navoi, the first poet who wrote in Turkic language, instead of Persian, which was considered more elevated, in the 15th century.
That’s why, even if Alisher Navoi was born in Herat (current Afganistan), Uzbeks consider him today as his national poet.
Alisher Navoi National Park is a very pleasant place to escape from the big city, with an artificial canal and lake. Guards don’t let you take photographs, so be careful.
On a small hill there is a neo-Timurid turquoise dome with columns that covers the monument to Alisher Navoi. Here you will have the best view of the park.
West of this monument, there are more statues of Uzbek writers, such as G’afur G’ulom, father of modern Uzbek poetry, as well as the Tashkent History Museum. South, there is a huge artificial lake (Milliy Bog’). And North, the Palace of Peoples’ Friendship. So you can stay all afternoon in this park!
Before arriving in the Palace of Peoples’ Friendship, you will see the Parlament of Uzbekistan (Oliy Majlis), a modern granite and marble building, with the usual style of post-Soviet Uzbekistan (its columns remind to many other buildings in Tashkent).
A bit further, the 19th-century Abdul Khasim Sheikh Madrasah is the oldest building in the park. The peace treaty after Tashkent was taken by Russian General Chernyayev was signed here.
Palace of Peoples' Friendship (Xalqlar Do'stligi)
Metro: Xalqlar Do’stligi (Chilonzor line, red).
The Palace of Peoples’ Friendship is one of the great works of Soviet brutalist architecture in Tashkent, also known as Palace of Nations. This is a building that no architecture lover should miss in Tashkent. It is also the largest concert hall in Uzbekistan with capacity for 6000 people.
The Palace of Peoples’ Friendship opened in 1981 and is dedicated to all persons of different peoples or nations in the USSR who helped rebuilt Tashkent after the 1966 earthquake. Its style is a combination of futurist brutalism with traditional Central Asian motifs – the bolt-shaped elements on the top part and the traditional panyaras (latticework) on the bottom part.
In 2008 the Uzbek authorities dismantled the Palace of Peoples’ Friendship because they considered it as a symbol of the Soviet past and took it away from the city centre. In 2018, following public demand, it was rebuilt in its original setting.
A bit further from the Palace of Peoples’ Friendship, next to the Xalqlar Do’stligi Metro station, a large pedestrian square opens where the skyscrapers and wide avenues of modern Tashkent as rebuilt after 1966 come again into view.
On this square you will find the Monument to the Shamakhmudovs, an Uzbek couple who adopted 15 evacuee children from war zones during World War II. The Shamakhmudovs didn’t have children of their own, and thus created a new family with kids of all Soviet ethnicities.
TV Tower
Metro: between Bodomzor and Shaxriston stations (Yunusobod line, green). The TV Tower is on North Tashkent and you will pass by if you go to eat at Beshqozon, the temple of plov.
Tashkent’s TV Tower is one of the city’s symbols. It was finished in 1985 and designed to withstand earthquakes of 9.0 magnitude – that’s why it looks like a rocket.
375 metres tall, it was the third tallest TV tower in the world.
The geometrical designed of its central area, which has been painted recently with the colours of the Uzbek flag, are reminiscent of other 1980s buildings in Tashkent.
A lift takes you to the observation platform, at 95 metres. There are also two restaurants with a turning platform delivering a 360º view.
The Memorial to the Victims of Repression in Tashkent is just across the avenue from the TV Tower. It remembers the Russian repression against the Uzbek people, during Tsarist and Soviet times.
Tashkent Metro
One of the main attractions of Tashkent is its metro network. In the Soviet Union, any city that reached 1 million dwellers should have a metro system. The construction of Tashkent Metro started in 1972 and the first line was opened in 1977, being the first metro in Central Asia.
Tashkent Metro, like in other metro networks in the former USSR, features some stations that look like museums, with very original designs, usually dedicated to a character or theme.
If you visit Tashkent, you cannot miss its metro. You will probably use it anyway to move around the city, but there are some stations that are worth visiting as such and some of them are not in places where you would go anyway.
Check out our Guide to Tashkent Metro and don’t miss any!
Eating in Tashkent
As Tashkent is not a touristic city, restaurants here are mostly for locals, including the Russian minority, especially relevant in the city.
It is authentic, but there is not such a great variety for a city of 3 million population, because Uzbeks don’t have so much of a culture of eating out, although things are slowly changing. In Tashkent you can find traditional restaurants, European and Russian cuisine and fancy and expensives places.
Tashkent has a great plov tradition. You will find plov in many places, usually for lunch, but the most popular place, for tourists and locals is Beshqozon – Central Asia Plov Centre.
Their plov is lovely and you will also be able to walk through their open kitchen with enormous kazans where plov is cooked and tandir ovens where bread is baked.
There are three different plov styles and you can order some extras for your plov: extra meat, qazi (a smoked sausage of horse ribs), quail eggs… The staff generally doesn’t speak English, as usual in Tashkent, but ordering plov is quite easy.
If you are looking for traditional Uzbek food, a local recommended us Rayhon, near Chorsu, just across the national stadium. It is certainly a great place: good food, a varied menu of meat plates and traditional Uzbek dishes, including some difficult to find specialties like naryn (handmade pasta with horse meat), which you can see how they prepare, or mampar soup. They don’t serve alcoholic drinks.
Cafe Buxoro (18a Abdulla Qodiriy ko’chasi), in Kashgar quarter, just North of the New City is another good option. They serve the usual traditional Uzbek dishes and some Bukharan specialties like vaguri and jiz. Beer is available.
North of Mustakillik maydoni, Hammersmith Bar is a nice beer bar quite popular among the Russian community. They have microbrewery beers on tap and some food (mostly meat).
Going out in Tashkent
Tashkent is the only city in Uzbekistan with some real nightlife, apart from the bars for tourists in Bukhara. But really, there is just some nightlife, not much for a big city with many students and a young population.
If you search the internet for the best bars in Tashkent, you will see that all lists include the same places. There is actually not much more than that. But the few pubs and clubs are generally very cool for a night out.
There is an area with some night pubs just South of Amir Temur Square and another area around Minor metro station, in North Tashkent.
One evening we hit Steam Bar, in Minor, a pub with a cool decor with a punk touch and live music. The band gave a great show, with some fire included, and the atmosphere was lively. The most suprising thing for us was a policeman in uniform inside the bar, checking out people all night long.
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