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This cod-classical bling mansion was the residence of the country's first President, Islam Karimov (1938-2016). He was an engineer who worked his way up the communist hierarchy and then upon independence ran a regime every bit as brutal and oppressive. He was re-elected again and again by rigged ballots. The mansion is now government offices, no visits, but is flanked by a small museum to his glory open Tu-Su.
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Ikuo Hirayama (平山 郁夫, 1930-2009) painted dreamy scenes of the Silk Road across central Asia. His legacy funded this exhibition space for contemporary Uzbek art, his own work isn't displayed here.
They too play in Super League, and often win it. Pakhtakor Stadium (capacity 35,000, all-seater) is also used for junior internationals such as U21. It's very central, barely 500 m west of Independence Square.
Davlat Amaliy San'at Muzeyi
Charming small museum of traditional arts and crafts, in a 19th-century merchant's mansion.
Oʻzbekiston tarixi davlat muzeyi
The first floor is a small exhibition area, the second covers from the Stone Age to the takeover by the Soviet Union, and the third is dedicated to independent Uzbekistan from 1990. Signage is in Uzbek, Russian and English, but patchy and dimly lit. The museum has been closed for refurbishment since June 2024 with no word on timescale.
Neoclassical 1940s structure, built by Japanese prisoners of war.
Ali-Shir Nava'i or Alisher Navoi (1441-1501) was an administrator, poet and prolific author who wrote in Turkic (predecessor to a family of languages that includes Uzbek) and proclaimed its superiority over Persian the official language. He lived mostly in Herat (now in Afghanistan) but became a cultural hero across the entire Turkic world, with dozens of statues, draughty boulevards and institutes nowadays named after him. This museum displays manuscripts and artworks.