Tashkent is the capital, and largest city of Uzbekistan.
It is an ancient city on the Great Silk Road from China to Europe. Once the fourth-largest city in the Soviet Union, Tashkent was rebuilt in a Soviet style after the devastating 1966 earthquake, and little remains from its ancient Central Asian past. The city has a mixture of modern new office buildings, hotels, parks, and crumbling Soviet-style apartment blocks. The streets are generally clean and there are not too many potholes in the city centre. Further out, the infrastructure is not so good.
Since the start of the millennium the Uzbek government has embarked on a major reconstruction program in the centre of the city. Roads, government buildings and parks have all been reconstructed (many historical buildings and sites were bulldozed in the process). To the visitor, the new city looks very impressive with its wide avenues, parks and modern buildings, although many of the local residents have yet to see any improvement in their residential areas.
Tashkent has a population of 2.6 million people (2020).