Chorsu Bazaar: A Living Silk Road Market

Chorsu Bazaar is heart of Tashkent’s commerce and culture. Its domed hall, tiled in blue and green, shelters stalls overflowing with produce and spices. Outside, alleys hum with vendors, colors, and smells. Melons stacked high scent air sweet, saffron glows gold, cumin and coriander fill breeze with spice. Tables brim with nuts, dried apricots, raisins, honey, cheeses, and breads shaped like suns, golden and warm. Butchers carve lamb, stalls serve plov steaming with carrot and lamb, samsas baked crisp, tea poured endlessly. Languages mingle: Uzbek, Russian, Tajik, Kazakh — reflecting city’s diversity. Bargaining is lively, smiles frequent, exchanges more social than transactional. Photographers find endless subjects, writers endless stories. Beyond food, Chorsu reveals life: children tugging parents, elders chatting, artisans selling knives or embroidered caps. It is both ancient and modern — a Silk Road caravanserai reborn as daily ritual. Visiting Chorsu is immersion. It overwhelms senses, grounds you in city’s pulse, connects you to Tashkent not as tourist but as participant.