Day 14 (July 12, 2023):

Tashkent is a big city of almost 3,000,000. Its sheer size, and the fact that most of the city was destroyed in the 1966 earthquake, means that it doesn’t offer the same sort of experience that Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva do. Nonetheless, we had a good day, zipping all over the city to take in what we could. And that wasn’t easy, given that it was 42°. Here are the highlights of what we saw during our day in Tashkent, the last day of our vacation (not counting our return travel day).



The four candidates for president of Uzbekistan. The election was held on Sunday, which saw the existing president reelected. He had just recently amended the constitution to allow the president to stay in office for another seven years.


The leviathan Hazroti Imom Friday Mosque and associated buildings:


Hazroti Imom Friday Mosque.  It's hard to describe the magnitude of this place, with its two 54m massive minarets.  It was ordered built by former President Karimov in 2007.


Rear view of the Hazroti Imom Friday Mosque, showing the sprawling Khast Imom Square.  The building to the right is the Moyie Mubarek Library Museum, containing the oldest Quran from the 7th century.


The Barak Khan Medressa, which flanks the western side of Khast Imom Square.


The massive new Islamic Civilization Center, under construction next to the Hazroti Imom Friday Mosque.


Visit to Chorsu market, the biggest market in Uzbekistan and perhaps the biggest (or among the top) is Central Asia:












Visit to two mausoleum sites in Tashkent:







The Peoples’ Palace, which is a large concert hall built in Soviet times:







A working Medressa, where artists are perfecting their craft. We met one guy who has been working on an incredibly detailed door:








Navoi statue and park:





Milliy Bog amusement park:






Senate of Uzbekistan:




Monument to the victims of the 1966 earthquake, which flattened Tashkent and left up to 300,000 people homeless:




This stone shows the date and time of the quake. The crack is part of the design. 


Mural at the site showing the way the USSR came together to rebuild Tashkent into a model Soviet city. After it was all done, there were riots in the streeet, as Moscow offered 20% of the new apartments built to Russians who had come to help. 


Holy Assumption Cathedral Church - one of four Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Tashkent. You certainly don’t see Christian churches often in Uzbek, so the sight of one is as scarce as hen’s teeth!










And now for our plov experience!  A great way to end our last day in Uzbekistan.  Plov is the national dish and everyone says their mom makes the best plov. We had no clue what to order, so the waiter - who miraculously spoke English - suggested the ‘house plov’, which is the their most popular. When I asked what is in it, he mentioned horse meat in the list of ingredients. Horse meat is very popular in Uzbek. We went with a lamb plov, by the way, with quail's eggs. 








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