Uzbekistan (Oʻzbekiston ^Uzbek )

Cities, towns, and villages

• Tashkent — the modern capital and largest city of Uzbekistan, and is an ancient city on the Great Silk Road from China to Europe. Little remains of the ancient city after the 1966 earthquake and earlier modernisation work following the 1917 revolution. Tashkent is a very Soviet city that has little remaining from its ancient Central Asian past. The city has a mixture of modern new office buildings, hotels, parks and crumbling Soviet style apartment blocks. The streets are generally clean and there are not too many potholes in the city center.
• Ferghana — Center of the Ferghana valley and one of the important industrial cities. A pass from Kashgar (now in China's westernmost province, Xinjiang) to Ferghana was an important link on the main course of the historic Silk Road. From Ferghana, westbound caravans would proceed along the Ferghana valley to Kokand (where they might branch off toward Tashkent) and Khujand, then continue toward Samarkand.
• Andijan — is on the eastern edge of Uzbekistan. Very roughly speaking, the city is divided in half by the train line which runs parallel to Muqimiy Road and cuts diagonally across the city. The northern part is usually referred to as Eski Shahar (“Old City”), and the southern part is typically thought of as Yangi Bozor (“New Market”). Yangi Bozor also includes the Mikrorayons (“Micro Regions/Districts”) which are numbered neighborhoods made up primarily of apartment buildings where the former Russian influence in the city is still most felt. Modern Andijan is Uzbekistan's biggest city and the biggest center for the engineering industry. Andijan has a number of other big companies in the automotive manufacturing plant: engineering, canning and dairy plants, flour mill, cotton mill, textile factories.
• Bukhara — a legendary Silk Road capital, 2,500 years old, the historical center of which is a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with magnificent examples of monumental, medieval Islamic and Central Asian architecture. Bukhara, "The city of museums", contains more than 140 architectural monuments of the Middle Ages. Such ensembles as Poi - Kalan, Kosh Madras, mausoleum of Ismail Samoni, minaret of Kalyan and others were built 2300 years ago, and today they attract the great attention of tourists.
• Khiva — Along with Samarkand and Bukhara, Khiva is an important and often overlooked historical site on what was once the Great Silk Road (Uzbek: Buyuk Ipak Yol'i). Famous for its long and brutal history as a slave trading post sandwiched in between the vast Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts, Khiva is now a quiet, sleepy oasis that awaits busloads of tourists instead of caravans of captives. It's difficult to imagine what exactly ancient Khiva was like, considering the historical areas were restored to a scrubbed and squeaky-clean look by the Soviets in the 1970s. However, the clustered array of mosques, madrassahs and tiled minarets within a area of less than 3km give you a sense of how crowded and bustling this town must have been throughout its history. Khiva is divided into two distinct sections; one being the older, museum-like Ichon-Qala or Itchan Kala (literally: within the wall) where striking examples of Islamic architecture were built over the span of 600 years; and the modern Dichon-Qala (literally: outside the wall) where both the majority of the population live and where all of the modern buildings exist, but glimpses of Khiva's greatness as a center of Islamic power still linger.
• Namangan — is the third largest city in Uzbekistan. The word of "Namangan" came from the word in Tadjik language "Namak kon" "namak" - salt and "kon" - mine.
• Nukus — the capital of Qaraqalpaqstan on the Amu Darya. The town is home to the Savitzky Gallery, an astounding collection of Soviet Avant-Garde art and is a good base for trips to the ruins of the Aral Sea. In an effort to attract more visitors and improve standards of living, the center of the town is being spruced up considerably with new shops and improved avenues in the center.
• Samarkand — is the city that is the bejewelled crown of the Silk Road, a rhapsody of ornate Islamic architecture with turquoise domes and soaring tiled minarets. It's one of the twin pillars of the Samarkand through Bukhara region of Uzbekistan, and a must-see destination. Much of Samarkand is blandly modern, but its extensive Old Town has been well-preserved, and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Shakhrisabz — a small city, whose historical center is a UNESCO World Heritage site for its impressive monuments from the Timurid Dynasty. The name Shakhrisabz is Tajik and means "green city".
• Termez — is a city in Surkhandarya, Uzbekistan. Termiz is along the border with Afghanistan (the Amu Darya or Oxus river) and was a major supply hub for the NATO war operations there. It is also a busy transport hub for goods entering and leaving Afghanistan due to the Friendship Bridge, built by the Soviet Union. Named by Alexander the Great's forces for the intense temperatures they found here (thermos = hot).