Amir Timur Square

Central square with a giant equestrian statue of Tamerlane

A circular park in the centre of new Tashkent, ringed by Stalinist boulevards and dominated by an equestrian bronze of Amir Timur — known in the west as Tamerlane — the fourteenth-century conqueror who built his empire from Samarkand. The plinth carries his motto in four languages: "Strength is in Justice."

The square is the social heart of modern Tashkent. The grand Hotel Uzbekistan sits on one side and the Amir Timur Museum on another. Come at dusk when families gather, kids ride hired electric cars, and the fountains light up.

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The pedestal has held a series of different statues — Konstantin von Kaufman (the Russian conquerer), then Stalin, then Marx, then Karl Marx replaced by Tamerlane in 1994 when newly independent Uzbekistan needed a national hero. The trees around the square were once a parade ground for the tsarist garrison.

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