Nurafshon

For the town in Tajikistan, seeNurafshon, Tajikistan.

Nurafshon Nurafshon / Нурафшон
Nurafshon masjid
Nurafshon Location in Uzbekistan
Coordinates:41°02′N69°21′E
Country	Uzbekistan
Region	Tashkent Region
Area
• Total	30 km2(10 sq mi)
Population (2021)
• Total	51,400
• Density	1,700/km2(4,400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+5

Nurafshon(Uzbek:Nurafshon / Нурафшон) is a district-level city and theadministrative centreofTashkent RegioninUzbekistan.It is also the seat of theOʻrtachirchiq District,but not part of it.It has an area of 30 km²(12 sq mi)and the population of the city is 51,400 (2021).

Until 2017, the town was known as Toytepa. The townsYangihayotandChigirikare part of the city.

History

TwoZoroastrianperiodossuaries,dating to the 6th century, are kept in theSamarkandmuseum. It received the status of acityin 1973. Until 2017, it was called Toytepa (Uzbek. Toʻytepa/Tўytepa) and was a city of rayon subordination ofOʻrtachirchiq District.

On August 25, 2017, the Senate of theOliy Majlisof the Republic of Uzbekistan at itsplenary sessiondecided to rename the city of Toytepa to Nurafshon.

Geography

The city of Nurafshon is located 4 km from thetrain stationToytepa, on thehighwayTashkent - Kokand, 25 km south of Tashkent.

Population

The population of Nurafshon as of July 1, 2018 is 49,731. It is estimated that the town's population was previously over 29,000 and in 1975 it was 17,000.

Economy

Important cotton processing enterprises exist in Nurafshon, mostly due to Uzbek-South Korean joint ventures.Fluorspar,the most important source offluorine,is mined at Nurafshon. The city has analuminumore processing plant, a garment factory,trucking companies, andmanufacturingindustries.

Education

In the city there is general secondary school No.1 (formerly named after A. S. Pushkin), which is one of the oldest schools in the city.

The school hasRussianandUzbeklanguage classes, and special attention is paid to the study of foreign languages -English,German,FrenchandKorean.

There is also a general secondary school No.48 (formerly named afterA. P. Gaidar,located on Toshkent Yoli Street), which also has Russian and Uzbek classes.

There is a 28th general educationKazakh-language school named afterAbai Qunanbaiuly.

Attractions

On the western outskirts of the city (on the road Nurafshon -Tuyaboʻgʻiz) is located Ulkantoytepe settlement, which was severely destroyed as a result of the deployment of a military unit there during theSoviet era.

Thehillfortwas explored:

• in 1875 — by D. M. Gremenitsky;
• in 1884 — by N. Primkulov andN. I. Veselovsky;
• in 1890 — by K. H. T. Krause;
• in 1896 — by members of the Turkestan Group of Amateurs of Archeology;
• in 1923 — by M. E. Masson;
• in 1929 — by A. A. Potapov;
• in 1958 — by Y. F. Buryakov and S. X. Ishankhanov.

Smallexcavationsandarchaeologicalresearchwere carried out here. Only a rectangular shahriston with an area of 20 hectares and acitadelin the northern part has been preserved.

Both the citadel and the shahriston are surrounded by defensive walls (enceinte), the latter retaining traces of 4 gates. The thickness of the cultural layer in some places exceeds 10 meters.

The available material allows us to attribute the settlement of the area to the time of the firstcenturiesAD, and the blossoming of life - to the IX-X centuries and especially - to the XI-XII centuries.

It is identified with the medieval city of Nuket. Described by eastern geographers in the X-XII centuries A.D. in theKara-Khanidera, it was for a certain time the capital of theIlaqdomain, which had its ownmint.

During archaeological research, two ossuaries dating back to the 6th century and belonging to the Era of theZoroastrianismwere discovered. They are currently in theState Museum of History of Uzbekistanin Tashkent.