Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a country in Asia.

It has no sea. Much of it is dry and sunny. The capital city is called Tashkent.

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia. It lies mostly between two big rivers: the Syr Darya in the northeast and the Amu Darya in the southwest. Nearly four-fifths of the land, in the west, is dry desert and plain, while the east has mountains and fertile valleys where most people live.

For centuries the Silk Road, a network of trade routes between East and West, passed through cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara. Uzbekistan was part of the Soviet Union until it declared independence on August 31, 1991. Its capital is Tashkent, and about 37.1 million people lived there in 2025.

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country of Central Asia, lying mainly between the Syr Darya (the ancient Jaxartes) to the northeast and the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus) to the southwest, though the rivers only partly form its borders. The autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan occupies the western third. The Soviet government created the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924, and Uzbekistan declared independence on 31 August 1991.

Nearly four-fifths of the territory, in the sun-dried west, is desert and plain, while the east is crossed by ranges of the western Tien Shan and holds the Fergana Valley, the most populous area in Central Asia. The World Bank put the population at 37,053,428 in 2025; about half live in towns and cities, and Uzbeks make up more than four-fifths of the people.

Samarkand and Bukhara are very old cities.

They have big buildings covered in blue tiles. Traders with goods stopped there long ago. Tashkent is a big, modern city.

Samarkand was founded in the 600s BCE. It reached its height in the 1300s and 1400s, when many of its great mosques and mausoleums were built, and the astronomer Ulugh Beg founded a famous observatory there.

Bukhara is more than 2,000 years old. Its old center is one of the most complete medieval cities in Central Asia, with the tomb of Ismail Samani from the 900s and the tall Kalyan minaret. Tashkent, the capital, also has a history going back to ancient times, and Khiva and Kokand were centers of their own kingdoms.

UNESCO describes Samarkand, founded as Afrasiab in the 7th century BCE in an oasis of the Zeravshan valley, as a crossroads of world cultures that reached its height as the Timurid capital in the 14th and 15th centuries; its monuments include the Registan mosque and madrasas, the Bibi-Khanum Mosque, the Shah-i-Zinda ensemble, the Gur-Emir and Ulugh Beg's observatory. The Historic Centre of Bukhara, on the Silk Roads and more than 2,000 years old, is among the best-preserved Islamic cities of Central Asia from the 10th to the 17th century, with the 10th-century tomb of Ismail Samani and the 11th-century Poi-Kalyan minaret.

Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent all have histories reaching back to ancient times, and Andijon, Khiva and Kokand have been regional centers for centuries; Khiva, under the Qonghirat dynasty until 1920, was left a 'museum capital' of monuments. Soviet planners built newer towns such as Chirchiq, Angren and Navoi near mineral and energy resources.

Most of Uzbekistan is a hot, dry desert.

In the east, there are tall mountains. A big lake called the Aral Sea has almost dried up. Summers are very hot.

Deserts and dry plains, including the Kyzylkum Desert, cover nearly four-fifths of Uzbekistan. In the far east, the ranges of the western Tien Shan rise high, and between the mountains lies the fertile Fergana Valley. Rain is scarce, only about 200 millimeters a year, and summer days in Tashkent often pass 40 °C.

In the northwest lies the Aral Sea. It was once the fourth largest inland body of water in the world, but so much river water was taken for farms and factories that it has lost as much as nine-tenths of its water and area since 1961.

In the northwest the Turan Plain rises only 60–90 m above sea level around the Aral Sea, merging south into the Kyzylkum Desert and west into the Ustyurt Plateau of salt marshes, sinkholes and caverns. Far to the east, the Pskem, Chatkal and Kurama ranges of the western Tien Shan rise above the Fergana Valley, and the Zeravshan valley opens westward to Samarkand and Bukhara. Rainfall averages only about 200 mm, mostly in winter and spring; July averages 32 °C, and many of the 600-plus streams vanish into evaporation and irrigation.

Overuse of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya for farming and industry has devastated the Aral Sea, once the world's fourth largest inland body of water: it has lost as much as nine-tenths of its volume and area since 1961, its level fell some 14 m by 1992, and salinization, pollution from insecticides and fertilizers, and salty dust have harmed the fishing industry and people's health around it. Forests cover less than 8 percent of the land.

Foxes and wolves live in the deserts.

Bears and wild goats live high in the mountains. People raise silkworms to make silk. Silkworms eat mulberry leaves.

In the deserts and plains of Uzbekistan live rodents, foxes and wolves, and sometimes gazelles and antelopes. Higher up, in the mountains, there are wild boars, roe deer, bears, Siberian goats and even some lynx.

People in Uzbekistan have raised silkworms since the 300s, feeding them mulberry leaves from trees planted along streets and ditches. The Fergana Valley is especially famous for its silk. Farmers also raise Karakul sheep and grow a great deal of cotton.

Britannica lists rodents, foxes, wolves and occasional gazelles and antelopes in the deserts and plains, and boars, roe deer, bears, wolves, Siberian goats and some lynx in the high mountains. Vegetation varies with altitude: thin desert sedge and grass in the western lowlands, grass on the eastern foothills, and forest and brushwood on the hills.

Domesticated animals matter greatly: growers have raised silkworms systematically since the 4th century, fed on mulberry leaves from trees planted along streets and ditches, and the Fergana Valley is noted for silk; Karakul sheep are another specialty. Uzbekistan, the most northerly of the world's great cotton regions, is among the leading cotton producers, although irrigation has fallen into disfavor as the great rivers have been depleted.

About 37.1 million people live in Uzbekistan.

Most people speak Uzbek. Many families live near rivers and canals. Fruit trees and vineyards grow in the valleys.

Uzbeks make up more than four out of five people in Uzbekistan, and Tajiks, Kazakhs, Tatars, Russians and Karakalpaks live there too. Uzbek, a Turkic language, is the official language, and Karakalpak is also official in Karakalpakstan. About one person in seven speaks Russian.

Most people live in the east, in oases and foothill valleys crisscrossed by canals, orchards and vineyards. Houses often face away from the sun and open onto shady, tree-filled courtyards. Classical music called maqom is handed down from master musicians to their students.

Uzbeks, more than four-fifths of the population, speak a language of the southeastern (Chagatai) branch of Turkic, and Britannica calls them the least Russified of the Turkic peoples once under Soviet rule. Karakalpak is official in Karakalpakstan, spoken by about half a million people, and about one-seventh of the population speaks Russian. About three-fourths of people are Sunni Muslims and slightly less than one-tenth Eastern Orthodox Christians.

The population is concentrated in the east, in canal-laced oases and in the Fergana Valley, the most populous area of Central Asia, while parts of Karakalpakstan face depopulation from the Aral disaster. The territory produced the 11th-century scholar al-Bīrūnī, the 15th-century astronomer Ulugh Beg and the poet ʿAlī Shīr Navāʾī, who advanced Turkic literature. Maqom cycles are passed from masters to apprentices and performed live on radio, television and in concert halls.