Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Osh
æ
Top Sights
û
Drinking & Nightlife
1
Suleiman Too .......................................... A4
25
Bridge........................................................B5
26
Feel City....................................................C5
æ
Sights
27
Parliament................................................B4
2
Alien Fairy Cake ...................................... B4
3
Bazaar ...................................................... B2
þ
Shopping
4
Dom Babura ............................................ A4
28
Kyrgyz Konyagy.......................................C7
5
Jayma Bazaar...........................................B1
29
Saimalu Tash ...........................................B5
6
Lenin Statue ............................................ D7
7
Three-Storey Yurt................................... B4
ï
Information
8
UTAMK ..................................................... B4
CBT Alay ..........................................(see 12)
30
Eastern Visa .............................................C3
Ø
Activities, Courses & Tours
31
Fotosalon 12.............................................D7
9
Bolshoe Riba............................................ C5
32
Internet Cafes ..........................................B3
Kazkommerts Bank .......................(see 19)
ÿ
Sleeping
33
Main Telecom Office...............................B3
10
Deluxe Hotel ............................................ C2
34
Meganet....................................................B4
11
Eco House................................................ C7
35
Moneychangers.......................................B2
12
Hotel Alay................................................. B3
MuzToo............................................. (see 8)
13
Hotel Pekin............................................... C2
36
Osh Guesthouse...................................... C1
14
Hotel Sanabar ......................................... B4
37
Russian Consulate Osh ..........................D5
15
Kristal Hotel............................................. B2
16
Mira Homestay.........................................C1
ï
Transport
17
New hotel complex................................. C7
38
Argomak 4WD Stand..............................C2
18
Osh-Nuru ................................................. C6
39
Batken Minibus Stand ............................A3
19
Taj Mahal...................................................C1
40
China Southern........................................B5
20
TES Guesthouse ..................................... C6
41
Kashgar Bus.............................................C3
42
Minibus Station........................................C3
ú
Eating
43
Shared Taxi Stand...................................C3
21
Ala-Too......................................................C1
44
Shared Taxi Stand for
22
Izyum........................................................ D7
Bishkek ..................................................C2
23
Osh Ordo.................................................. B4
45
Ural Airlines..............................................C2
24
Tsarskii Dvor............................................ B4
Osh suffers a kind of demographic
schizophrenia, being a major centre of
Kyrgyzstan but with a strong (40%) Uzbek
population more in tune with Uzbekistan
and the rest of the Fergana Valley. The
absurd international borders, created by
Joseph Stalin's divide-and-rule mental-
ity, still has consequences - ethnic strife
rocked the area in 1990 and again in 2010,
and while generally invisible to passing
travellers, there remains an ominously pal-
pable undercurrent of enmity between ele-
ments of the Kyrgyz and Uzbek population.
1
¨Sights
o
Suleiman¨Too¨
CRAgS
(Solomon's Throne; admission 5som;
h
9am-8pm)
This five-peaked rocky crag seems to loom
above the city wherever you go. It has been
a Muslim place of pilgrimage for centuries,
supposedly because the Prophet Mohammed
once prayed here. Its slopes are indented
with many a cave and crevice each reputed
to have different curative or spiritual prop-
erties (many detailed on photo-boards in
the Cave Museum; p292. One such is fertil-
ity mini-cave
Ene-Beshik
, its rocks worn
smooth by young ladies slithering in to aid
their motherly aspirations. You'll see it right
beside the path to the Cave Museum as you
descend westward from Suleiman Too's main
viewpoint. On that crag lies the one-room
Dom¨ Babura
(Babur's House; Suleiman Too)
,
a 1989 reconstruction of a historic prayer-
room whose tradition dates back to 1497,
when 14-year-old Zahiruddin Babur of Fer-
gana built himself a little prayer-retreat here.
Later famed as progenitor of the Mogul Dy-
nasty, Babur's place of worship later became
highly revered but subsequent incarnations
have been destroyed notably by both earth-
quake (1853) and, in the 1960s, by a 'mysteri-
ous' explosion.
Allow around 20 minutes' sweaty climb
on the hairpin stairway to Dom Babura
from Suleiman Too's main entrance, which
is beside the strange silver-domed build-
ing that looks like an
alien¨fairy¨cake
, but
