Video: Tashkent Tourist Attractions

Tashkent (‘a stone city’; also spelled Toshkent), Uzbekistan’s capital, is in all respects a Central Asian regional hub; it is the fourth largest CIS city with a population of around 3 million. Today it has all the features of a modern metropolis and a capital, with a lot of attractive Central Asian-style newly-built structures and sites, as well as Soviet-era buildings. Tashkent is rich in museums, theaters and concert halls; there are a lot of traditional Central Asian and European-like restaurants and clubs, and several very nice parks, including a zoo and a huge botanical garden. Tashkent is the only Central Asian city which has an underground railway system (Tashkent Metro). It is probably one of the world’s most beautiful: its stations are real works of art, each featuring unique designs covering various themes, such as famous people, events, valued notions, terms or just common nouns. Tashkent is a city of wide streets and numerous avenues, and is abundant in trees. Tashkent looks modern - it grew to its present size mainly during the Soviet times - but it is over 2,000 years old, and there is still some of its old part surviving, called Old City. Tashkent Old City features a huge traditional Central Asian bazaar (there are many large and small bazaars in the city; most farmer products in the city are sold through them, not through stores), as well as several Islamic architectural monuments.