Hazrati Imam complex
The city's spiritual heart: madrasas, mausoleums and the library holding the 7th-century Uthman Quran, written on deerskin and still commanding a room.
Tip · Go at opening; the Quran room is small and tour groups arrive by ten.
The capital, underrated
Tashkent
A green, generous city where every journey begins — and deserves a day of its own.
Photo: LBM1948, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Travelers treat Tashkent as a runway: land, sleep, catch the morning train west. Understandable — and a mistake. Central Asia's largest city is where modern Uzbekistan actually lives, and it repays a day of honest attention.
The 1966 earthquake leveled much of the old town, and what rose afterwards is a museum of Soviet modernism at its most confident — vast squares, mosaicked facades, and a metro so ornate its stations were classified as military installations until 2018. You could photograph nothing but ceilings here and leave satisfied.
But old Tashkent survives in patches, and the patches are superb: the Hazrati Imam complex with its Quran of Caliph Uthman — one of the oldest in existence — the mud-walled lanes around it, and Chorsu bazaar under its great turquoise dome, where the city has traded for centuries and shows no sign of stopping.
Worth your hours
What to see in Tashkent
Tashkent metro
Cosmonaut mosaics at Kosmonavtlar, chandeliers at Alisher Navoi, cotton-flower ceilings at Paxtakor — the world's most beautiful public transport, fare about 15 cents.
Tip · Ride the line, not to a destination. Photography has been legal since 2018.
Chorsu bazaar
The domed food hall is the city's pantry: dried apricots, horse sausage, mountains of spice, and the best people-watching in the capital.
Tip · The plov row behind the dome serves from noon; follow the queues.
Applied Arts Museum
A merchant's house turned jewel box — ganch carving, suzani, Rishtan ceramics — the vocabulary lesson for everything you'll see on the road.
Tip · An hour here before the valley or the west makes every workshop visit richer.
Amir Timur Square to Broadway
The city's parade axis: the Timur statue, the chiming clocktowers, and the plane-tree promenade where artists sell canvases at dusk.
Tip · Evening is the hour — the fountains run and half the city strolls.
Magic City & new Tashkent
The capital is building fast — parks, towers, an opera of fountains. Kitsch in places, but the energy is real and very Uzbek.
Tip · Skippable on a short trip; interesting if you want to argue about architecture.
At the table
Eat like it matters
The practical truths
Before you go
- Season
- April–June and September–October are ideal; July–August is hot but the city's shade and fountains help. Winter is grey, occasionally snowy, never dull underground.
- Getting there
- You'll almost certainly land here: Tashkent International is Central Asia's best-connected airport. The Afrosiyob leaves for Samarkand from the central station — arrive 30 minutes early for security.
- Local customs
- The metro is safe, cheap and constant — taxis via Yandex Go are the alternative and also nearly free by Western standards.
- Hazrati Imam is a working religious site: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off where indicated.
- Change money at banks or use cards — the street-changer era is over.
