Muruntau is the reason Zarafshan exists. The mine pit east of the city is one of the largest open holes in the ground on earth — a stepped amphitheatre of grey rock spiralling down to a point nearly six hundred metres below the desert floor. Enormous mining trucks crawl along the access roads like slow yellow beetles, looking ridiculously small against the scale of it.
Tours, when they run at all, are arranged through the operating company NMMC and require advance permission. Most visitors content themselves with the view from the rim, accessible (with the right pass) from the road east of town. The whole operation, including the cyanide leach plant and the auxiliary city of Zarafshan itself, was originally a Soviet showpiece and still has a strict closed-city feel.