Ferghana Valley

The Ferghana Valley stretches into several countries. This article covers the part in the southwest of Kyrgyzstan.

Cities

• 1 Osh – Kyrgyzstan's second largest city, a fascinating, 3,000 years old, wildly diverse, Ferghana Valley market town home to Central Asia's biggest and busiest outdoor market.
• 2 Arslanbob – An Islamic village popular with local pilgrims and famous for its picturesque walnut tree forest.
• 3 Batken – The administrative capital of the Batken Region.
• 4 Chon-Alai – A region southwest of Osh containing the Lenina peak, the highest mountain in Kyrgyzstan.
• 5 Gulcha
• 6 Jalal-Abad – A good bet for visiting a Ferghana Valley town, as it is significantly safer and easier to get to than Osh or destinations further southwest.
• 7 Khaidarkan
• 8 Kyzyl-Kiya
• 9 Sary-Tash
• 10 Toktogul – Half-way between Bishkek and Osh with a beautiful reservoir, picturesque surroundings and horseback riding.
• 11 Uzgen

Other destinations

• 1 Sary-Chelek Nature Reserve (Сары-Челекский). A beautiful nature reserve very popular with locals (for weddings) and tourists likewise. Walnut forests, a crystal clear lake (with the same name) for swimming, diverse flora and fauna, magnificent view, numerous trekking routes, and horseback riding are just a few of the highlights of this park. You can hike up to the lake from Arkyt (Аркыт) village, which has many accommodation options on offer. This park is a must see like Tash Rabat, and you should not miss it. Entrance: 400 som (incl. camping), Car: 100 som. (updated Mar 2019)
• 2 Padysh-Ata Nature Reserve. Spreading an area of about 300 km², this park was founded in 2003 with the main goal of preserving the juniper forests. The latter is the attraction of this park, besides the true alpine feel of the reserve. And if you are lucky, you might even see a snow leopard. Probably even more remote to get to than Sary-Chelek though. (updated Mar 2019)

Understand

The Ferghana Valley sits on one of the two main branches of the historic Silk Route (the other traverses the Pamirs and the Tajik-Afghan border). Major important cities along the route such as Khujand (Tajikistan), Kokand (Uzbekistan), and Osh (Kyrgyzstan) popped up at strategic points to tax and control this vital trade route.

The earliest peoples in the valley in recorded history were Persian-speaking peoples and other, related Indo-Iranians like the Scythians (Saka). The fortress-city of Cyropolis was one of the Achaemenid Empire's regional capitals, and it was because of this that Alexander the Great conquered the valley's mouth in the 4th century BCE, founding the city of Alexandria Eschate. Also during the Achaemenid period, rebellious Greeks from the problematic Ionian provinces were resettled. In the aftermath of Alexander's empire, a Greco-Bactrian kingdom ruled up to the Syr Darya (the historic Jaxartes).

After the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms fell, the valley alternated between being part of more "formal" Persian empires and retaining relative autonomy as a collection of Sogdian city states. In the 13th century the valley was conquered by the rapidly-expanding Mongols under Chinggis Khan, and Turkic peoples (specifically Uzbeks and Kyrgyz) began migrating into the region and settling. Tamerlane (Timur) ruled over the valley as part of his greater Timurid state in the 14th century, but with his death the valley fragmented into local khanates. Babur, the founder of South Asia's Mughal dynasty, was the son of the ruler of Andijan (now Uzbekistan), and he swept through the region on his way south.

From 1709-1876, most of the valley was included in the Khanate of Kokand, before its annexation by the Russian Empire. In 1916, the Basmachi Revolt started in Kokand before quickly spreading throughout Russian Turkestan (now all of Central Asia) - originally an anti-Tsarist colonial uprising, it quickly became anti-Soviet, before its brutal suppression in 1934. As "punishment" for the revolt, the valley was divided into three (originally two) separate Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs), which worked fine until they all became independent nations in the 1990s. Today, the valley is as ethnically diverse as ever, but hard borders create major headaches for both residents and travelers. Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan even went to war in 2021 over a border dispute in the valley.

The Kyrgyz part of the valley is at the eastern and southeast extreme of the valley, and spreads into the following 4 administrative districts: Osh and the surrounding Osh Region , the Jalal-Abad Region in the west, as well as the Batken Region far in the southwest of Kyrgyzstan.

Get in

Osh Airport (OSS ^IATA) has international flights and a domestic connection with Bishkek.

Get around

To get to Chon-Alai take a marshrutka or shared taxi from Osh. But hitch-hiking might be the more economical and faster option.

See

• 1 Shakh-Fazil' (Шах Фазил күмбөзү) (in village of Safed-Bulan, just north of village called Zarkent). A historic site in the village of Safed Bulan where, according to legend, a woman named Bulan buried the heads of many of her Islamic brethren while they were busy praying and unexpectedly beheaded. It has become an Islamic pilgrimage site over time and in the running for UNESCO heritage designation. Also here is the mausoleum of Shah Fezil, the ruler of Ferghana, and some sort of fertility stone. (updated Aug 2020)

Eat, drink and sleep

Please see the relevant city articles for details.

Ferghana Valley