The rotunda
27 m tall, with a turquoise dome on eight columns.
Humoyun Mehridinov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Humoyun Mehridinov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Panpanchik — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Humoyun Mehridinov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Murodbek Yusupov — CC BY-SA 4.0
Shahidlar Xotirasi, Uzbek for Memory of Martyrs, is Tashkent's memorial to victims of Tsarist and Soviet repression. Opened on 12 May 2000, it covers more than 17 hectares astride the Bozsu canal, around a 27 m rotunda and the State Museum of Memory of Victims of Repression. From the 1920s until the Second World War this was an execution ground of the Soviet security organs, near a spot once called the Devil's Bridge; the complex joins three former sites where victims shot in Tashkent were buried. Uzbek sources name the writers Abdulla Qodiriy, Cholpon and Abdurauf Fitrat among those shot here in October 1938. The museum opened on 31 August 2002, Remembrance Day for the victims, and was enlarged in 2008. Flower beds ring the rotunda, a turquoise ribbed dome on eight marble-clad columns, carved in plaster inside. Beneath it lies a symbolic jade tomb inscribed in Arabic, Uzbek and English to the eternal memory of those who died for their homeland, and a 100 m footbridge crosses the canal. The two-domed museum, wrapped in a carved veranda, holds photographs, documents, victims' belongings and a Soviet prisoner van; its ten sections run from the Russian conquest to independence, the ninth covering the 1980s cotton affair. It lies on Amir Timur Avenue, about 400 m from the TV Tower and 250 m from Bodomzor metro station in a straight line. Allow one to two hours, and keep voices low in this place of remembrance. The Tashkent Botanical Garden is about 2 km east, the Minor Mosque under 2 km south-west.
27 m tall, with a turquoise dome on eight columns.
Jade, inscribed in three languages.
From the Russian conquest to independence.
Amir Timur Avenue, opposite the TV Tower, Yunusabad district, Tashkent
Tashkent TV TowerThe tallest structure in Uzbekistan, a 375 m steel tower begun in 1978 that went5 minutes walk
Minor MosqueA modern mosque built between summer 2013 and October 2014 on the bank of the An22 minutes walk
Tashkent Botanical GardenA large botanical garden named after the academician Fyodor Rusanov, now coverin24 minutes walk4.4Yes to both, for a fee: the museum's price list charges 50,000 som for photos with a phone or camera and 150,000 som for video. A guided tour for foreign visitors costs 100,000 som per group of up to 25.
On 31 August, the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Repression set by a 2001 decree and marked with ceremonies at the complex; since 2024 the first week of October has also been a week of remembrance for victims of political repression.