Nukus is the capital of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, which is a part of the Republic of Uzbekistan, its administrative, economic, scientific and cultural center. Nukus is often referred to as “north capital” of the Republic. The city with the area of more than 200 km2 is situated on the north of Uzbekistan, at the south part of the current delta of Amudarya, near the Aral Sea, among sandy spaces. This green oasis is surrounded by three deserts – Kara-Kums (Black sand), Qizil-Kum (Red sand) and Stony Desert – the Ustyurt plateau.
Tourists from different countries often visit Nukus, because the city is a starting point of travel to the little-known world of Usyurt and the coast of disappearing Aral Sea. Consequently, tourist infrastructure in Nukus is well developed: hotel and restaurants offer pretty good service.
Climate here is continental, that allows Karakalpakstan to specialize on cotton raising and rice growing, karakul sheep breeding and melon-growing.
Places of interest
Capital of Karakalpakstan is rich in places of interest. A huge popularity has a world-famous State museum of art named after I.V. Savitsky, which was named abroad as “one of the best museums of the world”. It contains the world’s second largest and significant collection of Russian avangarde. The city is also famous with its local history museum, museum Berdakh, monuments to Berdakh, Ulugbek, Ajiniyaz. Among excavated by archeologists historical monuments in the area around the city there are - fortresses Toprak kala, Qavat kala, Ayaz kala, Kizil kala, temple-mausoleum Koi Krylgan Kala, Chilpik (Zoroastrian Dahma), ancient necropolic Mizdahkan.
Here was composed a famous folk karakalpak poem “Kirk qiz” (“Forty girls”) – outstanding cultural monument of the modern karakalpaks’ forefathers, who once lived in the Aral Sea region. Multidimensional panoramas of people’s life, colorful language, great wisdom – is what makes us speak about the poem as of intrinsic value of a spiritual life of the Central Asia. In fact, not so long ago folk epos celebrated its 1000 year anniversary.
Transport
Nukus is intertwined with other regions of Uzbekistan through highways and railways. There is also an airport in Nukus – “air gates” of Karakalpakstan. Every day is arranged more than 20 regular passenger flights to Tashkent, regional centers of the Republic, and also to Moscow and other CIS countries. Airport receives all types of aircrafts in-use by national airline “Uzbekistan airways”.
Population of Nukus
Population of Nukus is about 260.000 people. Ethnic composition of the city is rather diverse: karakalpak, uzbek, turkmen, kazakh, russian, korean and other nations.
Welcome to Nukus!
