Tashkent Museum under the State History Museum of Uzbekistan — Attraction in Tashkent

One of the must to visit museums in Tashkent, it has historical artifacts like tombs that were used in pre islamic Tashkent . It has the display of the Tashkent fortress. The gates formed a part of the city fortifications, which had been constructed around the new settlement on the banks of the Bozsuv canal (the canal starts from the right shore of the Chirchik river) at the intersection of caravan roads from the Tien Shan Mountains. The number of gates varied over time. Fifteenth-century sources mention that the gates were named after local tribes, as each tribe was put in charge of guarding a specific gate. In the mid-19th century the city wall was rebuilt by the Kokand governor (bekliyarbek). There were twelve gates: Labzak, Takhtapul, Karasaray, Sagban, Chagatay, Kukcha, Samarkand, Kamalan, Beshagach, Koymas, Kokand and Kashgar. Some of the gates were named after the cities they led to (e.g. Samarkand darvaza means Samarkand gate, as it was located at the beginning of the road to Samarkand). Other gates were given the names of the main streets inside the city (e.g., Chagatay darvaza). The gates were made of spruce wood and framed with artistically wrought iron. Each gate had a gatehouse for a tax-collector (zakatchi) and security guard (darvazabon). The gates were open from daybreak till sunset. At nighttime the gates were locked and guarded by darvazabons. After 1867 the army camp at Chimgan became an acclimatization station for military newcomers from Russia. During the Soviet period it was rebuilt to adapt its premises for use as a summer camp for children (now a recreation camp where campers still live at former military casernes). The surrounding area is still referred to as the "Twelve-Keys".

The keys were delivered to Saint Petersburg, where they were kept at the Suvorov Military Museum. In 1933 they were returned to Tashkent. One can see one of the keys at the History Museum. Others are stored at the National Bank. Each of the keys has an inscription engraved with the name of a particular gate and the date when a...

Hm, I don't understand why some of these other reviews say this is a 'must' see.

Maybe I'm not into over half the exhibits being broken pieces of pottery. Besides that, here are my short reasons for why you should spend your 50K soms for beer or something better: -Some exhibits don't even have working lighting and you can't even see what's there -others have flickering lights -the huge video screen when I entered -there are a good chunk of employees and 0 other visitors when I went on a Friday -2 floors of exhibits. Not much -some exhibits don't even have the preserved book/pages they're trying to show. Instead, there's a photograph of it inside the case -Maybe it's a cultural/language barrier, but I was called out and told to go a specific way thru the exhibit. Guys, this museum is not that big, and I've never been told in a museum in my life that this open space floor plan required me to go in a certain path that isn't marked anywhere. This rubbed me the wrong way. In one case I was trying to take a seat so I can put my hat into my backpack.

To balance things out, there are placards in English for the exhibits, (but they're not very informative) and the inside is clean and not crumbling, although the fluorescent lighting makes it look like a horror movie. I expected better from a state museum in the capitol city of a country.

Really, spend your money on beer or be dazzled at the Amir Timur Museum for a better experience. I did not learn anything new...

A very small museum. It costs 50,000 soms for foreigners, and honestly it’s not worth the price. The screen displays only show a single page with a picture from Chrome all over the museum, no interactive features, and very little actual information. There are only brief descriptions about cities, nothing more.

The most unpleasant part was the staff. I was waiting for the restroom to be free. One of the employees came out and I tried to enter, she stopped me and said something rude in Uzbek. I couldn’t understand her. She was mad, talking rude and refused to let me in. Thinking it might be staff-only, I went to the front desk to ask if there was a restroom for visitors. They took me to the exact same restroom but said: “Use the men’s one, there’s no water in the women’s.” However, I had just heard that one employee flush and wash her hands. It seems the women’s restroom is kept for staff, leaving female visitors to use the men’s. 🙂 Also, there were no...