Uzbekistan (April 2018): Tashkent
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Tashkent has changed enormously since my first visit in 2004. From a city that then still looked as one of the largest cities of the Soviet Union (which it was until the independence of Uzbekistan), it has morphed into the proud, lively capital of an independent country. The city is now much more pleasant and friendlier. New cafes, offering excellent cappuccinos, even dot many parts of the city! At the same time, some nice traditional neighborhoods with quiet streets that existed prior to this transformation, such as the Mirabad district on the south-east of Shota Rustaveli Street, still remain.
Although Tashkent does not have many remarkable monuments (especially when compared to Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva), it offers some unique attractions, such as the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan and the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater, with which the other Uzbek cities do not even compete.
View over high mountains from the plane before landing in Tashkent. But most (perhaps all) of these mountains lie outside Uzbekistan.
Barak-Khan Madrassa (16th century, but heavily restored) in the Hazrat Imam complex.
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In the modern Chorsu bazaar.
More traditional scenes around the Chorzu bazaar.
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The Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater. (Alisher Navoi is considered to be the father of the Uzbek literature.)
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Wall paintings in the halls of the theater. The three paintings below illustrate scenes from poems written by Navoi.
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Inside the theater proper.
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Two scenes of the ″One Thousand and One Night″ ballet by Fikret Amirov, an Azerbaijani composer of the Soviet period (mid-20th century).
Statue of Amir Timur, at the center of Amir Timur Square. Several statues, including one of Stalin and one of Karl Marx, have occupied this same spot before.
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In the center of Tashkent near Amir Timur Square, on a Sunday evening:
- Street portraitists.
- Paintings for sale.
- Musicians.
Former home of the Imperial Russian diplomat Alexander Polovtsev in southern Tashkent, with its beautifully decorated walls and ceilings (now part of the Museum of Applied Arts).
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