It's worth taking a stroll around the remnants of the old town, eski shakhar. This maze of narrow dusty streets lined by low, mudbrick houses, mosques and medressas (Islamic academies) seems to have been spared by Soviet planners to show what things would have been like without the glories of socialism. Kukeldash Medressa is a grand 16th century academy undergoing restoration, whose plaza overflows with worshippers on warm Friday mornings; the tiny 15th century Jami mosque nearby was used during the Soviet era as a sheet metal workshop. Chorsu Bazaar, a huge open market beside Kukeldash, draws crowds of people from the countryside, many in traditional dress.

What Tashkent lacks in old things, it makes up for in big museums about them. The Museum of Fine Arts has a fine collection of the art of pre-Russian Turkestan, including Zoroastrian artefacts, serene 1000-year-old Buddhist statues and Sogdian murals. The Museum of Applied Arts opened in 1937 as a showcase for turn-of-the-century applied arts, though the building itself - designed in traditional Tashkent style - is more interesting than its contents. There are other museums devoted to History (always with a capital 'H'), antiquities, literature, geology and railways. For a bit of light relief, check out the Navoi Opera & Ballet Theatre, the venue for some of the world's cheapest classical opera and the only Soviet building in Tashkent with anything approaching a personality.

Today Tashkent is the main economic and cultural centre of Central Asia. Cotton is the chief crop of the region in which it is situated. Wheat, rice, jute, vegetables, and melons are also grown, and silkworms are bred. The city lies in the most industrially developed part of Uzbekistan, and much of its industry is in some way connected with cotton - the manufacture of agricultural and textile machinery and of cotton textiles. It also has various food-processing industries. The city's numerous institutions of higher education and research establishments include the university, founded in 1920, and various institutes of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, set up in 1943. Another notable institution is the Navoi Public Library. The city's numerous theatres, Uzbek and Russian, include the Navoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet. There are also a Palace of the Arts and several museums, parks, and stadiums. The city has been extensively rebuilt since an earthquake in 1966 left 300,000 people homeless. A few 15th and 16th century religious buildings and mausoleums survive, including the Barakkhan Madrasah (theological school). Uzbeks and Russians comprise nearly four-fifths of the population, with minorities of Tatars, Jews, and Ukrainians. Pop. (1991 est.) 2,113,300.

Tashkent, capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan, is one of the largest cities of Central Asia. It is more than 2000 years old. During its ancient history Tashkent has changed it’s name several times: Shah, Jaj, Chachkent, Binkent. Archaeological excavations have revealed that present-day Tashkent was the site of an ancient town which existed as a developed commercial and cultural centre of the East. Here Eastern and Western Traditions and customs have merged into a single whole; the unique monuments of Medieval Eastern architecture, the Kukeldash and Barak-Khan Madrassas erected in the 16th century, have been preserved to this day. Tashkent architectural appearance is distinguished by the national local color on one hand and with the fact that modern buildings are in harmony with medieval monuments on the other.
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