The best museums Central Asia

Slightly in retreat from the mausoleum, the Khamza Museum was built in 1989, in tribute to the late th century Uzbek poet and composer, Khamza, who lived in the last years of his life in Chakhimardan. Many traces still testify to his contribution to town planning: construction of terraces in terraces, an aqueduct… The museum also displays all kinds of tools, instruments, furniture, clothes recovered from the inhabitants of Chakhimardan during the construction of the museum and testifying to the daily life of the Uzbeks at the beginning of the century.

The house of the 1997 th century Uzbek musician and composer, Yunus Rajabiy (1897-1976) was converted into a museum in. In the different rooms on the ground floor and on the floor, you can familiarize yourself with the artist's universe through numerous photographs and musical instruments. If you are a distinguished musician, you can spend some time deciphering the partitions: Yunus Rajabiy is indeed the first to capture traditional Uzbek music in scores. In the artist's office, you can also see a musical booklet of the Khorezm written with the Arabic notes system. For others, it will always be interesting to compare the many photographs in Tashkent with the city of today. On the first floor, a work room should allow a small orchestra to take place for visitors. No notice or comment is duplicated in English or French. But with a bit of luck, you'll be guided by the son of Yunus Rajabiy himself, who is still the owner of the places, who are not tired of telling all the stories that have touched his father's life and can tell you the biography of each character on any of the photographs of the museum. But again, in Russian or Uzbek…

The museum's fund includes the rich collection of Grand Duke Nicolas Konstantinovich Romanov who lived in Tashkent at the beginning of the last century. As a result of his unusual conduct, the tsar's cleptomane cousin, accused of many evils, reportedly reportedly «borrowed» some parts of his collection, including crown jewels, at the Palais de l'Hermitage. It is one of the five largest art galleries of CIS. European painting and sculpture, Russian, Uzbek, icons and oriental art (China, Japan, India). Several rooms are devoted to decorative art. Antique shop, carpets. If you have to visit only one museum in Tashkent, it must be this one…

The former palace of the diplomat Alexander Polovtsev, who for a time was housed in Austrian prisoners and then an administration, was transformed into a museum in 1938. Of the original pieces, there are only twelve, four of which have been restored: The reception room and the small oriental eclectic style lounge deserve to be explored. The architectural ensemble is reminiscent of a mosque, with iwan and interior courtyard, with a reception room with a mihrab which indicates the direction of Mecca. A quote from Umar Khayyâm - "The world is a two-door palace, by one one, one comes out. " - orne one of the doors of the large hall with walls full of painted stucco. Columns of carved wood support an impressive painted wood ceiling as well. Unfortunately, the central fountain was covered with marble some years ago. Just behind, the small lounge where air conditioning was smoked also suffered from the restoration. In the exhibition rooms you will see suzani (embroidered drapes), tioupé (caps embroidered) in the first room, pottery and ceramics in the second, wood sculptures, musical instruments and jewellery dating back to most of the th century. At the end of the day, you will be able to take a look at the souvenir shop that offers beautiful local crafts.

Dedicated to the timurid era and its historical heritage, the museum Flotilla Timur opened its doors in 1994. According to the curator, his architecture would be inspired by the Gour Emir, but doubt is allowed… We would rather recognize the crown of the emperor. The museum has some interesting pieces, such as an immense th century Koran, but it is mainly the replicas of Uzbekistan's monuments that attract attention. The Bibi Khanum mosque and the Gour Emir are reproduced in their state of origin, which, by visiting the museum at the end of the stay, allows a good comparison with what has been seen in the country. A model of the Taj Mahal, built in India on the order of the grandson of Babur, by the architects of Bukhara, also makes it possible to compare styles and make reconciliations. As illustrated by the paintings on the second floor, the cult of Timur is double that of Uzbekistan, which was glorified through its national hero and its inescapable President Islam Karimov.

The museum has a unique collection of Soviet avant-garde and post-avant-Garde paintings compiled by Igor Savitsky. Despite the risk of being denounced as anti-communist and being deported to Siberia, he succeeded in saving more than 90 000 works of artists repressed during the Stalinist period, works he entreposa in the archives of the, museum. , was far from Moscow and his totalitarian power, and paintings were forgotten from the world, such as a buried treasure in the desert sands. They reappeared only with perestroika and, in 1988, a first exhibition was presented at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Here we can see works by Robert Falk, Evguenni Lysenko, Liubov Popova, David Chterenberg, Alexandre Volkov, Alexandre Nikolaev, said Ousto-Moumin, Vassili Rojdestvenski or the works of Sokolov during his years of the gulag… as well as a collection of copies that belonged to Fernand Léger and include works like the fountain of the innocent. It is a treasure that alone justifies travel to. The new building, very well placed, is the fruit of the hard work of Marinika Babanazarova, and has taken almost 20 years to come. New wings should open, but within an impossible time to define at the moment. Despite the wealth of the collection exhibited, be aware that only 3% of the total works combined by Igor Savitsky have joined the museum. The rest is based on the premises of the old museum, which you can visit by appointment with the sum of $ 40, not too much in view of the cultural treasures it contains. Finally the museum has a floor dedicated to karakalpak crafts. Again, it is a unique collection of jewellery, fabrics, clothing: 8 000 pieces in total to present this unknown people, including Uzbekistan. In short, a model museum, which is to be hoped to allow a certain increase in tourism in an isolated region and outside the usual circuits.

Numerous photos and history of excavations on the hill, as well as exposure of the main pieces uncovered. The centrepiece of the museum is a th century fresco, a unique work of its kind, and one of the few available to archaeologists and historians to study the painting of the Islamic period.

It is impossible to miss this huge Soviet style Building that contrasts painfully with the Registan. The museum covers the history of Samarkand and Sogdiane from antiquity to contemporary times. Exhibition of contemporary crafts and paintings, numerous archaeological discoveries and a beautiful collection of costumes. A room is devoted to the poet Alisher Navoi, native of Herat and considered the inventor of Uzbek poetry and theatre. In a ground floor room, since 2006, there has been an original Finding in Uzbekistan: a collection of Empire furniture with a sofa, office and several chairs. This furniture was brought back from France in 1814 by Tsar Alexander I after the victory of the coalition on Napoleon. He gave a gift to one of the dignitaries in the Tsarist regime. The grandson of the latter, the Academician Belinkov in prison, but after his death, his widow decided to sell the furniture to an Uzbek kolkhoz director, Aron Moissevitch, to Moscow in 1946. He was kept in the family until 2006, when furniture was assessed, restored and left to the Samarkand Museum. Note the very beautiful office struck on each side of the "N" hidden of laurels whose Russian and Uzbek experts thought, a time, that it belonged to the Emperor Napoleon himself.

It was difficult to visit this small museum in the heart of the village of Afshana or was born in 980 Ibn Sinna, known in the West as July, and considered to be the father of modern medicine. From Bukhara station, take a shared taxi to Afshana (there is no regular bus) and then negotiate another taxi to the museum. Since 1980, and the millennium celebration of July's birth, nothing had changed in this small museum. At the initiative of the July-France Association, it was renovated, integrated into a college of medicine, and the exhibition enriched many pieces making the museum more attractive.

The large lobby features a July bust. In the centre of the exhibition room was built a piece centred on a cenotaph containing a little land of Hamdan, where Ibn Battuta died in 1037. The different niches in the room evoke the illustrious men who inspired July's work: Galien, Hippocrates, Aristotle… We also discover three fac from Canon from Medicine, July's master medical work. The second part of the exhibition illustrates the various medical techniques at the time and an interesting explanation of the techniques used to reconstruct the Visage face by Soviet scholars.

You must then take over the space dedicated to the unavoidable President Islam Karimov and the inevitable opening photos. The July-France Association and its dynamic president Marc De presented a Museum project to the Ministry of Culture in Uzbekistan in November 2007, at the 1 030 ^th anniversary ceremonies of July's Birth.

Uvaysiy, of his real name Jahon Otin, was a woman of letters and poet born in Marguilan at the end of the th century. His talent, noticed by the Khan's wife of Kokand, least him to be housed in the palace where she enseignât the letters to the Khan girls. Despite many requests, the Khan still refusât her to leave her hometown, where he secretly built for her, at the location of her house, a new home to the same as she lived in her palace. It was only at the death of the Khan that Uvaysiy could join his home where she finît her days by dedicating herself to writing poems. His descendants destroyed his house in 1968 to build a modern residence, again razed in 2006 to build a rebuilding of the orignale house, which houses some books and photographs of descendants. The only witness at the time is a pluriséculaire mulberry sitting between the entrance and the iwan of the facade. The grave of Uvaysiy lies at the back of the house. To get there, ask a taxi to drive you to the «Gastronom» supermarket, one block away.

Opened in 2007 after a solid renovation, the old Akhunbabaev Museum is now dedicated to the history of Marguilan. He has at least the merit of exiting the traditional patterns with stuffed animals and three photos dressed in duel. Organized in four halls, the exhibition presents the first traces of prehistoric housing before illustrating the history of the kingdom of Davan and the "golden age" of Marguilan, corresponding obviously to the period of Soviet occupation. There you will see a silk weaving machine, as well as traditional costumes, costumes and ceramics in the region. The last room presents the evolution of Marguilan since independence.

Devoted to the often ignored face of the founder of the Mughal Empire, the emperor and poet, this museum does not offer any particularly interesting room. On the other hand, it is situated in a madrasas built in the th century on the very site of the royal residence of Babur.

On two floors, classic presentation of the history and specialities of Andijan. On the first floor: stuffed animals, fruit, seismic measuring apparatus, drilling equipment… The second floor proves to be a little more interesting, with some archaeological parts from various sites in the vicinity: Kurgan Tepa, Erchi, Khuva… At the bottom of the room, a model in 3 D and a painting-the eye presents the city of Andijan in the th and th centuries: its huge walls and its monumental entrance. Finally, a piece is devoted to local crafts and one to the Daewoo factory, located in Asaka, south of Andijan.

A th and th century regional objects exhibition, numerous reconstructions from the prehistoric era to cotton culture, some inescapable animals stuffed, a three-dimensional map of the Ferghana Valley… The most interesting pieces are old black and white photos of Soviet conquest and the Révolte uprising. On the second floor, a room is devoted to crafts, especially Céramique ceramics.

Probably one of Uzbekistan's most beautiful museums, opened in April 2003 with the help of many partner countries, primarily France and Japan. In several well delineated and intelligent spaces, the various historical periods have been presented, from the origins of the region to the Chaybanides by Buddhism and Timur. Models of different monuments sometimes give a better overview of sites than ruins of ruins, rather frustrating, unless accompanied by an archaeologist. Films projected in English in each room are also a very good source of information not only on the history of the region, but also on past or ongoing archaeological missions. The first nine rooms bring together over 50 000 archaeological discoveries in the region. Among the most recent remarkable pieces, note the beautiful statue of Greco-bactrienne women dressed in flames. The tenth room is actually a safe: it contains many pieces of Turkmen and Turkmen coins and jewellery, or gold or silver agfhans from the Greco-bactrienne era until the th s. Deu small buttons of gold, found on the clothes of a child skeleton discovered at Fayaz Tepa and dated from the VIIIe n. B.I. have established that the site was inhabited well. before the fourth N.B.B. as it was assumed until then. The museum director, Ismoïl Temirovitch, is very available to tell stories and provide explanations.

The second floor of this huge building, located just steps from the very Soviet theatre, is dedicated to the poet and national hero Khamza. He exposes many of his manuscripts and photographs illustrating his life, from his earliest compositions to his last days in Chakhimardan passing through his trip to Mecca. Everything is written in Cyrillic, but the son of the Conservative, who has learned English for two years, is delighted to test his knowledge by accompanying tourists in their visit. In the middle of the historical photographs we will find a few posters in French, from the beginning of the century, presenting the tour of Uzbek theatre troops in France.