The most interesting facts about Uzbekistan, from one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters to the crossroad of the world’s cultures.
Fast facts
Official name: Republic of Uzbekistan
Capital city: Tashkent
Population: 30,565,411
Area: 447,400 sq km
Major languages: Uzbek, Russian, Tajik
Time zone: UTC+5 (Uzbekistan Standard Time)
– Source: CIA World Fact Book
Interesting facts about Uzbekistan
1. Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Asia. A landlocked country is surrounded by land and does not have access to the open sea. Currently, there are 45 landlocked countries in the world and five partially recognised states.
– Source: CIA World Factbook, The Telegraph
2. Uzbekistan is also one of just two doubly landlocked countries, Liechtenstein being the second. A double landlocked country is surrounded only by landlocked countries and requires the crossing of at least two national borders to reach a coastline.
– Source: CIA World Factbook
3. The country was at the heart of the historic Silk Road, the ancient trading route or “superhighway” that connected China with Europe and the Middle East.
– Source: Lonely Planet
4. Uzbekistan was occupied by Alexander the Great when he captured Samarkand in 329 BCE.
– Source: Britannica
5. The historic city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Samarkand is known as a crossroad and melting pot of the world’s cultures, with a history of over 2,500 years going back to 1500 BC. It’s most famous site is the Registan Mosque: a central square flanked by ornately tiled, mosaic-clad madrassas (historic Islamic schools).
– Source: UNESCO
6. Uzbekistan’s Silk Road sites include four of the country’s five UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Samarkand, Shakhrisyabz, Bukhara and Itchan Kala. The fifth is the Tien-Shan mountains.
– Source: UNESCO
7. During the 7th and 8th centuries, Arabs conquered Uzbekistan and converted its population to Islam.
– Source: BBC News
8. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Uzbekistan was conquered by Genghis Khan and was incorporated into the Mongol empire.
– Source: BBC News
9. Uzbekistan was ruled by Russia for nearly 200 years, as part of the Russian Empire, and then the Soviet Union, before gaining independence in 1991.
– Source: BBC News
10. During its time as a republic of the USSR from 1924 to 1991, it was known as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.
– Source: Encyclopedia.com
11. Uzbekistan is a combination of the Turkic words “uz” (self) and “bek” (master) and the Persian suffix “-stan” (country). This essentially translates as the “Land of the Free”.
– Source: CIA World Fact Book
12. Uzbekistan’s flag is striped blue, white and green with red narrow margins between the stripes. Blue represents water; white is for peace and purity; green is for nature, fertility, and new life; red represents the life force essential to all humans. In the upper corner is a white crescent moon signifying the rebirth of an independent republic and 12 white stars for the months of the year.
– Source: Britannica
13. Authoritarian President Islam Karimov ruled the country from 1989 until his death in 2016.
– Source: New York Times
14. In 1966, the capital city of Tashkent was flattened by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
– Source: Reuters
15. Every year, around one million students, doctors and government employees are forced to work in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields to pick cotton for the government.
– Source: The Economist
16. Cotton in Uzbekistan is known as “white gold”. Cotton accounts for around 7% of the country’s exports.
– Source: The Economist, OEC
17. The Aral Sea, located on the border of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, was once the world’s fourth-largest lake. Since the construction of a Soviet irrigation project in the 1960s, the lake has almost disappeared. It has been described as ‘one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters’.
– Source: NASA, United Nations
18. Uzbekistan is home to one of the world’s largest open-pit gold mine. The Muruntau Gold Mine in the Qizilqum Desert is the world’s largest open-pit gold mine and it has the second-highest level of annual production at 66 tonnes. The pit is around 3.35km by 2.5km and at least 560m deep.
– Source: Mining.com, BBC News
19. Uzbekistan has the world’s 10th largest mine reserves of gold and is the world’s 12th largest gold producer. Gold accounts for around 44% of the country’s exports.
– Source: World Gold Council, Statista, OEC
20. In Uzbekistan, at the end of a shared meal, it is common etiquette to run your hands over your face in the amin gesture to signify thanks.
– Source: Lonely Planet
21. There is a formal etiquette for pouring tea in Uzbekistan. First, it is custom to rinse out your piala (a small tea bowl) with a drop of hot tea, then return a bowlful to the pot three times before the tea is finally considered fit to drink.
– Source: Lonely Planet
22. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Uzbekistan topped the boxing medal table, winning three gold and two silver medals.
– Source: International Olympic Committee
23. Uzbekistan is the most populated country in Central Asia.
– Source: World Bank
24. The national dish of Uzbekistan is plov, a Central Asian pilaf consisting of rice and fried vegetables generally eaten for lunch.
– Source: The Guardian
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