Karakalpakstan, also spelled Kara-Kalpakstan or Qaraqalpaqstan, also called Karakalpakiya, Uzbek Qoraqalpoghistan, autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, situated southeast and southwest of the Aral Sea.On the east Karakalpakstan occupies the western half of the Kyzylkum Desert, a vast plain covered with shifting sands. The central part consists of the valley and delta of the Amu Darya (river), a low-lying area intersected by watercourses and canals. On the west the republic includes the southeastern part of the Ustyurt Plateau, a slightly undulating area characterized by flat summits rising to some 958 feet (292 m) above sea level. The climate is marked by cool winters and hot summers. Average rainfall is only 3 to 4 inches (75 to 100 mm).

The economy is predominantly agricultural. The industrial sector, while limited, includes light manufacturing, refineries that process oil from nearby petroleum fields, several building-materials plants that utilize the limestone, gypsum, asbestos, marble, and quartzite of the area, and a power station in Takhiatosh. Cotton is cultivated along the Amu Darya and in its delta and is processed at Chimbay, Qŭnghirot, Beruniy, Takhtakupyr, Khŭjayli, and Mangit. A well-developed system of irrigation canals supplies water from the Amu Darya to the crops. Besides cotton, crops include alfalfa, rice, and corn (maize). Cattle and Karakul sheep are raised in the Kyzylkum Desert.

Tashkent, Uzbek Toshkent, capital of Uzbekistan and the largest city in Central Asia. Tashkent lies in the northeastern part of the country. It is situated at an elevation of 1,475 to 1,575 feet (450 to 480 metres) in the Chirchiq River valley west of the Chatkal Mountains and is intersected by a series of canals from the Chirchiq River. The city probably dates from the 2nd or the 1st century BCE and was variously known as Dzhadzh, Chachkent, Shashkent, and Binkent; the name Tashkent, which means “Stone Village” in Uzbek, was first mentioned in the 11th century.

Today Tashkent is the main economic and cultural centre of Central Asia. Cotton is the chief crop of the region in which it is situated. Wheat, rice, jute, vegetables, and melons are also grown, and silkworms are bred. The city lies in the most industrially developed part of Uzbekistan, and much of its industry is in some way connected with cotton—the manufacture of agricultural and textile machinery and of cotton textiles. It also has various food-processing industries. The city’s numerous institutions of higher education and research establishments include the university, founded in 1920, and various institutes of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, set up in 1943. Also notable is the Navoi Public Library. The city’s numerous theatres, Uzbek and Russian, include the Navoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet. There are also a Palace of the Arts and several museums, parks, and stadiums. The city has been extensively rebuilt since an earthquake in 1966 left 300,000 people homeless. A few 15th- and 16th-century religious buildings and mausoleums survive, including the Barakkhan Madrasah (religious school). Uzbeks constitute the bulk of the population, with Russians being a significant minority.

Surxondaryo Region old spelling Surkhandarya Region is a viloyat (region) of Uzbekistan, located in the extreme south-east of the country. Established on March 6, 1941, it borders on Qashqadaryo Region internally, and Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan externally, going anticlockwise from the north. It takes its name from the river Surxondaryo, that flows through the region. It covers an area of 20,100 km². The population is estimated at 1,925,100 (end of 2005 data), with 80% living in rural areas.According to official data, 83% of the population are Uzbeks and 1% Tajiks but non-official statistics show Surxondaryo is a Persian-speaking area, because most Tajiks of Uzbekistan are concentrated in the Surxondaryo, Samarkand and Bukhara regions.The highest point of the Region and also of Uzbekistan is Khazrati Sulton peak reaching 4,643 m/15,233 ft in Gissar Range.

It embraces the basins of the Sherabad and Surkhan rivers, right-bank tributaries of the Amu River, which forms the frontier with Afghanistan in the south. In the east are the Babatag Mountains, and in the north and west are the lofty Gissar Range and its spurs, the Baysuntau and Kugitangtau, which act as a barrier against cold air masses from the north and make the oblast the warmest part of Uzbekistan, with relatively mild winters and hot, dry summers.

Sirdaryo also spelled as Syrdarya is a city in Sirdaryo Region of Uzbekistan. It serves as the administrative center of Sirdaryo District.The Syr Darya is formed by the confluence of the Naryn and Qoradaryo rivers in the eastern Fergana Valley and generally flows northwest until it empties into the Aral Sea. With a length of 1,374 miles (2,212 km)—1,876 miles (3,019 km) including the Naryn—the Syr Darya is the longest river in Central Asia, but it carries less water than the Amu Darya. Its watershed is not clearly defined except in its upper course, where it drains a basin of 178,000 square miles (462,000 square km). Most of the Syr Darya’s tributaries in the Fergana Valley fail to reach it because they are used fully for irrigation.

There are a number of hydroelectric power stations on the Syr Darya and its tributaries, of which the largest are the Farhod (in Uzbekistan), Qayroqqum (Tajikistan), and Shardara (Kazakhstan) stations on the main stream and, in Uzbekistan, the Chorwoq station on the Chirchiq River and the Uchqŭrghon station on the Naryn River. There are also dams in Kazakhstan at Qyzylorda and Qazaly. The Toktogul hydroelectric power station, which was constructed on the Naryn River in the 1970s and expanded in the ’80s, regulates the river’s flow. As much as 5,000,000 acres (2,000,000 hectares) of land are irrigated by the Syr Darya and its tributaries, with cotton the chief crop in the Fergana Valley and the Syr Darya’s middle course and rice in the river’s lower reaches.

Samarkand, Uzbek Samarqand, city in east-central Uzbekistan that is one of the oldest cities of Central Asia. Known as Maracanda in the 4th century BCE, it was the capital of Sogdiana and was captured by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE. The city was later ruled by Central Asian Turks (6th century CE), the Arabs (8th century), the Samanids of Iran (9th–10th century), and various Turkic peoples (11th–13th century) before it was annexed by the Khwarezm-Shah dynasty (early 13th century) and destroyed by the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan (1220). After it revolted against its Mongol rulers (1365), Samarkand became the capital of the empire of Timur (Tamerlane), who made the city the most important economic and cultural centre in Central Asia. Samarkand was conquered by Uzbeks in 1500 and became part of the khanate of Bukhara. By the 18th century it had declined, and from the 1720s to the 1770s it was uninhabited. Only after it became a provincial capital of the Russian Empire (1887) and a railroad centre did it recover economically. It was briefly (1924–36) the capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Samarkand today consists of an old city dating from medieval times and a new section built after the Russian conquest of the area in the 19th century.

Samarkand derived its commercial importance in ancient and medieval times from its location at the junction of trade routes from China and India. With the arrival of the railway in 1888, Samarkand became an important centre for the export of wine, dried and fresh fruits, cotton, rice, silk, and leather. The city’s industry is now based primarily on agriculture, with cotton ginning, silk spinning and weaving, fruit canning, and the production of wine, clothing, leather and footwear, and tobacco. The manufacture of tractor and automobile parts and cinema apparatus is also economically important.

Qashqadaryo Region is one of the regions of Uzbekistan, located in the south-eastern part of the country in the basin of the Qashqadaryo River and on the western slopes of the Pamir-Alay mountains. It borders with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Samarqand Region, Bukhara Region and Surxondaryo Region. It covers an area of 28,400 km². The population is estimated to be around 2,067,000 (2007),with some 73% living in rural areas.

A monument to someone ancient at the exit from the city. The most interesting monuments of this road are the Jam Obelisks, reminiscent of the tragic Jam campaign of the Russian army in 1878: it was contemplated as a demonstration of strength to the British, the possibility of an invasion from the north to India, but the British never took this threat seriously. An epidemic of cholera started among soldiers sent march to the border, that mowed half of the detachment and left a few mass graves marked by these very obelisks on the road. It seems that only one obelisk in Sarykul village, 60 kilometers from Samarkand, has survived to our days.

A low pass through the hilly ridge, but in front of Zerafshan ridge there are several villages and Karatepe reservoir:These hills were nicknamed the Demon Plateau for the numerous rocks of unusual shapes, the most famous of which is Shaitan-Zhiga, which means the Devil’s Helmet, stands aside from the road closer to Urgut. But there is something interesting here as well, including a stone-heart, seeing off those who travel to the South.Wandering around you can see other rocks, such as a stone wave:Drivers of shared taxis, taking tourists make a stop here practically without requests.The road slowly and very smoothly rises from Samarkand to the pass Takhta-Karacha (1788m), that makes it even more surprising at some point to understand that you are already high in the mountains, and descent to other side is more picturesque as the road winds along a steep serpentine:Fan mountains are seen on the left, ‘growing’ to the west into the Zerafshan ridge. They are already located in Tajikistan and are very popular with tourists because of their unique combination of height and accessibility, there are even peaks over 5000 m among them:Descent from Takhta-Karacha pass.Ahead is Qashqadaryo steppe, beyond which is seen 4-kilometer Baysuntau Range which separates Qashqadaryofrom Surxondaryo, the ancient Sogdiana from an even older Bactria. Both the Baysun and Zerafshan ranges are the spurs of Gissar, and Qashqadaryo is actually the valley of the river of the same name, wedging in between them. This is a peculiarity of the south – both its regions are named after the rivers that fall into the Amu Darya, although logically they could be named respectively Qarshi and Termez regions. But the mountains on three sides of the Qashqadaryo certainly benefit – it is not a desert, but a fertile steppe, the granary of Maveranakhr, the region that has become the richest and most influential part of the Bukhara emirate with the decline of trade routes.

Navoiy, also spelled Navoi, is a city and the capital of Navoiy Region in the southwestern part of Uzbekistan. It is located at an altitude of 382 meters. The city is named after Ali-Shir Nava’i.The vast province of Navoi covers almost a quarter of Uzbekistan’s territory but includes just a fraction of the country’s population, as much of the region is covered by the inhospitable Kyzylkum Desert. Despite the arid climate, cotton is still grown here, though Navoi’s real income comes from what lies beneath the ground: natural gas, oil and precious metals.

For short-term visitors, Navoi Province offers camel trekking and desert safaris, Bronze Age petroglyphs and medieval caravanserais. Lake Aidarkul is one of the best birdwatching sites in Uzbekistan, and it is possible to stay in yurts along the shore.

Both the province and the provincial capital take their name from the Timurid poet and politician Alisher Navoi. Navoi is 30-something city that has replaced desert with urban sprawl, it was refounded and renamed only in 1958. Just a few kilometres along a wide highway divide the Uzbek mud walled houses of Karmana and the high-rise workers’ blocks of Navoi. Guides point proudly to the streets, offices and parks of progress, while an industrial zone of electrochemical works chokes out the environmental cost. The town makes its money from mining and processing minerals (including gold), natural gas, and producing chemical fertilisers. The majority of foreigners coming here are on business, though you may also pass through en route to Karmana and Nurata.

Namangan is a city in eastern Uzbekistan. It is the administrative, economic, and cultural center of Namangan Region. Namangan is located in the northern edge of the Fergana Valley, less than 30 km from the Kyrgyzstan border. The city is served by Namangan Airport.The first mention of the settlement dates from the end of the 15th century. By the mid-18th century, its many craftsmen made it one of the foremost cities in the Fergana Valley. In the same century, it became part of the khanate of Kokand and the centre of a political unit. Industry processing local agricultural raw materials, particularly cotton, began to develop after the Fergana Valley was annexed by Russia in 1876, and Namangan is now known for its food and other light industries.

Namangan has been an important craft and trade center in the Fergana Valley since the 17th century. Many factories were built in the city during Soviet times. During World War II, industrial production in Namangan increased fivefold compared with that of 1926–1927. Currently, Namangan is mainly a center for light industry, especially in food. The officially registered population of the city was 475,700 in 2014. Uzbeks are the largest ethnic group.

Xorazm Region or Khorezm Region as it is still more commonly known, is a viloyat (region) of Uzbekistan located in the northwest of the country in the lower reaches of the Amu-Darya River. It borders with Turkmenistan, Karakalpakstan, and Bukhara Region. It covers an area of 6,464 square kilometres (2,496 sq mi). The population is estimated to be around 1,776,700, with some 80% living in rural areas.

View of the central market area of Urgench from the fifth floor of the Hamkor Bank building. In the background the blue and white building of the “Gipermarktes”, the largest shopping centre in Urgench.Khorezm Region is divided into 10 administrative districts. The capital is Urgench (pop est 135,000). Other major towns include Xonqa, Khiva, Shovot, and Pitnak.The climate is a typically arid continental climate, with cold winters and extremely hot, dry summers.The city of Khiva in Khorezm Region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with world-famous architectural monuments, making Khiva one of the main centers for international tourism in the country.