The best museums Uzbekistan

The museum has a unique collection of Soviet avant-garde and post-avant-garde paintings assembled by Igor Savitsky. Despite the risk of being denounced as anti-communist and being deported to Siberia, this enthusiast managed to save more than 90,000 works by artists repressed during the Stalinist period, which he stored in the archives of the Nukus Museum. Nukus was far from Moscow and its totalitarian power, and the paintings were forgotten by the world, like a treasure buried in the sands of the desert. They only reappeared with perestroika and in 1988 a first exhibition was held at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. It includes works by Robert Falk, Yevgeny Lyssenko, Liubov Popova, David Chterenberg, Alexander Volkov, Alexander Nikolaev, known as Usto-Moumin, Vasily Rojdestvenski and works by Sokolov during his years in the Gulag. There is also a collection of copies that belonged to Fernand Léger, including works such as the portal of the Fountain of the Innocents. It is a treasure that alone justifies the trip to Noukous. The museum also has a floor dedicated to Karakalpak handicrafts. Once again, it is a unique collection of jewellery, fabrics, clothing: 8,000 pieces in total to present this little-known people, including in Uzbekistan.

However, despite the great wealth of the collection on display, less than 10% of the total works collected by Igor Savitsky have joined the museum.

Unfortunately, there is so little left to see of this famous observatory that some people will "miss out", which would be a mistake, because the only view of the underground part of the giant sextant is worth the visit: an 11 m arc lined with marble parapets where the degrees are indicated. The site of the observatory was long lost in memory and was rediscovered at the beginning of the century by Viatkin, a schoolmaster with a keen interest in archaeology, whose tomb can be seen at the entrance to the site. Ulugh Begh was a scholar, poet and mathematician, considered one of the greatest astronomers of his time. While telescopes were still unknown at the time, he wrote an astronomical catalogue with the coordinates of more than 1,000 stars. He was able to determine the rotation cycle of the planet Saturn as well as the length of the stellar year with less than one minute of error. But his son, allied with religious fanatics, put an end to his work by assassinating him in 1449. Not content to make the man of science disappear, who dared to discuss the existence of God with his students, the fanatics destroyed his achievements and especially the most disrespectful: the observatory which housed the largest sextant in the world: 90 °, while the usual sextants are 60 °. The circular building, 45 m high, had three levels with walls decorated with frescoes depicting the stars and the solar system. The descriptions of the time make us bitterly regret their destruction. The whole site was ransacked, the stones used for other constructions, and the underground part of the sextant completely buried, only to be rediscovered centuries later.

The museography has been reworked. But the museum has gained in lighting and enhancement what it has lost in museographic funds. Fewer astronomy-related objects will be found here than in the old building: in particular, the ceiling with its vaulted ceiling and the astronomy tables of Uulough Begh have been lost, and the focus has shifted to a few objects from the Timurid period that are of no real interest and, above all, devoid of any explanation or connection between them. The large mural depicting the life of Uulough Begh, and in particular his assassination by his own son, has been replaced by two fairly conventional scenes that stick with the official story for which a parricide has no place in a museum. Work your guide to dig up the story!

It is here that you will see the main pieces unearthed throughout the many excavation campaigns that have marked the life of the site since the Russian conquest. In particular, you will find many period photos and the history of the excavations that have brought to light the life on Afrosyab Hill at the time of the first installations and foundations of the city. The centerpiece of the museum is a 7th century fresco known as "The Ambassadors". It is a unique work, and one of the few available to archaeologists and historians to study Sogdian painting and art. On the four walls of a house discovered by chance in 1965, while the municipality was drilling a new road, this major fresco depicts the Sogdian king Vakhourman receiving ambassadors from neighboring countries. Thus, it is China which is represented on the north wall. It shows the emperor hunting and the empress on a boat. The south wall depicts Samarkand celebrating Navrouz and the east wall depicts India, its pygmies and astrologers. Archaeologists and specialists disagree on the western wall at the moment. The hypotheses of each one are still debated. This major fresco was greatly deteriorated in places. In 2014, France has decided to finance major restoration work. These should last 8 years, under the direction of a French team. In the meantime, a copy can be seen at the Museum of the Peoples of Uzbekistan in Tashkent.

The former palace of the diplomat Alexander Polovtsev was turned into a museum in 1938. Of the 24 original parts, only a dozen remain, of which only some have been restored. The reception room and the small lounge in an eclectic oriental style deserve a visit. The architectural ensemble is reminiscent of a mosque, with an iwan and an inner courtyard, the reception hall even having a mihrab indicating the direction of Mecca. A quote from Umar Khayyam - "The world is a palace with two doors, through one you enter, through the other you leave. " - adorns one of the doors of the great hall with walls entirely covered with painted stucco. Carved wooden columns support an impressive painted wooden ceiling. The central fountain was unfortunately covered with marble a few years ago. Just behind it, the small salon where the hookah was smoked has also suffered from the restoration. In the exhibition rooms you will see suzani (embroidered drapes) from different periods, tioupé (embroidered caps) in the first room, pottery and ceramics in the second room, wood carvings, musical instruments and jewellery mostly from the 20th century. At the end of the route, you can linger at the souvenir shop which offers beautiful local handicrafts. There is also a small café in the courtyard for a hot drink or refreshment at the end of the visit.

The museum presents the evolution of the Uzbek Olympic Committee since 1992 and houses some sports treasures. Of course, Uzbekistan is not a great Olympic nation. However, the Uzbek government attaches particular importance to sport, as evidenced by the many stadiums and sports facilities built since independence. You can enjoy a walk along the Ankhor Canal to admire the facade. The museum café offers a pleasant moment on the canal.

This museum has been funded by UNESCO to promote the crafts and culture of the Boysun region since it was inscribed on the list of intangible heritage. The building is charming and reproduces traditional adobe houses and techniques. Workshops are arranged around a central courtyard and exhibit the weaving and embroidery techniques of the region. In the rooms, you can discover the leather work, ceramics or specific Boysun weavings.

It brings together copies of 15th and 16th century manuscripts of the poet Alisher Navoi (1441-1501) and other Central Asian poets. There will also be beautiful antique miniatures, murals illustrating the life of the poet and the Timurids, as well as a complete representation of the Ulugh Begh Observatory. The museum deserves to be a little airy and renovated, but it is still interesting for some of the rooms and can be visited in the old-fashioned way, with the attendants checking the ticket in each room and then turning on the lights?

The former Lenin Museum became the Museum of the History of the Peoples of Uzbekistan in 1995. The very Soviet structure hosts more than 2,000^m2 of a fascinating collection that will delight lovers of prehistory, but also of ancient, medieval or contemporary history.

The visit begins with the rooms devoted to the Stone Age, with the results of numerous excavations carried out throughout the country. One can in particular linger on the reconstituted face of a Neanderthal child, discovered in the 1940s in Teshik Tash, in Sourkhan Daria, by the Soviet archaeologist Gerasimov. This is followed by some reconstructions of scenes of life at that time, based on the excavations of the two oldest sites uncovered in Uzbekistan: Djarkutan (^19th century B.C.) and Sapalli Tepe (^17th century B.C.), both located in the province of Sourkhan Daria. Moving forward in time, we then move on to a reconstruction of the Zoroastrian temple of Qoy Qirilgan, particularly interesting for those who have visited its ruins in the Khorezm. It is estimated today that the region could have been the birthplace of this religion. A large space is then devoted to the conquests of Alexander the Great in Central Asia. The Greek emperor built no less than five Alexandria in the region, the last of which was at the extreme limit of his empire, in Khodjent, in present-day Tajikistan.

The results of the excavations at Kok Tepe, one of the largest archaeological sites in Uzbekistan and the second capital of Sogdiana after Samarkand, will also be detailed. In particular, the burial site of a Saka princess was found there, as well as a large quantity of ornaments and gold buttons. You will also see the treasures discovered in Kara Tepe and Fayaz Tepe, the Buddhist sites near Termez. The gold and ceramic Buddhas give an idea of the splendor that reigned in these sacred monasteries in the ^first century.

After the exhibition devoted to the Kushan period, the visitor cannot but be fascinated by the great fresco of Varakhsha, uncovered on the historical site of Samarkand, representing a Sogdian prince mounted on a white elephant, attacked by two leopards during a hunting party. The Afrosyab Museum in Samarkand has a copy of this piece, but it is the original.

Next are the departments devoted to the two golden ages of Uzbekistan: the Samanid period and the Timurid period. There are exhibits dedicated to the great scholars of the time: the poet Alisher Navoi, the mathematician Al-Khorezmi, the philosopher Al-Termezi, the astronomers Ulugh Begh and Al-Ferghani. The architecture is not left out with models presenting reconstructions of buildings like a splendid model of the Bibi Khanum mosque in Samarkand.

The second floor of the museum is devoted to the Russian invasion and Uzbekistan's war efforts to help its big brother Russia in its "great patriotic war", the name given to the Second World War.

The exhibition ends on the contemporary period, with some photos of the attacks perpetrated in Tashkent by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in 1999-2000, and photographs of the main technical, industrial or political achievements of Uzbekistan since independence. It is the propaganda part, common to all the country's museums, that we pass quickly enough.

The Tashkent Museum of Fine Arts is the largest museum in the city, and certainly the most interesting. Entirely renovated between 2019 and 2021, it exhibits extraordinary collections, including the particularly rich collection of Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich Romanov who lived in Tashkent at the beginning of the last century. Exiled because of his less than exemplary conduct, the kleptomaniac cousin of the Tsar is said to have "borrowed" some pieces from the collection of his illustrious cousin, including crown jewels. It is one of the five largest art museums in the CIS and will delight all those who wish to learn or sharpen their knowledge of Uzbek, Central Asian and Russian art.

Five floors await you, each with dozens of pieces in chronological order. One goes from the first ancient potteries to contemporary Uzbek art, passing by nomadic craftsmanship or Soviet realism. Entire rooms are also devoted to pieces acquired by the museum, founded in 1918: Asian collections, particularly Japanese, Chinese and Korean, mainly composed of porcelain.

The painting galleries are particularly rich, with paintings from the ^eighteenth, ^nineteenth and ^twentieth centuries from donations made by Moscow at the very beginning of the Soviet period in gratitude for the efforts made by Uzbekistan in the Aral Sea to save the USSR from famine.

There are three or four temporary exhibitions per year, of high quality, featuring the work of international artists.

Dedicated to the Timurid era and its historical legacy, the Amur Timur Museum opened its doors in 1996, on the occasion of the 660th anniversary of the birth of the great emperor. According to the curator, its architecture is inspired by the Gur Emir of Samarkand, but there is room for doubt... One would rather recognize Tamerlan's crown. The museum possesses some interesting pieces, such as a huge Koran dating from the 7th century, but it is mainly the replicas of Uzbekistan's monuments that attract attention. The Bibi Khanum Mosque and the Gur Emir are reproduced in their original state, which, when you visit the museum at the end of your stay, allows a good comparison with what you will have seen during your stay. A model of the Taj Mahal, built on the order of Babur's grandson, the last of the Timurids chased by the Uzbeks and left to create a new empire in India, by architects from Bukhara, also allows you to compare styles and make comparisons. As can be seen in the paintings exhibited on the second floor, the cult of Tamerlan doubles as that of Uzbekistan, glorified through its national hero and its inescapable president Islam Karimov. These paintings by contemporary artists are extremely poor in style but interesting because they show that the concept of Soviet-style propaganda is far from having disappeared with the collapse of the USSR, and that Uzbekistan under Karimov was certainly one of its best pupils!

The house of the Tajik alter ego of the poet Khamza, Sadriddin Aïni (1878-1954), dates back to 1937 and provides an insight into the work and daily life of the writer and poet who became president of Tajikistan (he is still highly honoured in this country today). He is notably the author of the novel The Slaves of Bukhara, a masterpiece that is still awaiting its translation into French, like his other novels unfortunately. In addition to period household furniture, the exhibition presents numerous photographs and reproductions of his poems. Very inspiring.

The must-see museum exhibits numerous photographs of the Registan in the 19th century, before its restoration, when it was a market. The exhibitions are located in the former house of a Jewish merchant. A whole part of the collection shows the life of the local Jewish community, numerous before the departures to Israel and the United States that followed independence. An interesting visit to see yet another facet of Samarkand's cultural and social richness.

Uvaysiy, whose real name was Jahon Otin, was a woman of letters and poetess born in Marguilan at the end of the 18th century. Her talent, noticed by the wife of the Khan of Kokand, earned her lodging in the palace where she taught letters to the Khan's daughters. It was only after the death of the khan that Uvaysiy was able to return to Marguilan, where she ended her days writing poetry. The reconstructed house-museum houses a few books and photos. The only witness of the period is a mulberry tree, several centuries old, standing between the entrance and the iwan on the façade.

The old Akhunbabaev museum has the merit of going beyond traditional patterns, including presentation of stuffed animals and some pictures of duelling. The exhibition presents the first traces of prehistoric habitation of the city before illustrating the history of the kingdom of Davan and then the "golden age" of Marguilan, obviously corresponding to the period of Soviet occupation. There will be a silk weaving machine, as well as traditional and ceramic clothing from the region.

A very classic regional museum, with an exhibition of regional objects from the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous reconstructions from the prehistoric era to cotton cultivation, some unavoidable stuffed animals in very poor condition, a three-dimensional map of the Ferghana valley... The most interesting pieces are old black and white photos of the Soviet conquest and the Andijan revolt. On the second floor, don't miss a room dedicated to handicrafts, especially Rishtan ceramics.

In the centre of Rishtan you can visit the workshop of Rustam Ousmanov. Roustam has paid a lot of attention to the decoration of the place and has nicely arranged a small museum of ceramics, actually his personal collection with some pieces from Afghanistan, Iran, and of course from all regions of Uzbekistan. Some of them are antiques. His work to preserve local crafts has been rewarded by Unesco, which has awarded him the label of excellence.

Certainly one of the most interesting museums in the country for lovers of ancient history and archaeology, fed by the many excavations carried out in the region. In several well-defined and intelligently arranged spaces, the different historical periods are presented, from the origins of the region to the Chaybanids, passing through Buddhism and Tamerlan. Models of the various monuments sometimes give a better overview of the sites than visits to the ruins, which are rather frustrating unless accompanied by an archaeologist. The films shown in English in each room are also a very good source of information not only on the history of the region, but also on the history of past or current archaeological missions. The first nine rooms contain a total of over 50,000 archaeological finds from the region. Among the most recent remarkable pieces, note the beautiful statuette of a Greco-Bactrian woman dressed in flames. The tenth room is in fact a vault: it contains numerous coins and jewelry Turkmen, Iranian or Agfhan in gold or silver dating from the Greco-Bactrian era until the ^nineteenth century. Two small gold buttons, found on the clothes of a child's skeleton discovered at Fayaz Tepa and dated to the ^8th century B.C., have made it possible to establish that the site was inhabited well before the ^4th century B.C., as had been assumed until then.

In the purest Soviet tradition, this house where the poet Khamza, whose real name was Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi, was born and grew up, was transformed into a museum in 1959. Traditional house of old Kokand, it is the occasion to discover the alleys of the old town and the habitat of the beginning of the 20th century. The courtyard shelters a hundred-year-old mulberry tree while the living rooms are divided between a space for men and a space for women. We discover the house which saw the beginnings of the emblematic poet of Uzbek social realism and is still considered the father of modern poetry in Uzbekistan, having broken with Arab and Persian legends and integrated Russian and Western rules into themes that remain oriental. An early supporter of the Bolsheviks, he was transformed into a national hero by Soviet power, alongside Tamara Khanum, one of the first dancers to remove her veil in public, with whom he led a small travelling theatre troupe. Yet many still consider him a traitor to the Uzbek nation and to Islam. He was stoned to death by clerics during his stay at Chakhimardan, a tragic death in 1929, the year he turned 40. The same year as Nurkhon Youlacheva, another dancer who had removed her veil and also died by stoning. The town of Chakhimardan, a small Uzbek enclave in Kyrgyz territory, is home to one of the few statues in the country dedicated to the memory of the poet, enthroned in the place where the poet was executed by the rabble.

This small museum is erected in the heart of the village of Afshana where Ibn Sina, better known as Avicenna, was born in 980, one of the greatest scholars of the Muslim world and still considered the father of modern medicine with his famous Canon of Medicine. Since 1980, and the celebration of the millennium of Avicenna's birth, nothing had changed in this small museum. It has now been renovated, integrated into a medical college, and equipped with an exhibition enriched with many works that make it more attractive. The vast entrance hall displays a magnificent bust of Avicenna sculpted by Klinski. In the centre of the exhibition hall was built a room centred on a cenotaph containing some of the earth of Hamadan, where Ibn Sina died in 1037. The various niches in the room evoke the illustrious men who inspired Avicenna's work: Galen, Hippocrates, Aristotle... Tools and instruments from the laboratory and pharmacy of the period are on display, including a small ceramic jar with a female nipple-shaped spout, touching the ancestor of the bottle dating from the 9th century. We also discover three facsimiles of the Canon of Medicine, a masterpiece of Avicenna's medical work, translated into Latin in the 12th century by Gérard de Crémone (a gift from the Avicenna-France association). The second part of the exhibition illustrates the various medical techniques of the time and an interesting explanation of the techniques used by Soviet scholars to reconstruct Avicenna's face.

On two floors, classic presentation of the history and specialities of Andijan. On the ^first floor: stuffed animals, fruits, seismic measuring devices used during the earthquake, drilling equipment... The second floor is a little more interesting, with some archaeological finds from various sites in the area: Kurgan Tepa, Erchi, Kuva... At the back of the room, a 3D model and a trompe l'oeil painting present the city of Andijan in the 14th and 15th centuries: its gigantic walls and monumental entrance.