Cities
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- Tashkent — the modern capital and largest city. At present, Tashkent is one of the most important business centers of Central Asia. Present-day Tashkent is one of the most attractive Oriental cities. The architecture of Tashkent is unique, and the hospitality and friendliness of Tashkent people is amazing. Tashkent is about 2200 years old. It has evolved from a small ancient settlement into one of the largest Asian cities.
- Andijan — Uzbekistan's fourth largest city, right in the heart of the vibrant but combustible Ferghana Valley. Andijan is about 475 km east of Tashkent, and about 45 km west of Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Andijan is a center for oil production and has a few oil refineries. Cotton production and processing remain the dominant economic activities.
- Bukhara — a legendary Silk Road capital, 2,500 years old, the historical center of which is a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with magnificent examples of monumental, medieval Islamic and Central Asian architecture. Remains of it dating back to the sixteenth century have survived to our day. Bukhara preserves genuine treasures of architecture of the pre-Mongol period, although not very many in number. One of them is the mausoleum of the Samanids, built in the ninth and tenth centuries. This modest structure is, by virtue of its artistic aspect and the lucid logic of its construction, a true monumental piece of architecture. The art of its construction, the virtuosic use of fired brick in decoration, and the lay-out of the building place it among the masterpieces of world architecture.
- Khiva, site of the Itchan Kala. None of the other Central Asian cities have whole parts of their ancient city, such as the Ichan-kala district in Khiva, which have been preserved in such a good condition. It is a historical and architectural reservation which provides an example of what a feudal Central Asian city used to be like. Hardly any of the structures dating back to the first Khan of Khiva have survived to our times. But of those which have reached us, the most well known is the modest fourteenth century mausoleum of Sheikh Said Allauddin, famous for its beautiful majolica tomb. Evidently, the earlier mausoleum of Pakhlavan Mahmud, the poet and national hero who died in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, was also very modest. Soon afterwards, the construction of the necropolis of the Khiva rulers was begun beside the poet's mausoleum, and the tombs of the earlier rulers were transferred there.
- Namangan — the third largest city, at the northern edge of the Ferghana Valley.
- Nukus — the capital of Qaraqalpaqstan on the Amu Darya, surrounded by a region devastated by the environmental degradation wrought by the drying of the Aral Sea. Nukus is a city in western Uzbekistan, in the delta of the Amu Darya River. Nukus is about 1255 km west of Tashkent, and about 230 km south of Muynaq and the former shoreline of the Aral Sea. An increase in upstream irrigation needs reduced the downstream flow of the Amu Darya, contributing to the shrinking of the Aral and the disappearance of its plentiful fish stocks.
- Samarkand — the nation's second largest city, the whole of which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to the most famous Silk Road attraction of them all, the Registan. Welcome to majestic Samarkand-one of the oldest cities of the world, that is 2750 years old. The picturesque valley of Zerafshan river is the magnificent location of this splendid city, surrounded by Pamir-Alay Mountains.
- Shakhrisabz — a small city, whose historical center is a UNESCO World Heritage site for its impressive monuments from the Timurid Dynasty. 2700th anniversary of the foundation of Shakhrisabz has been celebrated, demonstrating to the world the ancient value of this land, its greatness and beauty.
- Termez — the southernmost city near the border with Afghanistan, named by Alexander the Great's forces for the intense temperatures they found here (thermos = hot). This is a kingdom of trade routes and brave warriors. This is a land famous worldwide for its richness in gold and lazurite. Archeological discoveries have proven that the origin of agricultural civilization on this territory dates to before the 5th c. BC.
Several of these were once great trading cities on the Silk Road.