Uzbekistan Map

Uzbekistan is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world (the other is Liechtenstein): every one of its neighbours, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, is itself landlocked. The nearest open ocean is more than 1,000 km away. With about 37 million people (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate), it has the largest population in Central Asia, and its capital, Tashkent, is the region's biggest city. The country stretches about 1,400 km from the dried-out bed of the Aral Sea in the west to the crowded Fergana Valley in the east.

Two rivers, a desert and a vanishing sea

Most of Uzbekistan is flat and dry. The Kyzylkum ("red sand") Desert fills the land between the country's two great rivers, the Amu Darya to the south-west and the Syr Darya to the north-east. Both rise in the mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and once flowed into the Aral Sea. From the 1960s Soviet planners diverted so much of their water to irrigate cotton that the sea, once the world's fourth-largest lake, broke into separate basins. The Uzbek southern part has mostly turned into a new salt-and-sand desert, the Aralkum. At Moynaq, a former fishing port in the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, rusting trawlers now sit on sand far from any shoreline.

The land rises to the east and south-east into spurs of the Tian Shan and the Pamir-Alay. The highest point, Khazret Sultan (4,643 m), is in the Hissar Range on the border with Tajikistan. The Chatkal and Western Tian Shan mountains above Tashkent are part of a cross-border UNESCO natural site shared with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Fergana Valley

Uzbekistan's far east is the Fergana Valley, a fertile basin ringed by mountains and shared with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is the most densely settled part of Central Asia, and its three Uzbek regional capitals, Andijan, Namangan and Fergana, are among the country's largest cities. The Soviet-era borders through the valley left a tangle of enclaves, such as the Uzbek exclaves of Sokh and Shakhimardan inside Kyrgyzstan. Relations have improved markedly: Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan completed their border delimitation in 2023, and in March 2025 the leaders of all three countries signed a treaty in Khujand fixing the point where their borders meet.

Silk Road cities

• Tashkent - The capital, home to about 3.2 million people (national statistics committee, 2025, city figure). Largely rebuilt after the 1966 earthquake, it has broad Soviet avenues, the Chorsu bazaar and a metro opened in 1977 with famously ornate stations.
• Samarkand - Timur's capital in the 14th century. The Registan, three madrasas facing one square, and the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis are its best-known monuments. It hosted the UNESCO General Conference in 2025.
• Bukhara - A historic centre of Islamic learning whose old town keeps the Kalyan Minaret (1127), the Ark fortress and dozens of madrasas and caravanserais.
• Khiva - The walled inner town of Itchan Kala, near the Amu Darya in the Khorezm region, was the first site in Central Asia added to the World Heritage List (1990).
• Shakhrisabz - Timur's birthplace south of Samarkand, with the ruins of his Ak-Saray palace.

Uzbekistan now has eight UNESCO World Heritage sites. Besides the four historic cities and the Western Tian Shan, they include two cross-border sites added in 2023 (the Zarafshan-Karakum Silk Road corridor and the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan) and, since July 2026, a group of Soviet-era modernist buildings in Tashkent.

Regions and government

The country is divided into 12 regions (viloyatlar), the Republic of Karakalpakstan, which covers the north-west and has its own constitution, and the capital city of Tashkent. Uzbekistan is a presidential republic. Islam Karimov led it from independence in 1991 until his death in 2016. His successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, made the currency convertible, eased the hard border regime with neighbours and opened the country to tourism. Cotton is still widely grown, but the International Labour Organization reported in 2022 that systemic forced labour had ended in the cotton harvest. A new constitution adopted by referendum in 2023 extended presidential terms to seven years.

Climate and when to visit

The climate is sharply continental. Summers in the desert lowlands regularly pass 40°C, and Bukhara and Khiva can be very uncomfortable in July and August. Winters are cold, with frost and occasional snow in Tashkent and Samarkand. The best times to travel are April to early June and September to October, when the Silk Road cities are mild and the markets are full of fruit. Most rain falls in winter and spring.

Getting around and regional links

The Afrosiyob high-speed train links Tashkent with Samarkand in about two hours and continues to Bukhara, which makes the classic Silk Road route easy without flying. Uzbekistan sits at the centre of Central Asia's road and rail network and is working with neighbours on new corridors that would end its isolation from the sea: a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, on which construction began in late 2024, and a proposed trans-Afghan line from Termez towards Pakistan's ports. The country is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Interesting Facts

• The scholar al-Khwarizmi, whose name gave us the word "algorithm", came from Khorezm, the oasis around Khiva, and the physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was born near Bukhara.
• Uzbek has used a Latin alphabet officially since 1993, though Cyrillic is still common on signs and in print, and Russian is widely spoken in the cities.
• Plov, rice cooked with carrots, onions and mutton in a huge cauldron, is the national dish, and the tradition was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2016.
• Navruz, the spring new year on 21 March, is the biggest public holiday.