Bekobod

History

The town grew up in 1899 around Khilkov station, named after M. I. Khilkov, one of the railway’s builders. It later absorbed the neighbouring village of Begovat and bore that name until 1964. A steelworks was built here in 1942–1944, the settlement became a town in 1945, and the Farkhad dam and hydropower station were built nearby in 1943–1948.

Today

Bekobod lies 140 km south of Tashkent by road, at the south-eastern edge of the Dalverzin steppe on the border with Tajikistan, 33 km from Khujand. It spreads across both banks of the Syr Darya, ringed by hills, and the Dalverzin and Dustlik canals begin here. The Uzbek Metallurgical Plant and a cement works are its main employers, and the fierce “Bekobod wind” that blows from autumn to spring is famous across the region. The Kyzyl Mazar mausoleum stands 3 km north-west of town.