CHORSU QUARTER AND THE HAST IMAM ENSEMBLE

The Chorsu district, located to the north of the bazaar, is one of the few districts to have emerged virtually intact from the 1966 earthquake. A walk through this labyrinth of blind alleys, most of which end up as dead ends, will give an idea of what the capital of Uzbekistan was like before the disaster that radically changed its face. At the heart of this district, probably the most interesting to visit in Tashkent, is the Barak Khan Madrasa, which is today the centre of the Grand Mufti of Central Asia and dates from the 16th century. Tourists can enter to take a look at the rose garden and the few open cells. Some of them have been renovated into real conference rooms. Opposite, the Tellia Sheikh Mosque dates from the 19th century. The Qur'an of the Caliph Osman, considered the oldest in the world, is kept there, but non-Muslims are not allowed to enter. A little further on, on the left side of the square, the Abu Bakhr Kaffal Shashi mausoleum dates from the 16th century and was erected in memory of one of the first imams, who died in 976, on the site of his tomb. The mosque facing the Barak Khan Madrasa is not a historical monument, it was built in 2007 as part of the renovation of the area and occupies the site of a former wasteland. It's by going deeper into the alleyways that start from the square that the walk takes on its full meaning, between the tchaikhanas where the aksakal, the elders who administer the life of the neighbourhood, meet.