Uzbekistan
Tashkent
Levelled by an earthquake in 1966 and rebuilt by the whole Soviet Union - Central Asia's biggest city hides a marble metro under its boulevards.
Tashkent is the biggest city in Central Asia and the region's main gateway, and it looks like nowhere else: an earthquake levelled the centre in 1966 and the Soviet Union rebuilt it from scratch in wide boulevards, mosaic-fronted apartment blocks, fountains and plane trees. Underneath runs a metro of chandeliers, marble and cosmonaut mosaics, a sight in its own right. What survived sits beside it - the mud-brick mahalla lanes of the old city, and Chorsu Bazaar under its vast blue dome, trading on the same ground for centuries.
Suggested stay
2–3 days
Language
Uzbek, Russian
Currency
UZS
Timezone
UTC+5
Why you'll love Tashkent
The rebuild One earthquake in 1966 and the whole USSR came to rebuild - boulevards, fountains, mosaic facades and plane trees, on a scale nowhere else in the region matches.
The metro Chandeliers, ganch domes and cosmonaut medallions underground, the first metro in Central Asia, and photographing the stations is no longer forbidden.
Chorsu Under a ribbed blue dome, the old city's market - cauldrons of plov, hills of spice and dried fruit, butchers, and bread by the wheel.
Eating Tashkent claims the country's best plov, cooked by the cauldron and gone before the afternoon, and the samsa, lagman and bread are worth the trip alone.
Best time to visit
Mar-Jun, Sep-Nov
14-34° days
41.312° N, 69.279° E
UTC+5 · Asia/Tashkent
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Weather & when to go to Tashkent
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Mar-Jun, Sep-Nov
Watch for Jul extreme heat risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Tashkent
No month here is a write-off. High summer is hot and very dry, but the city is built for it - deep shade, arcades, cold drinks and an air-conditioned metro - and the melons are at their peak. Winter is cold, grey and quiet, with smog sitting low over the city on still days. Spring and autumn are simply the easiest.
Top things to do in Tashkent
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Chorsu Bazaar - the blue dome over the old city
food shopping culture arts 👍 PopularThe city's oldest market and still its most alive: a ribbed turquoise dome over the butchers and dairy stalls, with rings of spice, dried apricot, walnuts, kurt and stacked non spreading out around it. Pickle sellers, tinsmiths and hat stalls hide on the edges. Come hungry and early, and eat a samsa at the tandoor.
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Tashkent Metro - marble, chandeliers and cosmonaut mosaics
culture arts history 👍 PopularThe first metro in Central Asia, dug deep enough to double as a bomb shelter and built to ride out another earthquake. The stations are the point: Kosmonavtlar lined with cosmonaut medallions on deep blue, Alisher Navoi under carved domes, Pakhtakor in cotton-flower mosaic. Photographing them was forbidden for decades and is not any more.
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Khast Imam - the shrine square and the Uthman Quran
history culture arts 👍 PopularThe old city's religious heart: the Barak Khan madrasah, the Tilla Sheikh mosque and the tomb of Kaffal Shashi around a wide brick square. The small Muyi Muborak library holds a huge parchment Quran attributed to the caliph Uthman, among the oldest surviving anywhere, and long the reason people come.
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Kukeldash Madrasah - the sixteenth-century survivor above Chorsu
historyOne of the few pre-Russian buildings left standing in the city, on the rise between Chorsu and the old town, built under the Shaybanids and knocked about by earthquakes ever since. It is a working madrasah again rather than a museum, so what you can see inside varies; the portal and the view over the bazaar do not.
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Amir Timur Square and Broadway - the ceremonial centre
history culture artsA circle of plane trees around Timur on horseback, on a plinth that has carried Kaufman, Stalin and Marx in turn, which tells you most of the city's last 150 years. Running off it, the pedestrian stretch everyone calls Broadway fills with portrait painters, chess tables and cafes in the evening.
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Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre - built by Japanese prisoners of war
culture arts historyAlexey Shchusev, architect of Lenin's mausoleum, designed it with foyers done out in the regional styles of Uzbekistan, and Japanese prisoners of war finished the building after 1945. It came through the 1966 earthquake intact, which the plaque outside notes. Tickets to opera and ballet are famously cheap for what you get.
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State Museum of Applied Arts - the Polovtsev house
culture arts history ⭐ Highly recommendedBuilt as the residence of a Russian diplomat who commissioned the best Uzbek craftsmen he could find, so the house outdoes its own collection: carved and painted ganch, fretted ceilings, stained glass. Inside it, suzani embroidery, ikat, Rishton ceramics and woodwork. Small, quiet, and the easiest place in the city to see what the crafts actually look like.
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Central Asian Plov Centre - the cauldrons at Besh Qozon
food ⭐ Highly recommendedBelow the TV tower, plov cooked in the open in cauldrons the size of a tabletop and ladled out with kazy sausage and quail eggs on top. It is made in the morning and sold until it runs out, so go before the early afternoon. Loud, communal, and the best argument for Tashkent's kitchen.
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Minor Mosque - white marble on the Ankhor canal
culture arts scenicA mosque of pale marble under a turquoise dome on the canal north of the centre, deliberately light and open inside where the old shrines are dim. Non-Muslim visitors are generally welcome outside prayer times, and the canal path either side of it is one of the nicer walks in the city.
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Courage Monument - the 1966 earthquake memorial
historyA granite cube split by a fissure, dated to the morning of 26 April 1966, with a bronze man and woman shielding a child stepping out of the crack. It stands roughly over the epicentre. Behind it, a line of relief panels credits the republics that sent building brigades to put the city back up.
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Museum of Victims of Political Repression - the purges in Uzbekistan
historyA state museum beside the Shahidlar Xotirasi memorial, on ground associated with executions, covering the Tsarist conquest, the crushing of the Jadid reformers and the Stalin-era purges of the Uzbek intelligentsia. It is the official telling rather than an argument, and still the clearest account of the period you will find in the city.
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State Museum of the History of Uzbekistan - Sogdians, Bactrians and Buddhas
history culture artsThe country's main archaeology collection, strongest on what came before Islam: Bactrian and Sogdian metalwork and terracotta, and the Fayaz Tepa Buddha triad in limestone, brought up from the southern desert. English labelling is thin, so it repays a guide or a read beforehand.
Best areas to stay in Tashkent
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Old City and Chorsu
Old-city atmosphere $Mahalla lanes, bazaar noise, mud brick
Explore hotels in Old City and Chorsu →
City centre and Broadway
First-time visitors $$Boulevards, museums, fountains, hotels
Explore hotels in City centre and Broadway →
Mirabad
Restaurants and quiet $$Leafy streets, embassies, good eating
Explore hotels in Mirabad →
Yunusabad
Modern and calm $$Northern, modern, residential, spread out
Explore hotels in Yunusabad →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Tashkent
Getting to & around Tashkent
Getting there
Fly into Tashkent (TAS), the region's main hub, around half an hour from the centre by taxi; the Afrosiyob high-speed train links the city to Samarkand and Bukhara.
Flight
Islam Karimov Tashkent International Airport (TAS)
About 6 km south of the centre, and the main long-haul gateway to the region. Nearly everyone rides in by taxi or a ride-hailing app, 20-30 minutes depending on traffic, and hotels will send a car if you ask.
Train
Tashkent railway station
Afrosiyob high-speed services run southwest to Samarkand in a little over 2 hr and on to Bukhara, with slower overnight trains to Nukus and Termez. Seats sell out, so book ahead. The station has its own metro stop.
Coach
Shared taxis and minibuses link Tashkent with Samarkand, the Fergana Valley over the Kamchik pass and the Kazakh border crossings, leaving from stands on the edge of the city when they fill.
Drive
The M39 runs southwest towards Samarkand and Bukhara in about 4 hr. East, the only road into the Fergana Valley climbs the Kamchik pass, where checkpoints are routine.
Getting around
Metro
Three deep lines and an elevated ring, fast, air-conditioned and the simplest way to cross the city. Signs are in Latin script.
TBC
Taxi and ride-hailing
Apps are standard and cheap. Flagging an unmarked car down is normal too - agree the fare before you get in.
TBC
Bus and marshrutka
A dense network reaching everywhere the metro misses, with destinations posted in Uzbek and Russian only.
TBC
Walking
The centre is green and shaded, but the blocks are enormous and distances run much longer than the map suggests.
Free
Day trips from Tashkent
Chimgan and Charvak
Full dayMountains and reservoir
The Tian Shan foothills start an hour and a half out: the turquoise Charvak reservoir for swimming in summer, and above it Chimgan and Beldersay, where a chairlift runs in the warm months and the ski runs open once the snow settles. Tashkent's weekend escape, and busy for it.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1.5-2 hr northeast by car, taxi or tour
Samarkand
1-2 daysSilk Road capital
The Silk Road's showpiece, close enough to do as a very long day and much better with a night in it: the Registan, Timur's tomb under its fluted dome, and the tiled lanes of Shah-i-Zinda. Book the fast train days ahead, in both directions.
Getting there
train
A little over 2 hr each way on the Afrosiyob high-speed train
Fergana Valley
1-2 daysSilk and ceramic towns
The densely populated valley east of the capital, and the craft heartland: hand-woven silk at Margilan, blue-glaze pottery at Rishton and the khan's palace at Kokand. The only road in climbs the Kamchik pass, where checkpoints are routine, so start early.
Getting there
car | train | tour
About 4-5 hr east by road over the Kamchik pass, or by train through the tunnel beneath it
Zangiata
Half daySufi shrine complex
A Timur-era complex around the tomb of a thirteenth-century Sufi sheikh, with a mosque, a minaret and the separate mausoleum of his wife across the gardens. A working pilgrimage site rather than a sight, and the easiest way to see how Uzbeks actually visit a shrine.
Getting there
car
About 40 min southwest by taxi
A little history of Tashkent
Tashkent grew out of the Chach oasis on the Chirchik river, a caravan stop between the steppe and the Silk Road cities, Islamised after the Arab conquest and destroyed by the Mongols in 1219. It rebuilt as a trading town, passed to the khanate of Kokand, and in 1865 was taken by Russian troops under Chernyayev; two years later it became the capital of Russian Turkestan. A gridded European city of boulevards went up across the canal from the mud-brick mahallas, and the two halves stayed distinct for a century.
At about half past five on the morning of 26 April 1966 an earthquake struck directly beneath the city. Casualties were remarkably low, but the old centre was flattened and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. Building brigades came from every Soviet republic and Tashkent was rebuilt as a model socialist capital at extraordinary speed, in concrete, mosaic and water: wide boulevards, fountains, apartment blocks faced in tile, and, a decade later, the first metro in Central Asia. That is still the city you walk around, an Uzbek surface over Soviet planning. Independence in 1991 added national monuments and new names, and much of the centre has been rebuilt again since.
Chinese envoys record the oasis state of Chach on the Chirchik
The Arab conquest brings Islam to the oasis, then known as Shash
Mongol armies destroy the city
Tashkent is absorbed into the khanate of Kokand
Russian forces take the city; it becomes the capital of Russian Turkestan
The capital of Soviet Uzbekistan moves here from Samarkand
An earthquake on 26 April levels the centre, and the USSR rebuilds it
The metro opens, the first in Central Asia
Uzbekistan becomes independent, with Tashkent as its capital
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Limited
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+998
Extreme heat risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Uzbekistan eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Tashkent
▸ When is the best time to visit Tashkent?
Spring and autumn are the easy answer - roughly March into June, then September through November, with warm days, cool evenings and the markets at their best. High summer is hot and bone dry, though the city is built for it with shade, arcades and an air-conditioned metro. Winter is cold, grey and quiet, and no month is genuinely a write-off.
▸ How many days do you need in Tashkent?
Two full days is the normal answer: one for the old city, Chorsu and Khast Imam, another for the museums, the boulevards and a proper ride round the metro. A third buys a day trip to the mountains at Chimgan, or a long afternoon eating your way across the city.
▸ Is Tashkent worth stopping in, or just a transit point?
It is worth two days, but be honest about what it is - a modern capital, not a monument city. Almost everyone passes through on the way to the Silk Road towns. The reward here is the metro, the bazaars, the eating and the strangeness of a Soviet capital rebuilt from nothing, not tiled madrasahs.
▸ Is the Tashkent metro really worth riding just to look at it?
Yes, and it is the cheapest thing you will do here. The stations were built as public palaces - chandeliers, carved domes, mosaic panels, cosmonaut medallions - and photographing them was forbidden for decades, which is why so few people outside the country had ever seen them. That ban has gone. Ride the two older lines end to end.
▸ Do you need to register where you stay in Uzbekistan?
Registering your nights in the country has long been part of the system, and hotels and guesthouses handle it for you at check-in - it only becomes your problem if you sleep somewhere unregistered. The rules have been loosened several times in recent years, so check what currently applies rather than trusting any guide, including this one.
▸ Is Tashkent safe?
Yes, and noticeably so. Street crime is uncommon, the metro and the centre are fine to walk at night, and people go out of their way to help a lost foreigner. The realistic risks are traffic, which is fast and inattentive, drivers quoting a tourist fare, and midsummer heat if you walk all day.
▸ What should you eat in Tashkent?
Plov first, cooked by the cauldron and eaten at midday rather than at night. Then samsa baked on the wall of a tandoor, lagman noodles pulled by hand, shashlik, and Tashkent's own round non bread, stamped and shiny. Green tea with everything. The markets are where the kurt, dried apricots and melons are.
▸ How do you get from Tashkent to Samarkand?
The Afrosiyob high-speed train, a little over two hours from the main station, and the obvious choice - book several days ahead because seats sell out. Slower trains run the same line for less, shared taxis take around four hours on the road, and short domestic flights rarely save time overall.
More in Uzbekistan
Bukhara
The Silk Road's most intact old city - two hundred monuments, still lived in, nearly all inside a twenty-minute walk.
✓ best Mar-May, Sep-NovFergana Valley (Margilan)
Uzbekistan's craft heartland: hand-woven ikat silk in Margilan, blue-glazed pottery in Rishton and a khan's palace in Kokand, almost entirely to yourself.
✓ best Mar-Jun, Aug-OctKhiva
A walled desert town you can cross in ten minutes, holding a whole khanate's worth of minarets, madrasas and palaces inside one mud-brick rampart.
✓ best Mar-May, Sep-Oct