Tashkent

Tashkent ( ), also known as Toshkent, is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3.1 million people as of July 1, 2025. It is located in northeastern Uzbekistan. Tashkent's history stretches back centuries as part of the ancient Silk Road, the network of trade routes that connected the Eastern world and the Western world. The city has long been a crossroads of cultures, goods and ideas. Before the influence of Islam in the mid-8th century AD, Sogdian and Turkic culture was predominant. After Genghis Khan destroyed the city in 1219, it was rebuilt and profited from its location on the Silk Road. From the 18th to the 19th centuries, the city became an independent city-state, before being re-conquered by the Khanate of Kokand. In 1865, Tashkent fell to the Russian Empire; as a result, it became the capital of Russian Turkestan. In Soviet times, it witnessed major growth and demographic changes due to forced deportations from throughout the Soviet Union. Much of Tashkent was destroyed in the 1966 Tashkent earthquake, but it was soon rebuilt as a model Soviet city. It was the fourth-largest city in the Soviet Union at the time, after Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Kiev (now Kyiv). Tashkent plays a central role in the country's economic and human development. In a 2023 report, the Center for Progressive Reforms ranked it first among Uzbekistan's regions, topping the list in five of the seven categories assessed – healthcare, education, economy, infrastructure and environment. Economically, Tashkent was the leading contributor to the national GDP, accounting for 19% of Uzbekistan's GDP in the first half of 2024. This economic dominance is supported by ongoing infrastructure development and urban modernisation projects aimed at enhancing...