Tashkent - the official tour

A nice leisurely start today as we don't meet up with our fellow travellers until lunchtime (they arrived this morning after an overnight flight - we are so glad we got here earlier). Also, apart from our guide Timur, we are the young ones in the group, naturally Birgit seems quite happy at this!

We met in the lobby and headed off for lunch. Birgit was about to ask for a group photo and casually mentioned she is writing a blog and if everyone was ok to have their photo taken. Somewhat surprisingly the two couple of the party declined, we started to think this might be a long trip but we all got along fine after that!

We actually lunched in a very ornate restaurant, it was a family Sunday lunch sort of place but looked as if we'd gate crashed a wedding 😁

After lunch first stop was the Islamic centre - Hazrati Imam, the historic spiritual heart of Tashkent. Our guide for the day, Akromjon (known as Jonny) explained that the Tashkent region produced hugely influential Muslim scholars, and Tashkent preserves important Islamic manuscripts and monuments.

Amongst other things we visited:
- Barak Khan Madrassa built in the 16th century but now houses handicraft stalls 🤔
- Hazrati Imam Mosque — the impressive twin-minaret mosque is actually modern, completed in 2007.
- The Abu Bakr Kaffal Shashi Mausoleum, the historic core of the Hazrati Imam complex.

Also in the complex was the enormous new Center of Islamic Civilization, opened in March 2026. It's a museum/research centre rather than simply a mosque, covering Central Asia's contribution to Islamic science, scholarship, art and culture - but we didn't go in there.

Instead we went literally next door to one part of the original old town. To be honest it wasn't up to much and we didn't get far because they were filming a TV commercial just where we wanted to go!

The one thing that stood out for me is these old mud houses have methane as the main gas supply! As installed by the Soviet empire ....

Back on our bus Jonny regaled us with a lot of facts about UZ. One of the more interesting was about the top five sources of income for the country:
1 - Agriculture
2 - Gold - they have some of the largest deposits in the world
3 - Light industries / small. Manufacturing
4 - Money from abroad - 20% of the UZ population actually works in other countries and sends money home!
5 - Tourism

But the current president wants to turn this upside down and make Tourism the key pillar.

Next we moved on to Chorzu Bazaar, a massive domed market selling virtually all foodstuffs from Tashkent and beyond. A few free samples were on offer, we particularly liked the macadamia nuts. Originally this was open air but no longer and it's also for the locals just as much as the tourists. Bartering is mandatory of course!

We then took the metro to look at Independence Square again before walking past the Romanov Palace which was built in 1891 for Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I who had been exiled from St Petersburg to Central Asia. He had been accused of stealing diamonds belonging to his mother, apparently in connection with his American mistress.

Next door there's a large building being converted into a hotel. Apparently it used to be the KGB headquarters in Tashkent!

We finally had a brief detour to look at the Alisher Navoiy Theater is Uzbekistan's principal opera and ballet theatre and one of Tashkent's landmark Soviet-era buildings.
It was designed by Alexey Shchusev, who also designed Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow. Construction began around 1940, stopped during WWII and was finally completed in 1947. An unusual part of its history is that Japanese prisoners of war helped complete the building after WWII. Uzbek craftsmen created the elaborate interiors, with different halls decorated in regional styles representing places including Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Fergana.

On the way back to the hotel, we had a brief drive round Amir Temur square and then an early night.

All in all it was ok but I'm glad we saw something of Tashkent the day before as well to give us a better overall view of the city.Read more