Urgut

Urgut is a small town and regional center in the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan, located at the foot of the northern slope of the Zeravshan Range, 40 kilometers southeast of Samarkand. Tourists will undoubtedly be interested in visiting this town and its surroundings.

The sights of Urgut
The most interesting place in Urgut is the Chor-Chinor complex (four plane trees). In fact, there are not four trees here, but forty huge plane trees (sycamore-oriental). The oldest of them is more than 1100 years old. The circumference of its trunk is more than 10 meters, and ten adults can be accommodated inside the trunk at the same time. According to legend, 4 plane trees were planted here by the Arab military commander or Sheikh Khoja Abu Talib Sarmast back in the 9th century. during the Arab invasion of Central Asia. Here he became the ruler of Urgut and was buried at the foot of these plane trees. This place became a cult and later a mausoleum and a madrasa with a mosque were built here.

The ruins of a Nestorian church of the 9th century were found 2 kilometers from Chor Chinor.

The largest bazaar in the Samarkand region, the bazaar, is located at the entrance to Urgut. Antique carpets, hand embroidery (suzane), leather shoes, jewelry, metal art products, ceramic tableware, and wooden chests can still be purchased here.

There is a workshop of the 17-generation Cloudulov family of ceramists in Urgut. The secrets of the production of traditional Urgut ceramics in mustard-gold and pale lemon tones have been passed on to the seventeenth generation of craftsmen here. In their house, you can get acquainted with the ancient process of making ceramic dishes, as well as with the traditional artistic embroidery of suzane with silk threads dyed with natural dyes.

Tourists will also be interested in the traditional colorful Dehkan bazaar, located in the city center with merchants' shops, artisans' workshops, as well as the Sunday mall, where livestock is sold/bought – sheep, goats, cows, horses, chickens, etc.

The nature of the surroundings of Urgut is also interesting. The karst plateau of Kyrktau (forty mountains) looms over the city, on which there are more than 100 caves, including the KiLSi (Kievskaya) abyss with a depth of 990m with vertical wells up to 90m and an underground lake.

Near the Samarkand-Shakhrisabz highway, 20 km from Urgut, near the picturesque Karatepe reservoir, there is a plateau with huge granite boulders and rocks of bizarre shapes. The most famous rock, the “Heart", is located right by the side of the highway.

In the village of Amankutan, near the Takhta-Karacha pass, there is a pine grove unique to these places, some of the trees of which were planted back in tsarist times 100 years ago.