Republic of Karakalpakstan

A republic within a republic

The Republic of Karakalpakstan is a sovereign parliamentary republic within Uzbekistan, its status set out in a separate chapter of Uzbekistan’s Constitution. It has its own constitution, adopted on 9 April 1993, a parliament called the Jokargy Kenes, a Council of Ministers, and its own flag, coat of arms and anthem. Its state languages are Karakalpak and Uzbek; Karakalpak belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages and is written in Latin script. Citizens of Karakalpakstan are at the same time citizens of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus.

The coat of arms shows the mythical Humo bird, the rising sun, the Amu Darya and the Chilpik dakhma — emblems of the land’s ancient past and its nature.

Geography and nature

Karakalpakstan occupies the northwest of Uzbekistan on the Turan Lowland and, at 166,600 km², is the country’s largest region. It borders Kazakhstan to the north and west, Turkmenistan to the south, Xorazm and Bukhara to the southeast and Navoiy to the east. The Kyzylkum stretches to the northeast, the Karakum to the southwest and the Ustyurt Plateau to the northwest; deserts cover more than 80% of the territory, and the Amu Darya and its delta are its lifeline.

The republic also takes in the southern half of the shrinking Aral Sea, whose bed has become a new desert, the Aralkum; the area has been declared an ecological disaster zone. Protected areas include the Lower Amu Darya Biosphere Reserve (formerly Badai-Tugai), the Sudochye-Akpetki and Saigachiy reserves and the South Ustyurt and Aralkum national parks. The population was 2.05 million at the start of 2026.

History

Today’s Karakalpakstan was a heartland of ancient Khorezmian civilisation. The “fifty fortresses” on the Amu Darya’s right bank — Toprak Kala, Ayaz Kala, Koi Krylgan Kala, Janbas Kala and others — went up from the 4th century BCE, and in the 2nd–3rd centuries CE Toprak Kala was Khorezm’s capital. The Afrighid capital of Kath, now the town of Beruniy, was the birthplace of al-Biruni in 973, and Mizdahkan was Khorezm’s third city in the 10th century.

The Karakalpaks — the “black hats” — are a Turkic people who settled firmly in the Amu Darya delta in the 18th–19th centuries under the Khiva Khanate. From 1873 the right bank belonged to the Amu Darya department of Russian Turkestan. A Karakalpak autonomous region centred on Turtkul was formally established in February 1925, became an autonomous republic in 1932 with its capital moved to Nukus, and joined the Uzbek SSR in 1936. A declaration of sovereignty followed on 14 December 1990, and since 9 January 1992 it has been the Republic of Karakalpakstan.

What to see

Nukus is home to the Savitsky State Museum of Arts, with the world’s second-largest collection of Russian avant-garde art, ancient Khorezmian finds and Karakalpak folk art. Near the capital lie the Mizdahkan necropolis and Gyaur Kala, and to the southeast the Zoroastrian dakhma of Chilpik. Ellikqala and Turtkul districts hold Toprak Kala, Ayaz Kala, Kyzyl Kala, Guldursun, Janbas Kala and Koi Krylgan Kala, while Beruniy District has the Sultan Uvays Bobo shrine and the Badai-Tugai woods, home to the Bukhara deer.

In the north, Moynaq’s ship cemetery and museum tell the story of the Aral, and trips continue to the Sudochye lakes, the Ustyurt escarpments and the sea’s western shore.

Culture

Karakalpak culture blends nomadic and farming traditions. The verse of the folk poets Berdakh (1827–1900) and Ajiniyaz (1824–1878) and the epics sung by zhyrau and bakhshi bards — among them Kyrk Kyz, the tale of forty warrior maidens — lie at the heart of national identity, and silver jewellery, embroidered costume, carpets and yurt furnishings fill the Savitsky Museum.

Getting there

Nukus airport has regular flights from Tashkent, and Tashkent–Nukus trains run too. Nukus is about three hours by road from Khorezm, and the Ellikqala fortresses make an easy day trip from Khiva or Urgench. Moynaq lies some 200 km north of Nukus; a trip to the Aral Sea and the Ustyurt usually takes two days by 4×4.