Founded more that two thousand years ago, Tashkent developed rapidly in the Middle Ages due to its advantageous location on the site where different trade routes from Eastem Europe to Asia and India as well as from Siberia to the Middle East crossed.

Tashkent today is the city with wide streets, numerous squares, parks, gardens, fountains and multistoried apartment houses. The city has a population of more than 2 million. The preserved architectural monumets date back largely to the Middle Ages: medresse Kukeldash and Barach-Chan, Kaffal-Shoshi mausoleum and Dshami mosque.

Rich collections of numerous city museums are worth to be mentioned. Among those is the Museum of Applied and Decorative Art where one can see lots of old exhibits, including the Bukhara rugs made of golden thread, known far beyond the borders of Central Asia.

During the centuries, Bukhara was invaded many times. From the 6th century to the 19th century the city was the capital of Bukhar Khan. Persians, Macedonians, Arabs, Genghis Khan’s hordes marched through its ancient streets.

Bukhara was the most important check point in the Great Silk Way. All these historie events are reflected in Bukhara cultural background.

Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was founded in the 5th centure B. C. The city is well known for its architectural monuments. It is a town-museum with famous splendors of medieval Moslem architecture.

The excavations on the outskirts of Samarkand revealed the mystery of its foundation. 25 centuries ago it was the capital of the powerful state of Sogdiana. In 1369 the great conqueror Timur made it the capital of his vast empire. The unique beauty of the monuments created by Timur and his successors still evokes admiration and wonder.

Here in Samarkand there is a famous observatory of the great astronomer and scholar Ulugbek which was built in the 15th century.

Pendjikent with the ruins of ancient town of Sogdiana, a unique monument of pre-Islamic culture of Central Asia is situated 68 km from Samarkand. During the archaeological excavations a number of samples of pottery, metal work and glass as well as many ancient coins were discovered. Due to those findings the town became known as the Pompeii of Central Asia.

A lot of tourists come to the town to visit a reserve-city of Khiva (30 km from Urgench). The first record of Khiva was made in the 10th century. It became the capital of Khiva Khanate in the 16th century.

The city consists of two parts: the internal reserve-city and the extermal city which still has many Uzbek monuments and museums. The most impressive and unique monuments are Medresse of Mukhamed-Amin-Khan (1850—1854), Kunya-Ark (old fortress of the 18th century), Mausoleum of Said-Allaudin-monument of the Mongolian period (the 14th century, Dzuma-mosque, Sarai-bazar, Caravanserai, ets.