Tours

Locations

  • “Zero Milestone”: At the foot of Suleiman Mountain

    The square at the foot of Suleiman Mountain’s north face has not always been the open and lively place it is today. Until the 1970s, the site of the modern-day museum, fountain and plaza was a very ordinary “mahalla,” a residential block with mud-brick houses.

  • Bridges and Ak-Buura

    Osh is a city of countless small bridges. Walking around the city, we often do not notice that we are crossing them, and that below us are numerous canals. Most of the bridges are located on the Ak-Buura River. It flows through the center of Osh, dividing the city into…

  • Blacksmiths’ Row

    The blacksmiths’ row is situated on the bank of the Ak-Buura, in the most colourful part of the old bazaar, as it has been for over a thousand years. Every morning there is the ringing of hammers on anvils. Aptitude, dexterity and stamina, multiplied by many years of tradition, are…

  • The beginning: Osh settlement

    In 1967, Elena Druzhinina, the Head of the Pre-Soviet History Department of the Osh Regional Local History Museum, found fragments of ceramics identical in origin and decoration to those of the Chust culture on the southern slope of Suleiman Mountain. This archaeological find marks the beginning of the 3,000-year-old history…

  • History of the Bazaar

    Osh’s old bazaar dates back to the founding of the city, some three thousand years ago. Today, many of the smaller local bazaars have disappeared or changed locations, and only the old bazaar remains the same, at home on the banks of the Ak-Buura.

  • Shashlik!

    Shashlik! This delicious dish, beloved all over Central Asia, is an Osh specialty for good reason. Almost every cafe offers many kinds of shashlik. There are lamb ribs, pieces of lamb with tail fat, lamb liver, tender pieces of beef, seasoned chicken, and several kinds of lula kebab.

  • Monuments as symbols of changing eras

    An imposing monument to Communist leader Vladimir Lenin, erected in May 1985, still stands in Osh’s central square. The statue itself is 11 metres high and rises on a 12-metre plinth. The originator of the project, Soviet sculptor Nikolai Tomsky, died a year before its opening. He is well-known as…

  • Gate of Fire at Suleiman Mountain

    Ancient Osh with its majestic Suleiman Mountain has a magic power, attracting adherents of various religions and beliefs, serving as a place of pilgrimage for dervishes and wandering believers of many faiths.