Kokand was the capital of the third of Uzbekistan's three 19th-century khanates (after Bukhara and Khiva). Khudayar Khan built his palace between 1863 and 1873 — the last major princely palace in Central Asia before Russian conquest ended the khanate era.
Scale: originally 7 courtyards and 114 rooms, of which 27 survive after Bolshevik-era demolitions. What remains is enough to convey the flavour: floor-to-ceiling glazed tilework in the local Fergana style (looser and more figurative than Samarkand or Bukhara), carved wooden columns, painted ceilings.
Notable rooms: - Throne room — with 19th-century Russian wallpaper next to Uzbek majolica, a fascinating late-Silk Road hybrid. - Harem — where four legal wives and 43 concubines lived. Now used for temporary exhibitions. - Reception iwan — the exterior facade of glazed tile is one of the most photographed views in Fergana.
The palace fell to General Skobelev's Russian forces in 1876. Khudayar Khan was exiled to Mecca where he died in 1882. His grandson Umar Khan, aged 18, briefly restored independence in the 1918 Kokand Autonomy — snuffed out by the Red Army within 60 days.
Kokand is 2–3 hours from Tashkent by train, or 1 hour from Fergana city by shared taxi.
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