Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
websites about the region are www.karakal
pakstan.org or www.karakalpak.com. There are
no ATMs in Nukus, but over-the-counter with-
drawals can be made at Kapital Bank (Visa) and
Asaka Bank (MasterCard).
Asaka Bank
(Turtkul Bazare 1A;
h
9am-5pm
Mon-Fri) MasterCard cash advances. it's out
past the train station.
Kapital Bank
(Aimurzaev;
h
9am-5pm Mon-
Fri) gives cash advances on Visa cards, with
a 2% commission. To get here walk north up
Dosnazarov from the centre until you get to
Aimurzaev ko'chasi, turn right into Aimurzaev
and the bank is on your left.
Troya Internet
(Lumumba 4; per hr 1200S;
h
9am-11pm) Located in the basement of hotel
Nukus.
Post & Telephone Office
(Karakalpakstan 7;
h
post 7am-7pm, telephone 24hr)
Savitsky Museum
(
%
222 25 56; www.savit
skycollection.org; Rzaev 127;
h
9am-1pm &
2-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat & Sun) The
best art museum in Central Asia doubles as
Nukus' de facto tourist information centre. The
multilingual staff know the region well and can
organise homestays and tours to Mizdakhan,
Moynaq and the elliq-Qala region.
Ayim Tour
(
%
222 11 00; www.ayimtour.com;
Jipek Joli hotel, Rzaev;
h
9am-5pm Mon-Sat)
The only officially licensed travel agency in
Nukus, this friendly company is a godsend to
independent travellers looking to make the
most of their time in Karakalpakstan. They
offer everything from Aral Sea expeditions and
tours of Khorezm's fortresses to local home-
stays and interpreters.
TRAIN
Nukus'
train station
(
%
223 29 58) is 5.5km
south of the town centre. Take marshrutka 1,
3, 4 or 48 from the bazaar to get here. There
are trains most days to Tashkent (
platskartny/
kupeyny
63,000/95,000S, 22 hours) that
call in Samarkand (
platskartny/kupeyny
57,000/77,000, 14 hours). Nukus is a stop on
the Moscow-Dushanbe train line and services
to Dushanbe (calling at Tashkent) pass through
on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. There's
also a Tuesday train to Almaty that calls at
Tashkent.
8
Getting¨Around
Bus 15 goes between the airport and train sta-
tion along Dosnazarov; a handy
stop
is at the
corner of Pushkin. A taxi from the airport, train
or bus station to the centre costs about 5000S.
Around Nukus
Mizdakhan
On a hill 13km west of Nukus, near Hojeli,
are the remains of ancient Mizdakhan, once
the second-largest city in Khorezm. Inhab-
ited from the 4th century BC until the 14th
century AD, Mizdakhan remained a sacred
place even after Timur destroyed it; tombs
and mosques continued to be built here
right up to the 20th century.
Today the main attraction is a hill
littered with those mosques and mausole-
ums - some ruined, some intact. The most
impressive is the restored
Mausoleum¨of¨
Mazlum¨Khan¨Slu
, dating from the 12th to
14th centuries.
On the neighbouring hill towards the
Turkmen border are the remains of a 4th- to
3rd-century BC fortress called
Gyaur-Qala
,
which is worth checking out if you missed
the forts of Elliq-Qala.
To get here from Nukus, take a shared taxi
from the Nukus bazaar to Hojeli (5000S, 20
minutes), then get in a shared taxi bound for
the Turkmen border and get off after 3km in
Mizdakhan. A private taxi from Nukus will
cost around 50,000S return with wait time.
8
Getting¨There¨&¨Away
AIR
Uzbekistan Airways has lights to Tashkent
(US$68, two daily) and Moscow (US$310, three
weekly). Book tickets at the
airline booking of-
ice
(
%
222 79 95; Pushkin 43;
h
9am-7pm).
LAND
Shared taxis to Urgench (20,000S, 1½ hours),
Tashkent (120,000S, 14 hours), Samarkand
(120,000S, eight hours), Bukhara (100,000S,
ive hours), Khiva (25,000, two hours), Beruni
(25,000S, one hour) and Boston (25,000S, one
hour) depart from the
South (New) Bus Station
(
%
223 22 93; Yuzhny Avtovokzal), 6km south of
town. To get here take marshrutka 34 from the
bazaar
or the train station.
Buses from the South Bus Station lumber
to Urgench (11,000S, three hours, 3pm daily),
Samarkand (43,000S, 13 hours, 11am daily)
via Bukhara (29,000S), Tashkent (60,000S,
20 hours, noon daily) and Boston (7300S, 1½
hours, 1pm daily).
Moynaq (Mo'ynoq)
%
61 / POP 12,000
Moynaq, 210km north of Nukus, encapsu-
lates more visibly than anywhere else the
absurd tragedy of the Aral Sea. Once one
of the sea's two major fishing ports, it now
