TAMERLANETOUR

Kokand

 

Kokand city, located in the western part of the Fergana Valley, is one of the most ancient cities of Uzbekistan. The first written records about the city Hukande, Havokande (old names of the city) were found in the chronicles of the 10th century. The town was important trade center on the Silk Road and in the 13th century, like most Central Asian cities, was destroyed by the Mongols.The Khanate reached its power in the first half of the nineteenth century, when its territory included the major part of present-day Uzbekistan, part of southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and China. The Kokand Khanate also included Tashkent and Shymkent. It was a big, powerful state, prosperous trading and religious center. Only in Kokand there were over 300 mosques and dozens of madrassahs.
Kokand has a very ancient structure, it consists of a new and old parts. New town consisted of trades, administrative buildings, banks, residences, and in the old part the khan palace Urda, monuments of national and residential architecture, mosques, madrassahs and memorial constructions of the XIX – ХХ centuries remained.   
Existing now Kokand was built as a fortress in 1732 on the site of the old fortress Eski-Kurgan. The city at the height of the Kokand Khanate was a major religious center of the Fergana region of the time, there were more than 300 mosques.
The original palace Khudoyarkhan (1871) – the palace of the last khan of Kokand remained till our days. Today it is the local historical museum. In the liner majolica of original range of colors and patterns not found in other regions of Uzbekistan is used. Madrassah Norbut-Biy (1799) and mausoleum Modarikhon (1825) are also of interest.