Uzbekistan and Related Topics

Tajikistan

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Landlocked country in Central Asia.

19th-century painting of lake Zorkul and a local Tajik inhabitant

Spetsnaz soldiers during the civil war, 1992

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon has ruled the country since 1994.

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Tajikistan map of Köppen climate classification

A proportional representation of Tajikistan exports, 2019

The TadAZ aluminium smelting plant, in Tursunzoda, is the largest aluminium manufacturing plant in Central Asia, and Tajikistan's chief industrial asset.

Real GPD per capita development of Tajikistan

Tajikistan: trends in its Human Development Index indicator 1970–2010

Tajikistan is a popular destination amongst mountaineers. 1982 expedition to Tartu Ülikool 350.

Ambassador to the Tang dynasty, coming from Kumedh (胡密丹), Tajikistan. Wanghuitu (王会图) circa 650 CE.

It is bordered by Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north and China to the east.

Tashkent (from Ташкент), or Toshkent (Тошкент, Toshkent/تاشکند, ), also historically known as Chach, is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan, as well as the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2,694,400 (2021).

Samarkand

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Ancient city walls of Samarkand, 4th century BCE

Turkic officers during a audience with king Varkhuman of Samarkand. 648-651 CE, Afrasiyab murals, Samarkand.

Coin of Sogdian ruler Turgar, last Ikhshid of Samarkand, Penjikent, 8th century CE, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.

Shah-i Zinda memorial complex, 11th -15th centuries

Ruins of Afrasiab - ancient Samarkand destroyed by Genghis Khan.

Ulugbek's madrasa in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Bazaar in Samarkand, illustration by Léon Benett for a Jules Verne novel

Samarkand, by Richard-Karl Karlovitch Zommer

Triumph by Vasily Vereshchagin, depicting the Sher-Dor Madrasa in Registan.

Greeting in two languages: Uzbek (Latin) and Tajik (Cyrillic) at the entrance to one of the mahallahs (Bo'zi) of Samarkand

Downtown with Bibi-Khanym Mosque in 1990s

Provinces of the Church of the East in 10th century

Building the Great Mosque of Samarkand. Illustration by Bihzad for the Zafar-Nameh. Text copied in Herat in 1467–68 and illuminated c. the late 1480s. John Work Garret Collection, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Fols. 359v-36or.

Orthodox Cathedral of St. Alexiy Moscowskiy

Orthodox Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin

Orthodox Church of St. George the Victorious

Orthodox Church of St. George Pobedonosets

Gure Amir (Shrine of Timur and Timurids)

Many yellow taxis on the streets of Samarkand

Taxi and tram on Rudaki Street in Samarkand

Taxi and bus on Mirzo Ulughbek Avenue in Samarkand

Afrasiyab (Talgo 250) high-speed train in Samarkand railway station

Samarkand (Самарқанд, Samarqand, ; Самарқанд; ;, , smʾrknδH), also known as Samarqand, is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia.

Kazakhstan

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Transcontinental landlocked country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe.

Approximate extent of Scythia within the area of distribution of Eastern Iranian languages (shown in orange) in the 1st century BC

Cuman–Kipchak confederation in Eurasia circa 1200. The Kazakhs are descendants of Kipchaks, Nogais and other Turkic and medieval Mongol tribes

Ural Cossacks skirmish with Kazakhs (the Russians originally called the Kazakhs "Kirgiz")

Young Pioneers at a Young Pioneer camp in Kazakh SSR

The International Conference on Primary Health Care in 1978, known as the Alma-Ata Declaration

The Monument of Independence, Republic Square, Almaty

Satellite image of Kazakhstan (November 2004)

The Kazakh Steppe is part of the Eurasian Steppe Belt (in on the map)

Kazakhstan map of Köppen climate classification

President Nazarbayev with U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2012

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019

Member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)

A proportional representation of Kazakhstan exports, 2019

Aktau is Kazakhstan's only seaport on the Caspian Sea

Kazakhstan has the largest proven oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region.

Train 22 Kyzylorda – Semipalatinsk, hauled by a Kazakhstan Temir Zholy 2TE10U diesel locomotive. Picture taken near Aynabulak, Kazakhstan

Trends in research expenditure in Central Asia, as a percentage of GDP, 2001–2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: 2030 (2015), Figure 14.3

Group of Kazakhstan physicists in collaboration with Uzbek researchers working at the ion accelerator DC-60

Baikonur Cosmodrome is the world's oldest and largest operational spaceport

Central Asian ethnolinguistic patchwork, 1992

Kazakhstanis on a Lake Jasybay beach, Pavlodar Region

Khazret Sultan Mosque is the biggest mosque in Kazakhstan

A Kazakhstan performer demonstrates the long equestrian heritage as part of the gala concert during the opening ceremonies of the Central Asian Peacekeeping Battalion

Kanysh Satpayev, one of the founders of Soviet era metallogeny, principal advocate and the first president of Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences

1965 Soviet stamp honouring Kazakh essayist and poet Abai Qunanbaiuly

A-Studio was created in 1982 in Almaty, then called Alma-Ata, hence called "Alma-Ata Studio"

International Astana Action Film Festival, 2010

Timur Bekmambetov, a notable Kazakh director

It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbekistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southwest.

Central Asia

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Subregion of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north.

Expanded definition of Central Asia. Core definition that includes the five post-Soviet states in dark green. Afghanistan, the most commonly added country to Central Asia, in green.

Three sets of possible boundaries for the Central Asia region (which overlap with conceptions of South and East Asia).

On the southern shore of Issyk Kul lake, Issyk Kul Region.

Central Asia map of Köppen climate classification.

Iranian-speaking people circa 170 BC. Eastern Iranian languages are in orange, Western Iranian languages are in red.

The Chinese Tang dynasty at its greatest extension, controlling large parts of Central Asia.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 1979

Saadi Shirazi is welcomed by a youth from Kashgar during a forum in Bukhara.

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Hazrat-e Turkestan, Kazakhstan. Timurid architecture consisted of Persian art.

GDP growth trends in Central Asia, 2000–2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.1

GDP in Central Asia by economic sector, 2005 and 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030, Figure 14.2

GDP per capita development in Central Asia, since 1973

Central Asian researchers by sector of employment (HC), 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.5

Central Asian researchers by field of science, 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.4

Scientific publications from Central Asia catalogued by Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded, 2005–2014, UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.6

Cumulative total of articles by Central Asians between 2008 and 2013, by field of science. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.6

Ethnic map of Central Asia.
White areas are thinly-populated semi-desert.
The three northwest-tending lines are the Syr Darya and Amu Darya Rivers flowing from the eastern mountains into the Aral Sea and in the south the irrigated north side of the Kopet Dagh mountains.

Tartar prostrating before Qianlong Emperor of China (1757).

Political cartoon from the period of the Great Game showing the Afghan Amir Sher Ali with his "friends" Imperial Russia and the United Kingdom (1878)

Islam Karimov (President, Uzbekistan) in the Pentagon, March 2002

The region consists of the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Afghanistan

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Landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and South Asia.

Tents of Afghan nomads in the northern Badghis province of Afghanistan. Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan about 7,000 years ago.

The extent of the Indus Valley Civilization during its mature phase

A "Bactrian gold" Scythian belt depicting Dionysus, from Tillya Tepe in the ancient region of Bactria

Approximate maximum extent of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, formed by the fragmentation of Alexander the Great's Empire, circa 180 BCE

Saffarid rule at its greatest extent under Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar

Mongol invasions and conquests depopulated large areas of Afghanistan

Map of the Hotak Empire during the Reign of Mirwais Hotak, 1715.

Map of the Hotak Empire at its height in 1728. Disputed between Hussain Hotak (Centered in Kandahar) and Ashraf Hotak (centered in Isfahan)

Afghan tribesmen in 1841, painted by British officer James Rattray

Map of Afghanistan (Emirate) and surrounding nations in 1860, following the conquest of [[Principality of Qandahar|
Kandahar]], and before the conquest of Herat.

Emir Amanullah invaded British India in 1919 and proclaimed Afghanistan's full independence thereafter. He proclaimed himself King of Afghanistan in June 1926.

King Zahir, the last reigning monarch of Afghanistan, who reigned from 1933 until 1973.

Development of the civil war from 1992 to late 2001

U.S. troops and Chinooks in Afghanistan, 2008

A map of Afghanistan showing the 2021 Taliban offensive

Taliban fighters in Kabul on a captured Humvee following the 2021 fall of Kabul.

The mountainous topography of Afghanistan

The snow leopard was the official national animal of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

A 2005 CIA map showing traditional Afghan tribal territories. Pashtun tribes form the world's largest tribal society.

Ethnolinguistic map of Afghanistan (2001)

Blue Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif is the largest mosque in Afghanistan

UNESCO Institute of Statistics Afghanistan Literacy Rate population plus15 1980–2018

The Daoud Khan Military Hospital in Kabul is one of the largest hospitals in Afghanistan

The Arg (the Presidential palace) in Kabul

U.S. representative Zalmay Khalilzad (left) meeting with Taliban leaders, Abdul Ghani Baradar, Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, Suhail Shaheen, unidentified. Doha, Qatar on 21 November 2020.

Afghanistan is divided into 34 provinces, which are further divided into a number of districts

Workers processing pomegranates (anaar), which Afghanistan is famous for in Asia

Afghan rugs are one of Afghanistan's main exports

Afghan saffron has been recognized as the world's best

Afghanistan electricity supply 1980–2019

The Minaret of Jam is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, currently under threat by erosion and flooding

The Salang Tunnel, once the highest tunnel in the world, provides a key connection between the north and south of the country

An Ariana Afghan Airlines Airbus A310 in 2006

An Afghan family near Kholm, 1939 – most Afghans are tribal

A house occupied by nomadic kochi people in Nangarhar Province

Kabul skyline, displaying both historical and contemporary buildings

Non (bread) from a local baker, the most widely consumed bread in Afghanistan

Haft Mewa (Seven Fruit Syrup) is popularly consumed during Nowruz in Afghanistan

The ancient national sport of Afghanistan, Buzkashi

Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east.

Kyrgyzstan

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Mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia.

Silk road caravansarai utilized during the Islamic Golden Age

Kyrgyz family in the village of Sary-Mogol, Osh Region

Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city, Osh, in 2018

Kyrgyzstan map of Köppen climate classification

President Sooronbay Jeenbekov at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China, June 2018

Kyrgyz soldiers conducting mine sweeping exercises.

A proportional representation of Kyrgyzstan exports, 2019

A population pyramid showing Kyrgyzstan's age distribution (2005).

The name of Kyrgyzstan rendered in the traditional script in use from 13th century to 1920.

Musicians playing traditional Kyrgyz music.

A traditional Kyrgyz manaschi performing part of the Epic of Manas at a yurt camp in Karakol

Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. Its capital and largest city is Bishkek.

Turkmenistan

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City of Çärjew in Russian Turkestan, 1890

A Turkmen man of Central Asia in traditional clothes. Photo by Prokudin-Gorsky between 1905 and 1915.

Golden statue of Saparmurat Niyazov in Ashgabat

President Berdimuhamedov with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2017

Turkmenistan map of Köppen climate classification

A proportional representation of Turkmenistan exports, 2019

Ceremony on completion of the Turkmen section of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline.

Oil platform of Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea.

The generators of the Hindukush hydro power plant

Panorama of the site of the Darvaza gas crater

Workers in the service of Maritime and River Transport of Turkmenistan

Turkmens in folk costume at the 20th Independence Day parade, 2011.

Turkmen bakshy – traditional musicians – historically are traveling singers and shamans, acting as healers and spiritual figures, providing music for celebrations of weddings, births, and other important life events.

Turkmenistan ( or ; Türkmenistan, ), also known as Turkmenia, is a landlocked country in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west.

Sogdia

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Sogdian soldier circa 338 BCE, tomb of Artaxerxes III.

Sogdians on an Achaemenid Persian relief from the Apadana of Persepolis, offering tributary gifts to the Persian king Darius I, 5th century BC

Head of a Saka warrior, as a defeated enemy of the Yuezhi, from Khalchayan, northern Bactria, 1st century BCE.

A Yuezhi (left) fighting a Sogdian behind a shield (right), Noin-Ula carpet, 1st century BC/AD.

Local coinage of Samarkand, Sogdia, with the Hepthalite tamgha Hephthalite_tamgha.jpg on the reverse.

Relief of a hunter, Varahsha, Sogdia, 5th-7th century CE.

The Sogdian merchant An Jia with a Turkic Chieftain in his yurt. 579 AD.

Ambassadors from various countries (China, Korea, Iranian and Hephthalite principalities...), paying hommage to king Varkhuman and possibly Western Turk Khagan Shekui, under the massive presence of Turkic officers and courtiers. Afrasiab murals, Samarkand, 648-651 AD.

Coin of Turgar, the last Ikhshid of Sogdia. Excavated in Penjikent, 8th century CE, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.

Chinese silk in Sogdia: Tang Dynasty emissaries at the court of the Ikhshid of Sogdia Varkhuman in Samarkand, carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons, circa 655 CE, Afrasiab murals, Samarkand.

A lion motif on Sogdian polychrome silk, 8th century AD, most likely from Bukhara.

Sogdian Huteng dancer, Xiuding temple pagoda, Anyang, Hunan, China, Tang dynasty, 7th century.

Two Buddhist monks on a mural of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves near Turpan, Xinjiang, China, 9th century AD. Albert von Le Coq (1913) assumed the blue-eyed, red-haired monk was a Tocharian, modern scholarship however identified similar Caucasian figures of [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|the same cave temple]] (No. 9) as ethnic Sogdians, who were a minority in Turpan during the Tang Dynasty in 7th–8th century and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century).

Sogdians having a toast, with females wearing Chinese headdresses. Anyang funerary bed, 550–577 AD.

A Tang Dynasty Chinese ceramic statuette of a Sogdian merchant riding on a Bactrian camel

Details of a replication of the Ambassadors' Painting from Afrasiyab, Samarkand, showing men on a camel, 7th century AD

Sogdians in a religious procession, a 5th–6th-century tomb mural discovered at Tung-wan City.

A Sogdian gilded silver dish with the image of a tiger, with clear influence from Persian Sasanian art and silverwares, 7th to 8th centuries AD

Silk road figure head, probably Sogdian, Chinese Sui Dynasty (581–618), Musée Cernuschi, Paris

A minted coin of Khunak, king of Bukhara, early 8th century, showing the crowned king on the obverse, and a Zoroastrian fire altar on the reverse

Pranidhi scene, temple 9 (Cave 20) of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Turfan, Xinjiang, China, 9th century AD, with kneeling figures praying in front of the Buddha who Albert von Le Coq assumed were Persian people (German: "Perser"), noting their Caucasian features and green eyes, and comparing the hat of the man on the left (in the green coat) to headgear worn by Sasanian Persian princes. However, modern scholarship has identified [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|praṇidhi scenes of the same temple]] (No. 9) as depicting Sogdians, who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century).

Central Asian foreigner worshipping Maitreya, Cave 188

The tomb of Wirkak, a Sogdian official in China. Built in Xi'an in 580 AD, during the Northern Zhou dynasty. Xi'an City Museum.

A Tang Dynasty sancai statuette of Sogdian merchants riding on a Bactrian camel, 723 AD, Xi'an.

Epitaph in Sogdian by the sons of Wirkak, a Sogdian merchant and official who died in China in 580 CE.

Sogdians, depicted on the Anyang funerary bed, a Sogdian sarcophagus in China during the Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577 AD). Guimet Museum.

Shiva (with trisula), attended by Sogdian devotees. Penjikent, 7th–8th century AD. Hermitage Museum.

Contract written in Sogdian for the purchase of a slave in 639 CE, Astana Tomb No. 135.

Sogdian musicians and attendants on the tomb of Wirkak, 580 AD.

Dragon-King Mabi saving traders, Cave 14, Kizil Caves

Two-headed dragon capturing traders, Cave 17

Sab leading the way for the 500 traders, Kizil Cave 17.

Sogdia (Sogdian: soɣd) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Fergana Valley

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Probable Greek soldier in the Sampul tapestry, woollen wall hanging, 3rd-2nd century BC, Sampul, Urumqi Xinjiang Museum.

Ancient cities of Bactria. Fergana, to the top right, formed a periphery to these less powerful cities and states.

Babur, the Turco-Mongol founder of the Mughal dynasty, was a native of Andijan in the Fergana Valley.

Soviet negotiations with basmachi, Fergana, 1921

Confluence of Naryn and Kara Darya seen from space (false color). Many irrigated agricultural fields can be seen.

The Syr Darya river bridge at Khujand, Tajikistan, in the far west of the Fergana Valley.

The Fergana Valley (Фергана өрөөнү; Фарғона водийси/Farg'ona vodiysi; водии Фарғона, Vodii Farg'ona) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan.

A report on Uzbekistan

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