Tashkent, ex-Soviet Central Asia’s largest city (pop. 2,5 million), does not get a lot of love from the traveling community. With its monumental city planning and endless traffic jams, Tashkent fails to live up to the image of Uzbekistan conjured up in tourist brochures focused on Bukhara, Samarkand and Khiva.
That leaves more space for those who like to travel off the beaten track, enjoy Soviet architecture, and want to feel the pulse of modern-day Uzbekistan. They will feel right at home in Tashkent, just like everyone else: Tashkent is, even more so than the rest of Central Asia, a big melting pot of nations and cultures from across Eurasia.
Add in the new mosques, dictator chic construction and craft beer pubs of today, mix it with the mausoleums of yesteryear, and we’d venture that Tashkent is an interesting place to visit.
Quick link: Tashkent transport guide – Accommodation guide
Table of Contents
How long should you stay?
Having said that, if medieval architecture and colourful arts and crafts is what you came for, you probably don’t need more than a day in Tashkent.
To tick off all of the obligatory highlights, add another day. If, on the other hand, you are a flaneur and a fan of Modernist architecture, you can easily spend 3 more days on top of that, simply strolling Tashkent.
First or last?
If you are entering and leaving Uzbekistan through Tashkent, we recommend you get out of the city soon after your arrival. Tashkent is best visited on the way back, when you might care to eat something other than plov and somsa and might actually even welcome a bit of big-city buzz; in this respect Tashkent serves as a halfway house between your holiday experience and the world back home.
Also, the museums make more sense after you have visited the places where the art came from.
History
It does not seem so at first sight, but Tashkent is an old city. A fertile oasis fed by the Chirchik river, bringing meltwater from the Tien Shan mountains nearby, settlement probably started more than 2000 years ago. Once called Chach, then Shash, the city got its current, Turkic name from its Karakhanid rulers in the 10th century: Tashkent, city of stone.
The town’s history mirrored that of its neighbours Shymkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Kokand, and it must have largely looked the same in medieval times: a warren of mud-walled houses and workshops, crowded bazaars, mosques, madrassahs and mausoleums. With the tsarist Russian conquest of 1865 and the subsequent October Revolution, however, Tashkent changed irrevocably.
Tsarist and Soviet times
The new capital of the colony of Turkestan and later the Uzbek SSR, was refashioned in the image of a Russian city. The ethnic make-up of the city changed as well. After the first Russian colonists, deportees from around the Soviet Union were dumped here in the 1930’s; during World War II, more than half a million Russian refugees doubled the size of the population. Many stayed, and Uzbeks became a minority.
In 1966 a devastating earthquake struck Tashkent, occasioning a blank slate for architects and city planners from across the Soviet Union to create the ideal Communist city. The remnants of the past were now truly relegated to a sideshow in a corner of town as New Tashkent became a monumental metropolis in the 1970’s, Moscow’s “beacon of Socialism in the Orient.”
Half a century later Tashkent still retains much of that Soviet spirit. Broad avenues lined by oak trees take aim for imposing solitary buildings in manicured surroundings. Although many Russians and Jews left after independence, people with roots from all across Eurasia can still be seen knocking melons and squeezing tomatoes at the bazaar. A sense of forced peacefulness and security are pervasive amidst the gentle splash of fountains.
Orientation
Old Tashkent lies in the northwestern corner of town, with the Chorsu bazaar and the Khast Imam complex as its center of gravity. It contains the old mahallas that survived the modernisation push (so far), as well as Tashkent’s remaining medieval monuments. Take a walk around Old Tashkent to see the sights and get a feel for the place.
Central Tashkent is the area roughly between metro stops Kosmonavtlar and Oybek in the south, Amir Timur Square in the center, and north up to Bodomzor metro station between Amir Timur street and the Anhor canal. Here you will find most museums and monuments as well as the best restaurants and hotels in Tashkent.
Together, these 2 areas comprise almost all points of classic tourist interest. Beyond lie residential neighbourhoods, parks and shopping and entertainment districts.
To get your bearings in the center, we propose 2 walks: an introductory walk through central Tashkent, and a complimentary stroll along the Anhor Canal.
Transport and accommodation
All you need to know to get in, out and around Tashkent can be found at Transport in Tashkent.
To select a place to stay, know that you are bound to take transport while navigating Tashkent: staying within walking distance of a metro stop makes a big difference.
Tashkent is a big, sprawling city with 2 cores: old Tashkent centered around Chorsu bazaar and Khast Imam, and new Tashkent centered around the Opera and Amir Timur Square. The area between the metro stops Kosmonavtlar and Oybek and Mirabad Bazaar is the prime location, as the below map shows.
Booking.comFor a rundown of the central neighbourhoods, hotel reviews and recommendations, see our Tashkent accommodation guide.
Things to see and do
Highlights
Traditional highlights for first-time visitors are the Chorsu bazaar and Khast Imam complex. A walk through Old Tashkent connects the 2 sites with a host of other interesting places in the area. The Sheikhantaur Mausoleums are a bit further off, signaling the end of Old Tashkent.
If you prefer to have a look at New Tashkent instead, try these 2 walks: through the central axis, and along the Anhor Canal. Running through the heart of the capital, they disclose Soviet Tashkent to the first-time visitor.
Museum-wise, the State History Museum and the Fine Arts Museum are the 2 big draws if you are into history and art. If you are absolutely not, perhaps you can skip them in favor of eating ice cream and people-watching.
Despite its size and seeming uniformity, exploring the backstreets and more distant corners of Tashkent on foot can be very rewarding. If you are the type, you know what we mean. You can for instance search out Tashkent’s best remaining mosaics and murals.
If you speak Russian, you can join locals organising off-the-beaten track tours on weekends at the X-Places Telegram channel.
Other sights and museums
Tashkent’s Applied Arts Museum suits aficionados of applied arts – others will be satisfied by what they see on bazaars and tourist sites around the country.
If the Fine Arts Museum was not enough for you, pop into the Academy of Arts & the nearby K. Behzod Miniature Gallery, as well as the National Art Gallery.
For those looking for the pulse of contemporary art in Uzbekistan, Gallery 139, Bonum Factum and the CCAT showcase new work by today’s artists.
Interested in politics? You must make a pilgrimage to the former palace of Karimov and snap his golden statue. Along the Anhor Canal, the TV Tower and the Minor mosque are both a sight to behold, and also revealing of the time period in which they were constructed.
If you are a market person: there are plenty of other bazaars and flea markets in Tashkent besides Chorsu.
The following attractions fall into the special interest section:
- Tamara Khanum house museum & other house museums of Tashkent
- Botanical Garden
- Ming Orik excavations
- Kukcha Mosque & Sheik Zayneddin mausoleum
- Zengi-Ata mausoleum
- Tashkent Railway museum
- Museum of Olympic Glory
We advise against visiting the Amir Timur Museum, the Central Asian Plov Center (it’s just standard plov) and the Japanese Garden.
Events, culture and nightlife
Calendars
Event calendars advertising (not all) concerts, parties, exhibitions etc. in Tashkent are Afisha and Myday.
Cultural events
In the evening, a visit to the opera offers fantastic value-for-money without the need for language skills. If you do speak Russian, try to catch a show from the famous Ilkhom theatre company or the Russian Academic Theatre (Otaturk 24).
The State Conservatory (Abai/Batyra Zakirov str.) often has concerts on (+99871 2445320, +99871 2449508). Adventurous culture mavens might dare to attend a show of an Uzbek-language company – Mukimi (187 Olmazar/Gafurov str) and Khamza (34 Navoi str) are the biggest ones. For something lighter: even without children as an excuse, you can still catch a circus matinee.
Nightlife
For a city of this size, there is not as much nightlife as you would expect. There are some nice theme bars if you plan to tipple, as well as tons of karaoke places. Restaurants with a deejay or a guy on a keyboard are not in short supply either; Uzbeks are into merry-making and dance floors fill up easily any day of the week.
Nonetheless, a lot of dancing is wedding-related. If you happen to see one, don’t be shy to announce yourself as a foreigner. You are doing them a favour by inviting yourself in, as a foreign guest is a sign of good luck. Besides, they have plenty of food. You are making sure they don’t have to eat the same dish for the next 2 weeks.
Clubs and discos, as far as we have experienced them, are places for the Instagram generation: bad music, pricey drinks and all about the looks, the selfie and the pick-up. As a foreigner you can get away with a bit of scruffiness, but dress to impress if you want to be sure to get in.
The exception at the moment seems to be events organised by the Fragment collective, where the music is more important than the look.
We currently do not have the resources to recommend nightlife favourites and keep up with changes. Instead, we started a Going out in Tashkent forum thread – we welcome your recommendations.
Food
Are you a foodie? Since the author of this article has the palette of a Tibetan monk, we rely on our readers for this chapter. Start by grazing our foodie in Tashkent thread and please share your discoveries.
With kids
Broadway, the pedestrianised area between Amir Timur Square and Sharaf Rashidov street, has fun games and activities for kids.
Tashkentland, near the Expocenter and the Bodomzor metro stop, is an amusement park (haven’t been). Tashkent’s zoo is not a modern zoo, but one of the cheapest places in the world to see a giraffe for sure.
Tashkent has a circus, and a puppet theatre! The circus is close to Chorsu bazaar, the puppet theatre near the Oqsaroy.
Around Tashkent
There is plenty to see and do around Tashkent. The main menu is the Chatkal mountain range northeast of Tashkent, which offers fresh air and cool lakes to escape the summer heat. Hiking destinations go over 3000 m and a ski resort opens in winter.
But there is more. You can visit the solar furnace in Parkent and the space probe research factory in Nevich, sip on local wines in Shampan or pay your respects to the spiritual world in Kumushkan and Zangiata.
En route to Kokand, you can visit the ghost town of Angren with the Ufimtsev museum, while Yangiabad and Chadak offer another gate into the Chatkal mountains.
Discover it all in our guide to destinations around Tashkent.
Safety
Some people find the police presence around metro stations oppressive (they obviously haven’t been to Xinjiang at that point). We’d let that thought fly; police is courteous towards travelers, and the police state, despite its obvious dark side, does make Tashkent a superbly safe city for tourists.