Samarkand has been declared the cultural capital of the Commonwealth this year. The honorary status was transferred to the Uzbek city from St. Petersburg. This should attract even more tourists to Samarkand, although more than a million travelers come there every year.
The ancient city is almost 2,800 years old, it is the same age as Rome and Athens. It is located in the heart of the Great Silk Road. In the 7th century, it became an important trade and political center of Central Asia. History and culture intersect here.
This is the tourist mecca of Uzbekistan. Travelers from all over the world come here. Admire the carved terracotta made of red clay, touch the stones that are a thousand years old, or take a picture for memory against the background of mosaics.
Registan Square is surrounded by madrassas built in the XV and XVII centuries. The airport is in the form of a book of constellations by the great scientist Mirzo Ulugbek, who lived and worked here. There’s history everywhere. People come here for oriental exotics and gastronomic delights. What is one Siab bazaar worth – the largest and oldest in Uzbekistan.
A couple of years ago, there were agricultural fields in this place. The historical and ethnographic park “Eternal City” has grown on an area of 260 hectares; it contains a wealth of architecture and national folklore throughout Central Asia. New highways, modern infrastructure and the Silk Road Samarkand complex, translated as the Great Silk Road, were built from the congress center and hotels. The international meetings “Cultural heritage of Uzbekistan – the foundation of a new Renaissance” are held here.
“The issues of preserving, popularizing and studying the cultural heritage of Uzbekistan have been elevated to the rank of state policy in the new Uzbekistan by our esteemed President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Russia was the first to respond to our calls to work with us,” said Firdavs Abdukhalikov, Chairman of the Board of the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Popularization of the Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan.
Orientalists, archaeologists, and museum workers come to Samarkand from all over the world – about 400 scientists from 40 countries. They organize exhibitions and bring rare copies of cultural works of the peoples of Central Asia.
“The uniqueness of this Quran lies in the fact that it is one of the oldest surviving copies of the manuscript. And this makes it a very important source for scientific research,” said Charlotte Kramer, president of the publishing house in Austria.
World cinema stars also come here. Kevin Spacey, Emir Kusturica, Frederick Diefenthal, Vladimir Khotinenko. And director Timur Bekmambetov signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Cinematography Agency of Uzbekistan in Samarkand.
Samarkand has been declared the cultural capital of the Commonwealth. This status will give the great city the opportunity to become a tourist gateway not only to Uzbekistan, but also to the whole of Central Asia.
A source МИР24
