The International Tourist Center Turns Into a New Face of Samarkand

On August 23, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived in Samarkand to participate in the opening ceremony of the «The Great Silk Road» International Tourist Center.

A warm conversation with the elderly and intellectuals of Samarkand took place at the «Eternal City» Complex located at the Center. A supplication was made with the wish to see the new constructions to serve for the benefit of our people for a long time.

Then, the opening ceremony of the International Tourism Center «The Great Silk Road» took place.

The President has made a speech and congratulated everyone on this great event.

«Having been built owing to the intellectual potential and selfless labor of our people, this complex has become a remarkable achievement on the way of building the New Uzbekistan. I would like to congratulate all of you on such a modern, magnificent architectural complex erected in the ancient and eternally young Samarkand. May it serve our people for ever and ever!»

Samarkand is a city that is the basis of our national statehood and it played an important role in the formation and development of the two Renaissance in our history. The tourists came here basically to see ancient monuments and visit the shrines of the place. There were no modern complexes for other directions of tourism.

At the initiative of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a very ambitious project was launched in 2019 – the construction of a huge complex at 212 hectares of land along the rowing channel in Samarkand District. An international team of experienced architects and engineers was involved, and a deeply thought-out project was elaborated. The President of Uzbekistan has visited this site several times and gave recommendations to refine the project taking into account the traditions of national architecture in terms of increasing its comfort. Along with the qualified local builders, the experienced specialists from such countries as Turkey, Britain and Italy took part in the project.

Thus, despite the difficulties of the pandemic, this huge complex was completed in a short time.

The multidisciplinary center includes 8 modern hotels, a congress hall, the Eternal City Complex, an amphitheater and many other facilities. It can serve 2 million tourists a year.

«This wonderful center is a continuation of the architectural traditions founded by our great ancestors. I am confident that it shall become a symbolic bridge between our glorious history and the Third Renaissance, the foundation of which we are currently forming», the President has noted.

There is a deep meaning in the fact that this complex was given the name «Great Silk Road». The buildings of the complex reflect the historical paintings of the era of the Great Silk Road. Thus, when designing the Eternal City ensemble, the plot of the fresco, preserved on the wall of ancient Afrasiab depicting the ceremony of receiving the ambassadors from Korea, China, India and other countries by the Sogdian ruler, was used.

There is an old bazaar, 40 craft workshops in the traditions of all regions of the country. The artisans will conduct master classes for tourists in wood carving, pottery, silk paper, jewelry and carpet weaving.

This is only a part of a large-scale work to develop the tourism industry in Uzbekistan. The new tourist center will play an important role in increasing the number of foreign tourists coming to Samarkand to more than 1,5 million people in the coming years. In general, the goal is to increase the number of tourists coming to Uzbekistan from the current 2 million to 9 million in the next five years. Most importantly, the number of people employed in the tourism sector will exceed 500,000 people.

In addition, the modern hotels and a congress hall have all conditions for holding the large-scale events. The international events will soon be held here, such as the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Meeting of the Leaders of the Member States of the Organization of Turkic States. The the ancient city will host the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization next year.

 «The Saga of the Eternal City» musical program has become an embodiment of the new center. The show, which has united the art of Uzbekistan people and the world, gave the ceremony a special atmosphere.