Mustaqillik Maydoni ("Independence Square") is Tashkent's largest public plaza, at 12 hectares. It has been renamed and re-monumented three times: Kaufman Square under Russian rule (1868), Lenin Square under Soviet rule (1917), and finally Independence Square after 1991.
The current monuments include:
- Independence Monument — a golden globe with Uzbekistan's outline in relief, above a bronze mother-and-child sculpture. Erected 1992.
- Alley of Memory — 1,900 metres of brass name plaques for Uzbek soldiers killed in WWII, arranged as an open-air corridor beneath a colonnade.
- The Crying Mother — a bronze seated figure of a woman waiting for a son who never returned, at the head of the Alley.
The square is flanked by: - The Senate and Cabinet of Ministers buildings to the north. - The Government Palace to the east. - The recently built Uzbekistan Independence Museum to the south.
Photography of the square is fine; do not photograph guards or official cars. The whole area is well-maintained, lit at night, and closed to vehicles.
Tashkent in photos
A short visual companion to this entry — photographs of Tashkent from our travel archive.
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