Independence Square (Mustaqillik Maydoni)

Independence Square is the largest square in Tashkent, and it feels less like a plaza than a formal park of lawns, fountains and long avenues of trees. The site has been the seat of power for over 150 years. A Russian fortress was built here in 1865, and in the Soviet period it became Lenin Square, a parade ground for May Day and Victory Day dominated by one of the largest Lenin statues in the Union. In 1992, a year after independence, it was renamed Mustaqillik Maydoni, and the statue gave way to the Independence Monument.

What to look for

• The Independence Monument: a tall pedestal crowned by a golden globe on which the outline of Uzbekistan is picked out. Before it sits a figure of a mother holding a child, a symbol of the young nation.
• The Ezgulik arch at the main entrance, a light colonnade topped with silver storks. Ezgulik means goodness or kindness, and the stork is a traditional symbol of peace and good fortune.
• The Mourning Mother memorial, across from the Independence Monument, where a seated mother looks down at an eternal flame. Around it a gallery holds the names of soldiers from the region who died in the Second World War.
• The government buildings on the western side, including the Senate and the Cabinet of Ministers.

The ensemble was completed in 2006, and its scale is deliberate: this is where the state holds its parades and celebrations, including the Independence Day festivities on 1 September. On ordinary days it belongs to joggers, wedding parties posing for photographs and families cooling off by the fountains.

Visiting

Parts of the square may be closed to the public around official buildings or during state events, and security guards will ask you to keep to the paths; photography of the monuments is fine, but avoid pointing a camera at government buildings and guards. Come in the late afternoon or early evening, when the fountains are running and the heat has gone. Mustaqillik Maydoni metro station, one of the finest halls on the network, is right beside the square, and the State Museum of History is a short walk south.