Toshkent or Tashkent, city, eastern Uzbekistan, capital of the country and of
Toshkent Wiloyat (Toshkent Oblast). Located in an oasis near the Chirchik River
in a cotton- and fruit-growing region, Toshkent is a major industrial and
transportation center and was the largest city of the former Soviet Central
Asia. It has industries producing machinery, cotton and silk textiles,
chemicals, tobacco products, and furniture. A center of Uzbek culture, Toshkent
has several large libraries and is the seat of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences and
numerous other institutions of higher learning. A subway system was opened here
in 1977.
The first mention of Toshkent dates from the 7th century AD, although it was
probably founded by the 1st century BC. The city was conquered, successively, by
the Arabs in the 8th century, by Genghis Khan in the early 13th century, and by
Tamerlane in the 14th century. It was annexed by Russia in 1865, and a new
Russian city was built around the older town. This city, whose name means "Stone
Fortress" - a title adopted in the 11th century, though Tashkent's roots date
back to the dawn of the first millennia A.D. - has the look of a modern
metropolis. Little remains of the old city, thanks to a leveling April, 1966,
earthquake and the subsequent Soviet rebuilding In 1966. Toshkent became the
capital of independent Uzbekistan in 1991. Population is about 2,400,000.
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