Uzbekistan

Tashkent

Capital of Uzbekistan, its government, business and industrial center. Tashkent oasis lies on the Chirchik River in the foothills of western Tyan-Shan at the altitude of 480 m above sea level. The western Tian Shan Mountain melt water feeds the river, in turn feeding the Syr Darya on whose middle reaches once lay the principally of Chach. Archaeologists battling myth and legend call ts first capital Kanka, a square citadel founded between the fifth and third centuries BC, eight kilometers from the Syr Darya. By the seventh century AD, after the Sakas, Sassanians and Hephtalites, prominence shifted to the fertile Chirchik valley, focus of trade between Sogdian settlers and Turkic nomads. Over 50 irrigation canals nurtured more than 30 towns as Chach blossomed into an exporter of cattle, horses, gold, silver and precious stones.

Barak-Khan Madrassah
The Barak Khan Madrassah, founded in the 16th century by a descendent of Amir Temur who ruled Tashkent for the Shaybanid dynasty. The ornate facade of blue-tiled mosaic and Koranic inscrip-tion conceals a rose garden courtyard and 35 hujra. This is the administrative centre of the Mufti of Uzbekistan, the head of official Islam in the Republic. Directly opposite Barak Khan is the Tellya Sheikh Mosque, first built in the same era and now employed as the city's chief Friday Mosque. The highlight is the immense Osman Koran, claimed to be the world's oldest; in 655 it was stained with the blood of the murdered Caliph Osman. In the late 14th century, Amir Temur brought it to Bibi Khanum's mighty lectern in Samarkand.

Kukeldash madrassah
The grand 16th century madrassah on a hill, has a domed courtyard and was originally an Islamic seminary. The tiled facade over the entrance arch, with its repeated sun motif is a virtual copy of Ulugbek madrassah in Samarkand. Through the arch is a large domed courtyard and behind that the ruined 15th century Kukeldash Djuma mosque.

Museum of Applied Arts
A wealthy tsarist diplomat Alexander Polovtsev originally commissioned this house to be built for him in traditional style by artisans form Tashkent, Bukhara and Fergana. In 1937 the house was surrounded by modern museum buildings and opened as a showcase for turn-of-the-20th century applied art. Full of bright carved plaster decoration (ghanch) and carved wood, the house itself is the main attraction, though there are also exhibits of rare ceramics, textiles, jewelry, musical instruments and toys.