Central Asia's Gateway City: World's Oldest Quran, Soviet Metro Art Stations, Plov Culture & Samarkand in 2 Hours
📍 Tashkent, Uzbekistan📅 3-day itinerary
The largest city in Central Asia (2.8 million) — rebuilt after the 1966 earthquake as a Soviet showcase city with decorated metro stations that are underground museums of Islamic and socialist art — holding the world's oldest Quran manuscript (stained with the blood of Caliph Uthman, murdered while reading it in 656 CE), the world's largest plov restaurant (the Osh Markazi, where master cooks serve 600 portions of Uzbek pilaf from dawn until it runs out), and 2 hours by Talgo express from Samarkand's Registan.
The Quran Written on Deer Vellum and Stained with the Blood of Caliph Uthman Who Was Assassinated While Reading It in 656 CE — Stolen by Tamerlane, Returned by the Soviets — and the Bazaar Under the Blue Dome Where Fergana Valley Apricots Are Sweeter Than Any Apricot Grown Outside Central Asia
The Opera Theatre Built by Japanese Prisoners of War 1944-1947 Whose Six Entrance Foyers Are Each Decorated in a Different Regional Uzbek Architectural Style — Stalin's Gift to the Uzbek People — and the 29 Metro Stations Each Designed as a Distinct Underground Museum of Soviet-Era Art and Central Asian Ornament
The Three-Madrasa Ensemble Where Tamerlane's Grandson Permitted Tigers-and-Suns in the Portal Tilework (Figurative Art Technically Forbidden in Islamic Tradition) and the Avenue of Mausoleums Where the Finest Tilework in Central Asia Lines Both Sides of a 200-Metre Path Built for the Female Relatives of the World-Conqueror