Uzgen

Ösgön (also Uzgen; Kyrgyz: Өзгөн; Uzbek: Ўзган; Russian: Узген ) is a city in the region ( oblast) of Osh in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. The city has about 50,000 inhabitants, the majority ( about 90 %) of them ethnic Uzbeks, and is the administrative center of the district Ösgön.

Location

Ösgön located in an eastern foothills of the Ferghanatals at its eastern end, 55 km north-east of Osh, and 30 km southeast of Jalalabad, on the north bank of the approaching from the southeast Karadarja, one of the headwaters of the Syr Darya. The river, whose bed swells here during the snow melt from about 20 m to almost 200 m wide, is crossed at Ösgön of the National Road A 370. Immediately west of the bridge begins the Andidschon reservoir whose dam about 20 km to the west, is located at the point of penetration of the river into the actual Fergana Valley, Uzbek partly on, partly on Kyrgyz territory.

History

Ösgön has a distinguished history as one of the oldest cities in Kyrgyzstan. The place has since 1927 city law, but its origins lie in the 2nd and 1st century BC, as here, where the valley narrows the Karadarja, a commercial area and a customs office in a leading through the Ferghana Valley by Kashgar branch of the Silk Road was established. The place is mentioned in Chinese records from the 2nd century BC. Previously already a military camp of Alexander the Great is said to have been found here. Excavations traces were found of fortifications from this pre-Christian times.

After the Qarakhanid in the years 990-992, large parts of Transoxiana, including the Ferghanatals, had conquered by the Samanids, the settlement became the capital of a Ösgön their kingdoms and after Balasagun and next to Kashgar and Samarkand is one of the four centers of their empire. From Ösgön from conquered the since 996 there reigning Arslan - Ilek Nasr ben- Ali († 1013), in October 999 final Bukhara, the capital of the Samanids, Samarkand and the rest of Transoxiana, and to 1213 Ösgön was then the capital of the ruling in the Ferghana Valley branch of Qarakhanid, from 1089, however, under the suzerainty of the Seljuks.

As a result, the town belonged to the entire Ferghana Valley from 1219/20 to the empire of Genghis Khan and from 1229 to the Chagatai Khanate of the Mongols, and then from 1370 to the empire of Timur and the Timurids. From about 1512 the Ferghana valley belonged to the Khanate of Bukhara with Ösgön and 1710-1876 to the Khanate of Kokand. With the annexation of the Khanate of Kokand in 1876 Ösgön came to the Russian Empire and was now called Üzkent.

And thus Ösgön - - When made ​​under Stalin internal boundaries of the Central Asian regions of the Soviet Union in 1924/25 the majority of Uzbek settlements on the eastern end of the Ferghanatals and on the surrounding mountain slopes were not allocated the Uzbek SSR, but were part of the Kara- Kyrgyz Autonomous territory within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. That was 1926, the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in December 1936, the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic and on 31 August 1991, the sovereign Kyrgyz Republic.

As part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union broke on June 4, 1990 first in Ösgön, then in Osh and in surrounding villages severe clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks from that claimed hundreds, and possibly more than 1,000 dead within a few days and by looting and arson substantial material damage caused. Only after the intervention of the Soviet army and police units from 6 June, the unrest could be brought under control.

Attractions

The minaret

From karachanidischen heyday of 11th and 12th century, several well-preserved buildings on the Ösgön archeology architecture museum complex, a park-like open space near the town center and adjacent to the administration building of the district Ösgön come. On the north side of the complex there is a today only 27.5 m high minaret, probably built by the model for the Qarakhanid in Bukhara and Vobkent minarets. The upper part of the originally much higher and 8.5 m wide at its base, tapering upwards tower was destroyed in an earthquake in the 16th century. Today he is crowned on a viewing platform of a dome.

The mausoleums

Approximately 150 m to the southeast are the mausoleums of Ösgön, three mausoleums built of baked bricks together with impressive brick and Wandornamentik on the west-facing portal page that look at first glance like a single building. They are among the few early Islamic buildings, the 1219/1220 survived Genghis Khan conquered Transoxiana. The oldest and largest of the three is the middle, the Conqueror of Bukhara and Samarkand, Arslan - Ilek Nasr ben- Ali († 1013). The 12 m high building has a rectangular floor plan of approximately 11.5 meters per side. Ornamental terracotta and alabaster carved with geometric patterns and vines adorn the front. The 1152 north Attached, rectangular mausoleum of Jalal al -Din al - Hussein is characterized by its decorative Flächenornamentik the entire facade. Who Built 1186 southern mausoleum was built, is not known; it is the smallest but also the most valuable jewelry with ornaments, arabesques and font ornate friezes of the three.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Salis Chan Schakirowitsch Sharipov ( b. 1964 ), Soviet cosmonaut