FERGHANA VALLEY
Just as Uzbekistan is the heart of Central Asia, the Fergana Valley is the heart of Uzbekistan. Over seven million people, about a third of the population, live in this fertile flood plain of the Syr Darya. The river sweeps down from the Pamirs into a vaiiey approximateiy 300 kilometres (190 miles) long and 170 kilometres (105 miles) wide, surrounded by spurs of the Tian Shan – the Chatkal range to the north, Ferghana to the east, and the Pamir-Alai to the south.
Fergana valley is a spacious cavity surrounded on three sides by Tien- Shan and Pamir-Altay mountain systems. Its length from the West to the East is 350 km and width is 150 km. Syrdarya – the second largest river of Cenral Asia – flows along the valley. On the South, parallel to Syrdarya, there is the Big Fergana Channel. Ancient Chinese sources claim that Fergana was a separate state. The area seems to have been settled in the Stone Age. In the Bronze Age this land was inhabited by the tribes of different way of life cattle- breeders and farmers. In, 104 BC the Chinese ambassador Chzhan-Czyan counted 70 big and small towns in this territory including Sokh, Uzgen, Kuva, and Akhsi. Some of them are prospering now: Khudjand, Margilan, Kokand, Andijan, Namangan, and Rishtan…
One route of the Great Silk Road passed through the valley. That’s why since ancient times arts and crafts of Fergana were greatly influenced by Chinese, Indian and Persian cultures. Remains of structures testify to the construction of buddhistic temples and Nestorian churches. This route experienced free-trade on goods and services: the merchants enjoyed the caravan-sarais, warehouses, workshops for production of various goods and even the special stoned roads.
Numerous historical buildings in Kokand, Andijan and Namangan attract many people from all overthe world.