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00:01I'm embarking on a thrilling new railway adventure in Central Asia.
00:06Exploring the ancient Silk Road.
00:08This really is for me a dream come true.
00:11And a crossroads of civilizations.
00:13Amazing aromas.
00:15Where East met West.
00:17It is extraordinarily beautiful.
00:21I'll explore ancient cities.
00:23What splendor.
00:26Encounter breathtaking Islamic art.
00:28Brutalist Soviet architecture.
00:32And the doors begin to open.
00:35And magnificent railways.
00:37A legendary city deserves a great railway station.
00:41On my journey I'll see how since independence.
00:44Uzbekistan is shaping a modern identity.
00:47What a pleasure to meet you.
01:05On this journey I'm in Uzbekistan.
01:10My beautiful Afrosyob train has brought me in great comfort to a gleaming terminal in Tashkent.
01:19I'm following the route of the old Silk Road, which for centuries ran from China in the east to Europe
01:26in the west.
01:29Located in the middle of Central Asia, Uzbekistan is a landlocked country bordered by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
01:40And at just under 450,000 square kilometers, it's almost twice the size of the United Kingdom.
01:49Originally populated by nomadic tribes, it's been the seat of great empires.
01:54From the silk trading Sogdians to the Mongols under Genghis Khan and the Timurids under the conqueror we know as
02:01Tamerlane.
02:02It was part of the Russian Empire, then the Soviet Union, finally gaining independence in 1991.
02:10Today it's the most populous country of Central Asia, with 37 million inhabitants.
02:16Ethnic Uzbeks make up 80% of the population, with mostly Tajiks, Kazakhs and Russians making up the rest.
02:24I'm beginning in the capital, Tashkent, and will then travel on the high-speed railway to Samarkand,
02:30a city filled with UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Silk Road treasures.
02:36I'll travel on to one of the best-preserved medieval Islamic cities in the world, Bukhara,
02:42and end in Navoy, surrounded by the vast desert of Kizilkum.
02:50I start at the magnificent northern station in Tashkent.
02:55The speed of railway terminus here since 1899,
02:58and this building was put up in the 1950s.
03:02It has that Soviet touch, but with very important Asian details.
03:07Notice the pointed arches and the beautiful mosaics,
03:10and I arrive in a city of broad avenues and roaring traffic,
03:14for this is the capital of Uzbekistan.
03:28To start my tour of Tashkent, I'm making a beeline for a place which is the heart of the city.
03:36Housed in a striking building constructed in 1980, this is Chorsu Bazaar.
03:55A market is often a great place to start a city tour, and this one is just so vibrant, so
04:02completely full of life.
04:07The stores are supplied by a never-ending stream of trolleys, like a supply chain manned by fresh fruits.
04:17Market forces.
04:30Tashkent is not only the capital of Uzbekistan, it's also the biggest city,
04:34with a population of three million officially, and perhaps many, many more.
04:39And in antiquity, it stood on the Silk Road.
04:44This market is called Chorsu, which means confluence, and that is a reminder of all the cultures and peoples
04:53that flowed into here when this was a meeting point of trade.
04:58And there has been a market on this spot for 800 years or more.
05:04And in the Soviet era, it was given this flying saucer-like dome decorated with traditional Uzbek art.
05:14And it's one of the principal architectural statements of the Soviet Union in Central Asia.
05:21And so it's a marriage of the ancient and the modern, and I must say I am impressed.
05:31To help me navigate through this overwhelming place, I'm joined by Camilla Jalalova, a Tashkent resident and city guide.
05:39Camilla, this marvellous, bustling market, it feels like a great place to understand Tashkent, is that right?
05:47It is. That is the soul of the city.
05:49That is one of the main parts of the city where different cultures, different religions could be combined and meet
05:57each other.
05:59And Tashkent was on the Silk Road. Maybe it wasn't a single road, it was a number of different possible
06:05routes.
06:05What is your definition of the Silk Road?
06:08Silk Road, from our point of view, was the network of caravans which started from Xi'an in the territory
06:17of Central Asia.
06:18The longest part of the Great Silk Road was exactly in the territory of Central Asia.
06:24There was no real one caravan which started from one part of the Great Silk Road and finished on the
06:30other side.
06:31So there was an intersection and there were numbers of groups which exchanged with the goods in different places.
06:39Yes. So all the way along the route, people were doing deals all the time.
06:44Of course, priority was the Silk, but throughout the whole Silk Road we have different goods, spices, jewelers, weapons and
06:55lots of religious, lots of cultures and traditions and habits being introduced at that period of time.
07:03It's exciting, isn't it? Because we think of globalisation as a very modern concept.
07:07But here you're describing a world where goods really move all the way around the globe, where ideas move around
07:14the globe, where religions are at least exposed around the globe. Extraordinary.
07:18It is. The Silk Road operated for over 1,500 years until the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the
07:27West in the mid-15th century.
07:29The flow of people and goods through this land has left Uzbekistan with a diverse population and cuisine.
07:38Everything is so beautifully presented, isn't it?
07:41Yes. And very fresh and very delicious.
07:45Hello. Hello. Hello.
07:47Saffron. Saffron. Saffron is Iran.
07:50From Iran. Very good.
07:51Very good. Cardamom.
07:54Very, very good.
07:56Such an aroma. Beautiful.
07:57Very, very good.
07:58And these are things, I guess, that would have been traded along the Silk Road.
08:02Can you imagine? These things were completely unknown in Europe.
08:06They must have seemed so exotic, so fabulous.
08:08I thought I knew these fragrances, but these are so fresh, so perfect.
08:13It's as though I'm sampling them for the first time in my life.
08:20Agriculture makes up a quarter of Uzbekistan's economy.
08:23And I find locally grown lemons, grapes, figs, and one of my favourite fruits, pomegranates.
08:31Is it possible to have a... A juice?
08:38A very effective press.
08:41That is like one of the fruits of the paradise.
08:51My goodness, isn't that the most amazing colour?
08:54Yeah. It is.
08:59It's so delicious. It's so sweet. So healthy. No wonder it's a fruit of paradise.
09:10It's advised to visit the market on an empty stomach, especially to indulge at the street food strip known as
09:17Glutton's Row.
09:19Camilla, this is a fabulous place, obviously, where people come to get their lunch.
09:23But such a number of exotic products, most of these things I don't even recognise.
09:29So here we can find all varieties of Uzbek cuisine.
09:35It started from barbecue, deeply fried fish and chicken.
09:40And here we have horse meat pasta. Very delicious.
09:45Oh.
09:46So you can try.
09:48Rahmat, rahmat.
09:49Rahmat, rahmat.
09:50Rahmat.
09:53Mmm.
09:55Horse meat noodle.
09:57It's really good.
10:01It's really good.
10:02Uzbek cuisine incorporates Russian, Tajik, Uyghur, even Korean dishes.
10:07One of the most popular foods is hanum, a vegetarian dumpling, which the same stall holder in this market has
10:15served for over 20 years.
10:17What's that?
10:20Rahmat.
10:21Rahmat.
10:22What is that?
10:24What is that?
10:25Michael.
10:26Ah, Michael.
10:27Michael.
10:27Michael.
10:28Michael.
10:28Michael.
10:39No wonder there is such a lime to buy. It's delicious.
10:42I'm tasting tomato, and dough, and lots of onion. It's good, isn't it?
10:48Very delicious.
10:58From the bustling commerce of Chosu Market,
11:01we are now heading to the city's ancient religious centre.
11:08Uzbekistan is officially a secular country,
11:11but the vast majority of the population practices Islam,
11:14which spread to Uzbekistan in the days of the Silk Road.
11:20Tashkent is a city of contrasting areas,
11:24and I am now at the very heart of the old city,
11:28the Hazrat Imam, the Holy Imam.
11:31I'm surrounded by buildings connected with the Muslim faith.
11:35A new mosque, a library, the old mosque.
11:40Beyond that, the Islamic centre of civilisation under construction
11:43and a mosque dating to the 16th century.
11:47Islam arrived here in the 7th century
11:51and enjoyed its golden age between the 9th and the 11th centuries,
11:57when the cities of Central Asia were noted for their learning
12:01and, in particular, their expertise in astronomy.
12:04And thanks to that prestige, Tashkent today is the custodian of highly prized relics.
12:13The library of the Muim Mubarak Madrasa, an old religious school,
12:18houses a revered ancient manuscript, one of the greatest treasures of Islam.
12:28Shown the
12:28Showing it to me is the head of the library, Kamiluddin Mahamov.
12:32As-salamu alaykum.
12:34Wa alaykum as-salamu.
12:36How are you?
12:36Thank you very much for your welcome to this very special place.
12:42We're in the presence of a very ancient Koran.
12:46Is this one of the oldest Korans in the world?
12:53This Koran manuscript belongs to the 7th century.
12:57We can surely consider this one of the most ancient manuscripts.
13:02Of Koran in the world.
13:04And during the reign of the 3rd caliph whose name was Khalif Usman.
13:09Some legends say that he ordered 4, 6 or 7 copies.
13:14Each of these books were sent to different countries.
13:19And we can say that one of those books can be this one.
13:24Since this remarkable book was created so many centuries ago.
13:28Where has this Koran been in those hundreds of years?
13:33This Koran was brought to Samarkand by Tamerland in 14th century.
13:41It was kept in Samarkand until 1869.
13:46During the Russian times it was taken to Saint Petersburg.
13:49And only in 1924, 100 years ago, it was brought back to Uzbekistan.
13:56Is it a huge privilege for Tashkent to have this magnificent ancient Koran?
14:03Of course, we are not only Tashkent people but the whole people of Uzbekistan proud of having this very manuscript
14:10of Koran.
14:28To explore more of the city I head underground, to use Tashkent's metro system, the oldest subway in Central Asia.
14:37It was built when Uzbekistan was a Soviet socialist republic.
14:42The policy at the time stipulated that a city received a subway system
14:46only if it had over one million citizens,
14:49a figure reached in Tashkent in the 1960s.
14:53Work on the metro system began in 1972,
14:56and today it is an attraction in itself.
15:02If you've ever seen the metro in Moscow,
15:05either in pictures or in person,
15:07you will know that the Soviet Union built lavish underground systems
15:12that also served as nuclear attack shelters spread across the entire city.
15:19Now, Tashkent was destroyed by an earthquake in 1966,
15:22and the Soviet leader Brezhnev visited,
15:25and he promised that the resources of the entire country
15:28would be used to rebuild the city.
15:31And one of the consequences of that is the metro system,
15:35which is decorated with chandeliers and frescoes and mosaics.
15:41And it's not changed all that much.
15:43The grandiose depiction of Karl Marx has been removed,
15:48and Lenin's station has been renamed.
15:55The network consists of four lines and 48 stations,
15:59each with a different theme.
16:05Until 2018, photography on the system was banned,
16:09so the beauty of these stations was hidden from the outside world.
16:16I'm travelling on the Uzbekistan line,
16:20and at Alisha-Navoy station,
16:23I'll change to the Chilin-Tsar line.
16:28A quirk of the Tashkent metro system
16:31is that when you change line, you also change station.
16:35But just one escalator takes me from Alisha-Navoy
16:39to Bakhtakor station.
16:48Now, this is cotton picker station,
16:51because cotton is a very important industry in Uzbekistan.
16:55Although it's rarely been free from controversy,
16:58the irrigation pretty much drained the Aral Sea,
17:01causing an ecological disaster.
17:02And in Soviet times, members of the Uzbek government
17:06exaggerated the production figures and were arrested.
17:09And then the industry has been accused
17:11of using child labour and forced labour.
17:15Today, it has been declared free of those vile practices,
17:19and so the cotton flower gleams white and pure.
17:33The red Chilin-Tsar line was Tashkent's first metro,
17:37opened in 1977.
17:39It conveys me to Amir Timur Square,
17:42named after Tamerlane, the Turkic warrior,
17:45the nation's greatest hero,
17:47who ruled the region in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
17:59This place reflects the changing face of Tashkent.
18:02And here I meet Alexander Fyodorov,
18:05a graphic designer and champion of Tashkent's modernist architecture.
18:12Alexander, hello.
18:13Oh, hello.
18:14I'm Michael.
18:14I'm Alexander.
18:17Here we are under the statue of Tamerlane,
18:20as we call him in English,
18:21the great warrior, the great emperor.
18:22Yeah, yeah.
18:23When Uzbekistan was independent in 1991,
18:28the government says we need historical figure to inspire us.
18:34The Tamerlane showing on this hand
18:36and a bright future of Uzbekistan.
18:39A way forward.
18:40Yeah, yeah.
18:41Now, tell me about some of the architecture around the square.
18:44Are there various styles of architecture here?
18:46Yeah.
18:47Here we have all the architecture from the 19th century till the present days.
18:54We have the, when the Russian Empire came, the colonial modern style.
18:59Stalinist Empire style, like a tower with a clock.
19:03After that, the modernism, like a hotel Uzbekistan.
19:07And after that, the Karim of Empire style, the Palace of Forms.
19:11And many architects say that Tashkent is a capital of the Soviet modernism.
19:19The city became a focus of modernism after one defining event.
19:23An earthquake of 5.2 magnitude hit Tashkent in 1966, destroying or damaging up to 80% of the buildings.
19:32The Soviet authorities rebuilt the city according to a modernist master plan
19:37with massive buildings made from the material of the day, concrete.
19:43One enduring icon is the 17-storey Hotel Uzbekistan.
19:49Alexander, tell me about the architectural style of the Hotel Uzbekistan.
19:54It's a project of 1974 by local architects, Ilyamir Port.
19:59Local architects, Moscow architects, making a mix of the international style modernism
20:05with the original details of the national architecture of Uzbekistan.
20:11And they're making this building as a brutally big volume with the national style sunshade lentils.
20:19It's called by the Tajik word panjara.
20:21So this form across the building, this lattice work, this derives from traditional architecture?
20:29Yeah.
20:29And this oriental form, mixing with the brutal building, it's a Tashkent modernism.
20:51The reminders of Tashkent's Soviet past are everywhere.
20:57As I return to the city's metro system, I stop at a station that marks a proud moment in Soviet
21:03history.
21:12Cosmonaut station features Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first man and woman in space.
21:20He in 1961, she in 1963.
21:24And as I well remember, although these were Soviet achievements, they inspired the whole world, communist and capitalist alike.
21:34Valentina had risen from being a textile worker to a space pilot at the age of 26.
21:40She was awarded hero of the Soviet Union.
21:45She left the military with the rank of major general and she went into politics.
21:49She was elected to the Duma or Russian parliament.
21:53And then she voted for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
21:57And so she is sanctioned in the Western world, but not removed from Cosmonaut station.
22:08Uzbekistan gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
22:13But many continue to speak Russian alongside Uzbek.
22:17Its population has boomed from 8.5 million in 1960 to over 37 million today.
22:26The demographics of Uzbekistan are amazing.
22:31A tenth of the population is under age five.
22:34And more than a half are younger than 30.
22:38And it's hard to imagine the energy and the potential of such a young population.
22:44They must present a challenge as well.
22:46You've got to educate and train, employ and satisfy a restless mass of youth.
22:53And I'm going to discuss the Uzbeks of the future with a noted TikToker.
23:00Asal Saparbaeva is a former medal-winning national gymnast,
23:05who under the social media handle of Lytus,
23:07now makes content related to sport and female empowerment.
23:12She has over six million followers on TikTok alone.
23:15I've come to downtown Tashkent to meet her.
23:20Hello. Welcome.
23:22Thank you very much. Are you Asal?
23:23Yes, I'm Asal.
23:25Oh. Oh, wow.
23:32What a pleasure to meet you.
23:33Nice to meet you.
23:35Oh, come here. Thank you.
23:36Oh, excuse me, Asal.
23:39I have a present for you.
23:41This is Chapan.
23:42That looks very smart.
23:45Yes.
23:46Oh, thank you, Asal.
23:47This is national dress for men in Uzbekistan.
23:52I feel very proud to wear this, Asal.
23:54Yeah.
23:55Very proud indeed.
23:56Oh, it's beautiful.
23:57Look at that.
24:03I've been looking at the statistics for Uzbekistan.
24:06There are so many young people here.
24:11The young people in our country want to show themselves on the international level.
24:17To show the potential of our country, the potential of our younger generation.
24:22They're very active in social media.
24:24Now, in your case, you are a woman with a career.
24:28You're continuing your career after marriage.
24:30So this is the example that you're giving to other women.
24:36Yes, of course, we follow certain traditional values.
24:40This is in our blood.
24:41This is our roots, which we should respect and keep,
24:45because it brings the stability in the family and the society.
24:49But of course, we also try to modernize the society through our influence.
24:56I see that our message is to motivate girls to be more active,
25:00particularly in sports,
25:02so they can find a way in this life to fulfill themselves.
25:09Now, being in the 1% in Uzbekistan,
25:13in my age group,
25:15I don't really understand TikTok.
25:16Would you please show me how you make your content?
25:19Oh, okay, no problem.
25:21I have some ideas for you.
25:24Thank you very much.
25:34Asal makes her social media content with her videography crew,
25:38which includes her husband as director and a stunt team.
25:41Yo!
25:45So the stuntman has come into his own.
25:47He's become a British climber.
25:50And here.
25:51Good.
25:53Good.
25:55Good.
25:55Let's go.
25:56Good.
25:57Good.
25:57Good.
25:58For today's clip, Asal plays a street cleaner who flies on her broom.
26:07And then, with the backdrop of the city's iconic TV tower,
26:11it's time for my entrance.
26:14You, tourist.
26:15I'm a tourist, right?
26:16Yes.
26:17And take photo on this tower.
26:20A selfie?
26:21Do a selfie, yeah.
26:22Action!
26:23I need to take a selfie of myself with that radio tower.
26:28Oh, sorry.
26:29Can I help you?
26:30Oh, how sweet of you.
26:33Oh, yeah.
26:33Please, thank you.
26:35Okay.
26:36Okay.
26:38One sec.
26:40Oh, wait one minute, okay?
26:42Okay.
26:47This is present for you.
26:49One, two, three, up.
26:52Oh, very good.
26:54Now to evaluate my social media debut.
26:58Let's have a look.
26:59Very fast.
27:02Okay.
27:04Oh, you're very good in that scene.
27:12Oh, that's how it works.
27:15That's so clever.
27:16Well done.
27:17That is brilliant.
27:19Oh, such an honor to work with you.
27:21Well done, guys.
27:24Woo!
27:36Woo!
27:37The people of Uzbekistan have experienced glory days.
27:41The cosmopolitan cities that stood on the ancient Silk Road were renowned for their sumptuous mosques and for their scholarship.
27:50In the days of Tamerlane, they stood at the center of a mighty empire.
27:56During the existence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan and following the earthquake, Tashkent was rebuilt to be the
28:05prestigious Asian gateway to the Soviet Union.
28:09And since independence, it has developed further and it has prospered and today can lay claim to be the preeminent
28:18metropolis of Central Asia.
28:23Next time, is this not the most extraordinary place?
28:28A series of enormous mirrors stuck on a mountainside reflecting the sun.
28:35They say that there's no strings attached, but in fact, there is strings attached and the largest investor is China.
28:43You know, I noticed that when you were playing, you were smiling.
28:46Of course, yes.
28:48When I'm playing, I'm happy all the time.
28:53Stop this.
29:20Why are you down quickly?
29:21You
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