Tashkent is old. It was founded around 2,200-2,500 years ago as an oasis with a citadel on Chirchik river near the foothills of the West Tian Shan Mountains. After the city had been won consequentially by Turks, Arabs, then Turks again, Persians, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Russian tsars and then Russian bolsheviks, it’s quite diverse now in terms of architecture, culture and people. The good thing is that the Russians left the old city of Tashkent with its Muslim population, architecture, clay houses and narrow streets untouched and built a new Tashkent nearby, with wide streets and squares.
Thus, the northern half of the city represents mostly an authentic Central Asian city while the southern part resembles an Eastern European, Soviet style mixed with modern architecture. Russian language is understood pretty much everywhere in town.
A 8.0 earthquake struck Tashkent on April 26th, 1966 causing lots of destruction but thanks to mighty Soviets the city was fully reconstructed in 4 years time.
All in all, thanks too good climate, fertile lands, major trade routes like the Silk Road, Tashkent was always a developed city. Nowadays, as a capital of a modern independent state, it’s developing even faster: business-oriented skyscrapers and huge hotels are being constructed constantly, new restaurants and cafes (mainly European themed) open every day.
Although the name “Tashkent” stands for “Stone City” the town is very green: parks are not a rare, trees grow everywhere and the air is generally clean.