Alay Bazaar

Alay dekhkan bazaar in Tashkent is one of the oldest and most popular markets in the city. Its name comes from the name of the local mountain Oloy, located on the territory of the Great Silk Road, going from East Turkestan through the Fergana Valley. According to the second version, the name comes from the Türkic word “alai”, meaning “soldier”, since the market was once located in the immediate vicinity of the soldiers' settlements and traded on it, mainly, things necessary for the soldiers.

History The first mentions of the emergence of a spontaneous market in the vicinity of Mount Oloy date back to the 12th – 13th centuries. Until the 19th century, local residents living nearby, Kazakhs and Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kirghiz, conducted their trade here. They sold a variety of handicrafts - silk fabrics and pottery, as well as spices, vegetables and fruits, and even livestock. At this time, settlements began to appear around the Alai market, which had become popular, and gradually it became one of the most prestigious places of trade in Uzbekistan, thanks, among other things, to its location between the Old City and the new districts of Tashkent.