Tashkent Museums
Tashkent Museums
Tashkent has a wide range of different museums to be explored. Some of them are already from the Soviet period, but most are new from the period of Islam Karimov. The overall quality of the museums in Tashkent is good in the Central Asian context.
State Museum of History of Uzbekistan
The State Museum of the History of Uzbekistan is one of the oldest museums of both Tashkent and in all of Central Asia. It used to be the Lenin Museum but it was later transformed into the State History Museum of Uzbekistan.
The museum was opened in July 1876 under its original name of the People’s Museum of Turkestan, initiated by the Russian scientists and enthusiasts of natural history, anthropology and ethnography. The museum contains a lot of old artifacts with over 250 000 archeological, numismatic and ethnographic exhibits and archive materials.
- Address: 3 Buyuk Turon Street, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Tashkent museum of Victims of Repressions
The museum of victims of repressions has collected the memories from the darker pages of Uzbekistan’s history and especially from the time of Central Asian colonization by the tsarist Russia to the political repressions of the 1930s. You will be able to identify this beautiful and traditionally decorated building already from afar (northeast from Japanese garden) from its open mosaic patterns of its two celestial blue domes.
The museum of victims of repressions has several exhibition halls displaying different periods like the 1860s, when the Russian Empire was waging its colonial war in Central Asia, the conquerors took control over the uprisings of the people struggling for the freedom of their land. In Soviet times, after the October Revolution, the authorities destroyed not only Uzbekistan’s best minds that cherished hope for an independent state, but also those who were only suspected of dissidence.
Stalin’s regime headed the bloodiest period in the history of Uzbekistan. Thousands of people were arrested and killed, while the rest died in the camps labeled as enemies of the people & state. The 1980s also saw more than 800 criminal cases under what was called the “Cotton case” initiated in Uzbekistan where the people were convicted for the undersupply of cotton.
The park where the museum is located is also beautiful with the fountains and ornamented decorations. Museum of victims of repressions is also close to the Tashkent TV-Tower and a visit can be easily combined with the panoramic views of the tower.
- Address: Str Amir Temur, pl. Shahidlar Khotirasi, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Tashkent museum of Applied Arts
Museum of Applied Arts which is housed in the former home of Imperial Russian diplomat Alexander Polovtsev, who was an enthusiastic collector of handicrafts. This tsarist diplomat expressed his appreciation of Uzbek architecture by having his residence built by masters from Bukhara, Samarkand, Khiva, Ferghana and Tashkent. However, he was transferred from Tashkent before completion of his house in 1907, so he never saw the finished courtyard or verandas and reception halls, vibrant with color and wooden carvings.
The first public exhibition was held here in 1927, and it was listed as a national collection a decade later. The museum collection contains several thousand pieces of art, which fully explain the history of the development of crafts in Uzbekistan, such as chasing, jewelry, Uzbek suzani, carpets, skullcaps, miniatures and paintings on wood, woodcarving and ceramics, as well as the original technique of gold embroidery. Furthermore, here you can find information of the ancient handicraft practices: weaving, gold embroidery, ceramics and even folk instruments. Masterclasses in all these types of applied arts are often held here.
- Address: 15 Rakatboshi Street, Tashkent 100031, Uzbekistan
Tashkent Amir Timur Museum
Amir Timur (Tamerlane) Museum is also known as the Timurid Museum. State Museum of History of Timurids has opened in Tashkent in 1996 for the 660-year anniversary of Amir Timur and it stands in the very center of Tashkent in the shape of a 3- story dome, in accordance with the style of famous local landmarks and the oriental style. The Amir Timur museum contains about 5 thousand exhibits that date back to his and his dynasty’s reign.
The museum also presents Amir Timur’s family, his coming to power, military campaigns, diplomatic and trade relations, milestones in the development of the city, education and science. There are also exhibits associated with members of the Timurid dynasty: weapons, maps, coins, miniatures, manuscripts, pottery and jewelry.
The interior is richly decorated with marble, unique paintings and gold leaf. On the walls of the halls, a fresco depicts the life of Tamerlane, as well as paintings that convey the atmosphere of those times. The highlight of the Museum is a crystal chandelier with a height of 8,5 meters.
- Address: 13 Amir Temur Avenue, Tashkent 100000, Uzbekistan
Tashkent Railway Museum
The open-air railway museum offers a fascinating collection of rail transport. The transport exhibited here has actively operated in Uzbekistan as well as in other Central Asia regions. The museum resembles a km-long park with mulberry trees.
The museum holds a collection of diesel and steam locomotives powered by engines with a steam boiler, electric locomotives powered by electric motors, freight and passenger railway carriages, and models of repair and construction equipment, self-propelled rolling stock, and railway equipment. Here you can find railways made in countries such as Russia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland and the USA.
- Address: 16 Turkiston Street, Tashkent
Oqsaroy & Islam Karimov Museum
Until recently, the building housing the Islam Karimov museum was one of the most closed and inaccessible locations of Tashkent for ordinary people as even the street along the residence was blocked. The museum was opened in 2017 and is located on the Afrosiab street of Tashkent and is well known under the name “Oqsaroy Residence” as previously this building was the Oqsaroy Palace, meaning White Palace and served as the working residence of the president during Karimov’s era.
It is also the place where death sentences for humans were declared. There are 2 rooms, of which the first one contains photographs of president Karimov, mainly from the official functions, while the second room has a series of wild surrealist paintings of Karimov and his wife. The complex has a beautiful garden with walking paths and flower beds. A bronze monument to Islam Karimov stands on a high pedestal at the entrance.
- Address: 18 Afrosiab Street, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Tashkent geological museum
Tashkent geological museum exhibits transport you as far as tens of millions of years into the past. The tour of this museum starts from a small courtyard where the exhibits already start from with traces of pterodactyls carved on stones. The Tashkent geology museum expositions museum contain more than 40 thousand different exhibits. The museum itself consists of 12 rooms, which cover topics on mineralogy, paleontology, the history of geology of Uzbekistan, ancient mining and geological research of Uzbekistan.
Fossils of ancient mollusks, various fossil remains of different organisms and other traces of life found on the territory of Uzbekistan are presented in the hall of paleontology. Among these exhibits, you can also see a reproduction of a dinosaur skeleton, the remains of various invertebrates, mammoths, their teeth and vertebrae and plants.
Other Tashkent sights
Page updated 7.11.2022
