Major Tourist Attractions In Uzbekistan

Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva: these names conjure images of bulbous blue domes flashing brilliantly in the white-hot sun, images of minarets and madarsas and mosques, of carpets and kaftans. The capital city of Tashkent is lovely. Tree lined avenues, wide roads, fountains and parks, universities, and culturally unchallenging, Tashkent is a good introduction to Uzbekistan.  

It has the best international connections and can be reached by air, rail and road; it is very well connected to the rest of Uzbekistan; and even otherwise, it has the best tourist infrastructure of any place in the country. The sights and sounds of Tashkent are nowhere near as stupendous as those of Bukhara, Khiva or Samarkand. A lot of Soviet architecture exists now where beautiful Islamic structures stood earlier. The earthquake of 1966 levelled many of Tashkent’s old buildings and Soviet architects subsequently rebuilt the city. But, there’s no denying that Tashkent is a pleasant city.

It has museums in plenty, theatre, the opera and ballet flourish; it’s emporiums stock ware from various regions of Uzbekistan. Don’t miss the Museum of Applied Arts where crafts from all over Uzbekistan are displayed in quiet rooms with muted lighting. The Museum of Fine Arts, one of the oldest in Uzbekistan, and has one of the richest collections of art in all of Central Asia. The Uzbek Puppet Theatre, the opera and ballet at the Navoi Theatre add drama and colour to the city’s life.

 Samarkand with its evocative name has come to inhabit the same space in the world’s collective imagination as Timbuktu or Transylvania: located in imagination but unlike Utopia or Erehwon or Shangri La, equally truly located in reality. The sights of Samarkand stand by the dusty road, under the blue sky and the warm sun rather than in the cold preservation of air-conditioned museums. 

Madarsas, mausoleums and mosques with stunning blue mosaics of elaborate styling stun the eye. Most of these works are attributed to Timur, his sons and grandson Ulugh Beg. The Registan complex is the focus of Samarkand’s beauty, its most enduring attraction. The Ulugh Beg madarsa at Registan is overawing in its majesty, its detailed mosaic and the surfeit of brilliant blue and raw gold. It brings home the splendour of the Timurid Empire, the prosperity that it had; the style and sophistication that shines everywhere in this region is here in one soul stupefying dose. There are two other madarsas in the Registan complex. The Bibi Khanym Mosque was ruined in an 1897 earthquake but enough of it still stands to make the visitor realise the magnitude of its grandeur. The Shahi Zinda Street is flanked by the tombs of friends and family of Timur and Ulughbek. Timur is buried in the Gur e Amir tomb. 

Bukhara, the famous trading post on the Silk Road, stirs the romantic in many travellers. In terms of living history one doesn't get a better place.

 Its tawny buildings that glow a burnished gold in the setting sun are, some of them, more than a thousand years old. For sheer visual delight, Bukhara doesn’t quite compare with Samarkand,few places could for Samarkand is one of a kind.

The city is robustly lived-in and has remained much like it was in the days of yore. No ‘new quarters’ vie for attention here like they do in many cities in the world where you’d make a special ‘sightseeing tour’ of the ‘old quarters’. That line of distinction does not exist in Bukhara where all is as it was.

There are more than 140 protected buildings in this city – madarsas, mosques, mausoleums and musty public baths, the people are known for their unabashed friendliness and absorbing hospitality and, of course, there is the lure of the Silk Road legend. Of note in Bukhara are the Kalan Minaret, which at 47 meters was once the tallest structure in all of Central Asia and spared by the marauding Genghis Khan because of it beauty, the mausoleum of Ismail Salami built around 905 AD, the Labi Hauz plaza, the Ark, which is the Emir’s Palace, the Zindan, the city jail, and the fortress. The famed carpets of Bukhara though are not really made in the city you’ll visit but in towns in present day Turkmenistan that used to be in the Bukhara emirate.

Khiva, once the capital of the fearsome Timurids and a major trading post for silk and slaves, is now a small town with only about 40,000 people. It is reputed to have been founded by Shem, son of Noah. (Yes, the Noah who made the Ark.) Today, the historical centre of Khiva lies in mothballed preservation – look but don’t touch. As a result the bustle of life has gone out of it, and today it stands like a big outdoor museum. Its lack of tourist infrastructure makes Khiva essentially a city-getaway kind of destination from Urgench, which in itself has not much to recommend it except that it is well connected to the rest of Uzbekistan and has a booming hotel industry.

The sights of Khiva are concentrated in the Ichon Qala, the historical centre. Many of the buildings are decorated with majolica tiles and paintings of scenes from nature. The Islam Khodzha minaret, the Toshi Khovli Palace, the Dhzuma Mosque and the mausoleum of Pahlavon Mahmud the philosopher are a few of Khiva’s main attractions.

Whichever cities you visit while you are in Uzbekistan, ensure that you spend an evening at the bazaar. The hub of social and economic life, bazaars have the hum, the buzz and the bristling bustle of Uzbek life like no other venue. Amidst swathes of slinky silks, mountains of luscious fruits and stacks of exquisite carpets and colourful rugs, over endless cups of tea at the chaikhanas, men and women meet to share the day’s gossip in merry camaraderie. The Chorsu Bazaar in Tashkent, the main bazaar near the Bibi Khanym mosque at Samarkand and the ancient domed bazaars of Bukhara all have that vibrancy.