Current Time in Qarshi, Uzbekistan

Qarshi is the capital of the Kashkadarya Region in southern Uzbekistan, standing on the Kashkadarya River where the irrigated lands of the oasis meet the open steppe. Mountains rise to the east towards Shahrisabz and Tajikistan, while to the west and south stretch the dry plains that run towards the Amu Darya and the border with Turkmenistan. Summers are extremely hot and dry, winters brief and sometimes sharply cold, and the river has been the source of life here for thousands of years.

About two hundred and eighty thousand people live in the city, which serves as the administrative and industrial centre of a populous agricultural region. Cotton, wheat, fruit and karakul sheep have long been the mainstays of the local economy, supported by the vast Qarshi steppe irrigation scheme built in the Soviet period. The region also holds some of the largest natural gas fields in Central Asia, and the gas and chemical complex at Shurtan is one of the most important industrial installations in Uzbekistan, alongside cotton ginning, textiles and food processing in the city itself.

An ancient city known as Nakhshab or Nasaf stood nearby, mentioned in accounts of Alexander the Great's campaigns and later a prosperous stop on the Silk Road between Samarkand and Balkh. The present town grew in the Mongol period, and its name comes from a Turkic and Mongol word for a fortified palace, referring to a residence built here in the thirteenth century. Amir Timur and his descendants favoured the district, which lay close to Timur's birthplace at Shahrisabz, and endowed it with mosques and gardens. Qarshi later belonged to the Emirate of Bukhara before coming under Russian influence in the nineteenth century, and it expanded rapidly during the twentieth century as irrigation and industry advanced.

The most admired monument is the Kok Gumbaz mosque, its blue dome raised in the fifteenth century under the astronomer-prince Ulugh Beg, standing beside a historic religious school. A handsome brick bridge of the sixteenth century still spans the Kashkadarya, and the old town preserves madrasas, caravanserai remains and shaded chaikhanas where men gather over green tea. The regional museum displays finds from the ancient sites of the oasis. Most visitors also make the short journey to Shahrisabz, where the colossal ruins of Timur's Ak-Saray palace and his family tombs form a World Heritage Site, or head into the mountains towards Kitab and the Zarafshan range.

Local culture is warmly traditional, with lively bazaars, embroidered suzani textiles, knife making, folk music played on the doira and karnay, and celebrations of Navruz in spring. The cuisine features plov cooked in the southern style, samsa baked in clay ovens, grilled lamb and abundant melons and grapes.

Railways link Qarshi with Samarkand, Bukhara and Termez, an airport offers domestic flights, and highways cross the region. Several higher education institutions, including a state university and an engineering and economics institute, serve local students.

Qarshi is significant as the economic capital of southern Uzbekistan and a gateway to the Timurid heartland.