Park Russian imperial period

Alisher Navoi Central Park

The 1886 city garden at the green heart of the centre

Built

1886

Time needed

1 h

Opening hours

Open 24 hours (rides and cafés keep their own hours)

District

Samarkand City

Samarkand's central park of culture and leisure, grown from the late-19th-century city garden of Russian Samarkand: old trees, jogging paths, playgrounds and cafés.

The third link in a green chain

The Alisher Navoi Central Park of Culture and Leisure lies in the city centre, beside University Boulevard. Its story begins with the city garden laid out in 1886, when the new European quarter of Samarkand acquired a "green chain" made up of Abramov Boulevard, the Governor's Garden and the city garden.

The trees were chosen with care: in the late 19th century the garden was planted with lindens, Crimean pines, mulberries and honey locusts from North America, and a network of irrigation channels was dug both to water them and to drain away rainwater. As a 19th-century city garden, the park was added to Uzbekistan's national register of immovable cultural heritage in 2019.

The park today

Today it is one of the largest green spaces in the centre, with shady avenues, places to sit, jogging paths, playgrounds and cafés. According to the city's tourism portal it covers about 12.6 hectares and has more than ten fairground rides and the 3,000-seat Muziqa amphitheatre, used for holiday concerts; rare trees and shrubs brought from abroad have also been planted. Chess players and table-tennis fans gather here too.

For locals it is the place for an evening stroll, a morning run or meeting friends; for visitors it is a natural continuation of a walk along University Boulevard and the streets of Russian Samarkand. Lindens and pines planted in the late 19th century still grow among the older trees, and the channels that water them are the park's oldest piece of engineering. On searing summer days its shady avenues are among the coolest spots in the city centre.

Did you know?

Sources disagree on the park's founding date: historians trace it to the city garden of 1886, while the city tourism portal gives 1943 — probably the year the garden was reorganised as a park of culture and leisure.

Good to know

In summer, come in the morning or after sunset — the old trees give welcome shade.
With children: rides and playgrounds are right in the park, so an evening stroll can double as playtime.
From the park, walk along University Boulevard to the Amir Temur statue and Gur-e-Amir.

Details may change — please check before you visit.

Sources (7)

Gallery