Qarshi City

Setting and history

Qarshi lies at the heart of the Kashkadarya oasis, on the river of the same name, where international rail and road routes cross. The city covers 8,308.9 ha and had 306,300 inhabitants on 1 January 2026. Over the centuries it was known as Nakhshab and Nasaf. In the early 14th century the Chagatai khan Kebek built a palace near Nasaf, and the Mongol word qarshi, “palace”, became the city’s name. From 1926 to 1937 it was called Behbudiy after the Jadid reformer Mahmudkhoja Behbudiy, and it has been the regional capital since 1943.

Under the Shaybanids, above all Abdullah Khan II, Qarshi was an important trading town in the south of the Bukhara Khanate; the brick bridge over the Kashkadarya and the Kok Gumbaz Mosque survive from that time.

What to see

In the Old Town around Odina Park stand the Odina Mosque, now a museum to the victims of repression, the Qilichboy, Abdulazizxoja and Bekmir madrasas and the Qarshi sardoba. The regional museum of history and culture in Navoi Park tells the oasis’s 3,000-year story. On the northern side of town is the 122-metre bridge, restored in 2016, and nearby lie the ruins of ancient Yerqo‘rg‘on. Qarshi is a major rail junction with an international airport.