Best Things to Do in Tashkent

Tashkent's highlights span thirteen centuries of Silk Road history, from an early deer-parchment Quran and 16th-century brick madrasahs to space-programme subway art and modernist architecture born after the 1966 earthquake.

1. Shop and graze beneath the turquoise dome of Chorsu Bazaar. Step inside the giant 1980s ceramic-clad rotunda in the Old Town to see concentric tiers of saffron, cumin, apricot kernels and cured kurt cheese balls, surrounded by outdoor bread alleys and noodle stalls.
2. See the 7th-century Usman Quran at the Khast Imam (Hazrati Imam) Complex. Walk the monumental brick square housing Tillya Sheikh Mosque, the 16th-century Barak Khan Madrasah and the Muyi Muborak Library, where one of Islam's oldest surviving Qurans written in Kufic script on deer parchment is displayed.
3. Ride and photograph the Tashkent Metro. Hop between Central Asia's oldest subway stations, admiring the blue gradient space medallions of Kosmonavtlar, the turquoise Islamic cupolas of Alisher Navoi and the marble columns of Mustaqillik Maydoni.
4. Watch plov cooked in giant cauldrons at Besh Qozon (Central Asian Plov Centre). Join hundreds of locals at midday beside Tashkent TV Tower to watch cooks stir tonnes of rice, yellow carrots, lamb, chickpeas and quail eggs in wood-fired cast-iron kazans.
5. Admire the carved stucco and suzanis at the State Museum of Applied Arts. Housed in the ornate former residence of Russian diplomat Alexander Polovtsev, the museum's rainbow-painted wooden columns and carved ganch arches frame silk suzani embroideries and ceramics.
6. Climb the courtyard arcades of 16th-century Kukeldash Madrasah. Standing on a rise right above Chorsu Bazaar, this yellow-brick fortress madrasah built under the Shaybanid dynasty overlooks the Juma Mosque.
7. Walk from Amir Timur Square and Hotel Uzbekistan down Broadway to the Navoi Opera House. Photograph the iconic curved concrete sun-screen facade of the 1974 Hotel Uzbekistan, stroll the tree-shaded pedestrian avenue of Sailgokh Street, and view the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre designed by Alexey Shchusev.
8. Stroll through Independence Square (Mustaqillik Maydoni) and the Ankhor Canal. Follow the fountains, weeping willows and the carved wooden colonnade of the Memorial of Memory and Honour down to the Ankhor Canal.
9. Explore the traditional mud-brick mahalla lanes of Sibzar and Sagban. Wander quiet residential alleyways north of Chorsu where vine-draped courtyards and carved wooden doors preserve pre-1966 Tashkent life.
10. Take a day trip into the Chimgan Mountains and Charvak Reservoir. Drive ninety minutes north-east into the Ugam-Chatkal National Park for alpine cable cars at Amirsoy and turquoise mountain water.