Tashkent

We arrived after our exhausting trips to Bishkek, return to Almaty only leave again in the morning to fly to Uzbekistan, airport and border waits on both ends of the air trip. By the time we got to Tashkent we were beat. That meant a late start to see the city 10:00 AM.

The first impression is a city that is maintained!

Clean. They added manufacturing first owned by Chevrolet, now public/private and there is a car designed for Uzbek buyers, three styles, all white (the country has more than 300 days of sun) and all very efficient gasoline motors.

They are very proud of their “highest” TV tower in Central Asia. It has a revolving restaurant in the lower lump, the upper lump is the office. This is taken from a charming park surrounded by a canal that has been curved around the park. The canal was part of an 11th century water delivery system for the city, it has been continually upgrade.

The two blue domes are part of the main madrasa, or religious school for boys.

This the courtyard in front of the Craft Museum of Tashkent in the old part of the city. I asked about all the decoration of the six pointed stars and was told that the house and land was once the base of an important Jewish family. End of statement, nothing else was known…

Although this was a fancy courtyard arrangement the pattern of three sides with couches and mattresses with canter table is an ancient tradition. In Tashkent where summers at torrid. At the time of the 9.0 earthquake in 1966, only 8 lives were lost because everyone was sleeping outside, not in the Adobe houses, many of which collapsed.

Beautifully embroider hats still used here for celebrations. Sorry about the light from the reflection overhead.