Fergana Region

Geography and nature

Fergana Region covers the southern half of the Fergana Valley, a fertile basin ringed by mountains. It borders Namangan and Andijan regions to the north, Kyrgyzstan to the south and east, and Tajikistan to the west. Its area is only about 6,800 km², yet more than 4.2 million people live here — over 600 per square kilometre, one of the highest densities in the country.

The Syr Darya runs along the north-western boundary, while the Sokh, Isfara, Shohimardonsoy and Isfayramsoy rivers come down from the Alay Range in the south; their alluvial fans have watered orchards and fields for centuries. Sandy tracts of the Yazyavan and Karakalpak steppes still survive in the centre of the valley. The climate is continental, with July averages around 28 °C and fairly mild winters. The western valley is known for the 'Kokand wind', which blows hardest in spring and autumn.

The region also administers two exclaves inside Kyrgyzstan — Sokh District and Shohimardon — a tangle of history and geography that requires special arrangements to visit.

History

People have lived here since deep antiquity: caves in the Sokh valley hold Stone Age traces, and settlements of the Chust culture date from the Bronze Age. Chinese chronicles of the 2nd century BC called the country Dayuan and praised its 'heavenly horses'. In the early Middle Ages Kuva, Margilan and Rishtan were Silk Road stops; excavations at Kuva uncovered a Buddhist temple of the 7th–8th centuries.

The valley produced great scholars, among them the 9th-century astronomer Ahmad al-Farghani and the 12th-century jurist Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani, author of the Hidaya. In the early 18th century Shahrukh Biy founded the Khanate of Kokand (1709–1876), with Kokand as its capital; under Umar Khan and the poet Nodira the city flourished as a centre of poetry and architecture.

In 1876 the Russian Empire abolished the khanate and created Fergana Oblast. A new administrative centre, New Margelan, was built near Margilan; it was renamed Skobelev in 1907 and Fergana in 1924. The present region was formed on 15 January 1938, and Andijan and Namangan regions were carved out of it in 1941.

What to see

Kokand has the Palace of Khudayar Khan, unusual for its yellow-and-green tilework, the 98-column Jami Mosque, the Narbuta Biy Madrasa and the khans' burial ground of Dakhma-i-Shakhon. In Margilan you can follow silk from cocoon to cloth at the Yodgorlik factory, meet craftsmen in the Said Ahmad Khoja Madrasa and, on a Sunday, head to Kumtepa Bazaar.

Rishtan is one of Central Asia's best-known pottery towns: in the home museums of master potters you can watch blue alkaline-glazed bowls being made. Fergana city has the Ahmad al-Farghani Park and the regional museum of local lore. In the mountains to the south lies the shrine and resort of Shohimardon, and at Kuva the ruins of an ancient city survive.

Crafts and food

Margilan is famous for atlas and adras ikat: the Margilan Crafts Development Centre's work safeguarding traditional atlas and adras technologies was selected for UNESCO's Register of Good Safeguarding Practices in 2017. Rishtan potters use local reddish clay and ishkor glaze made from plant ash, while Kokand is known for woodcarving and chased copperware.

Valley cooking has its own character: Fergana-style plov, Kokand halva and pastries, and market fruit — apricots, pomegranates, grapes. The teahouse remains the heart of neighbourhood life.

Cities and districts

The region is made up of 15 districts and four cities of regional status. Fergana, the capital, stands apart from older valley towns with its broad avenues, grid plan and Russian-era buildings. Kokand, the former khanate capital, has an old town full of madrasas and mosques and a newer quarter of early-20th-century banks and merchant houses. Margilan is a city of silk and trade, while Kuvasay is a small industrial town at the foot of the mountains.

Among the districts, Rishtan stands out for its potters, Kuva for its ancient ruins, Buvayda and Baghdad for their shrines, and Uzbekistan District for the Sokh river valley. Villages still keep a traditional rhythm centred on the guzar square, the teahouse and the neighbourhood mosque, and in spring the whole valley is white with apricot and apple blossom.

Getting there

Fergana International Airport has flights to Tashkent and a number of foreign cities. Trains from Tashkent run through the tunnel beneath the Kamchik Pass to Kokand and Margilan, whose station is also the nearest major passenger stop for Fergana city; the main road crosses the same pass. Distances inside the region are short: Fergana to Margilan is about 15 km, and Kokand is roughly one and a half to two hours away by car.