Visit Tashkent’s TV Tower
Info Shymkent made a short trip to Uzbekistan to have a look on one of the largest towers in the world – Tashkent’s TV Tower.
On a sunny and warm early morning in October we started our journey to our neighbor Uzbekistan to have a look on one great piece of architecture -the Tashkent Television Tower.
After a two hours ride with crossing also the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan by taxi we arrived at our destination.
We already have seen, shortly after we crossed the border, the huge tower coming closer and closer. After we arrived entrance finally, the view up was much more impressive. It is a vertical cantilever structure and it is constructed out of steel. The tower – offical called in Uzbek “Toshkent Teleminorasi” – is located not in the city center of Uzbekistan’s capital – no it’s located a little bit outside – in a suburb of Tashkent. But you can also reach the Television Tower by metro.
In the basement of the TV Tower we had to pay an entrance fee and we had to show our passport to register to go up into the tower. This took only some minutes and we could walk from the entrance along a gallery with models of other popular skyscrapers and Television Towers – like the New York’s Empire State Building, Berlin’s Fernsehturm, Paris’s Eiffel Tower or Tokyo Tower. This is great to get Tashkent’s TV Tower into the right scale: The Tashkent Television Tower is 375 meters high and is currently the 11th tallest tower in the world.
After we passed the long gallery we arrived the basement with the elevators. The soviet-architecture style of the basement shows the decade of the construction. They started work on Tashkent’s TV Tower in 1978 and it work was finished 6 years later on 15th of January 1985. It was the 4th tallest tower in the world after completion. The tower could hold the position from 1985 to 1991.
We went into the elevator to go up to the observation deck located 97 meters above the ground. Inside of the elevators are two screen to watch up and down of the elevator shaft. A nice view and not so scary as a glass floor.
After we went out of the elevator we went fast to the windows to enjoy the view. We could see very clear the city Tashkent and even the mountains of the Tian Shan. Now it became clear why it was decided in 1971 to build this tower. The reason was to spread the TV and radio signals all over the country of Uzbekistan.
The observation deck offers not only a great view. It also have some telescope to watch some parts of the great view over Tashkent in detail, a small shop and small models of other TV Towers around the world. To use the telescopes you have to get some Sum coins at the small shop.
We enjoyed the view step by step. Looking to Kazakhstan, the Tian Shan Mountains, Aqua Park, Uzbekistan Hotel, Tashkent’s Bazar, … But with the noon coming closer we went hungry. So we decided to eat something delicious in the restaurant of the tower. We went to the elevator again and went one floor up.
After door of the elevator opened we got a unexpected view. The restaurant have a very unique style. The glass decoration and white and blue coloring feels like under water but the old wooden door with Central Asia ornaments felt more like a fairy tale in “1001 nights”. The restaurant is rotating very slowly. So we had the opportunity to enjoy our food and the view around Tashkent, again.
The food was delicious and the prices was close to the prices in Shymkent’s restaurants and cafes.
Strong and Happy to made the visit to the Tashkent’s TV Tower we took a taxi and went back to Shymkent. During our way back we recognized that the TV tower is only the 2nd largest structure in Central Asia. A smokestack of a power station in north east Kazakhstan is even bigger.
More information’s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashkent_Tower