Nukus
Nukus,
city in western Uzbekistan, capital
of the Karakalpakstan Autonomous
Republic, in the delta of the Amu
Darya River. Nukus is about 1255
km west of Tashkent, and about 230
km south of Muynaq and the former
shoreline of the Aral Sea. An increase
in upstream irrigation needs reduced
the downstream flow of the Amu Darya,
contributing to the shrinking of
the Aral and the disappearance of
its plentiful fish stock. Nukus
is a center for the growing and
processing of cotton and rice. The
local climate has changed with the
disappearance of the sea, and Nukus
now experiences an average of ten
dust and sand storms a year. The
1989 census indicated that Nukus
was the fastest growing city in
Uzbekistan as a consequence of the
deteriorating environmental conditions
in the surrounding countryside.
Nukus also has a large museum with
an art collection from the Russian
avant-garde, a bold group of artists
who ushered in modernism at the
beginning of the 20th century. Many
of those artists fell victim to
the purges of Soviet dictator Joseph
Stalin in the early 1930's, but
the late director of the Nukus Museum
collected their work and brought
it to Nukus. Nukus became a city
in 1932 and succeeded Turtkul as
capital of Karakalpakstan in 1939.
Historical
and architectural monuments of Nukus
•
Nukus is the capital of
Karakalpakstan Autonomous republic.
It has population about 200 000
people. 20-30 years ago it was flourishing
city with new buildings and developing
industry. These days city represents
itself like a center of Karakalpak
Autonomous republic. As most of
cultivated lands around Nukus became
deserted, because of Aral Sea problem
city is facing serious environmental
problems like dust storms and not
clean salty water. There are only
a few visiting objects in and around
Nukus:
• Karakalpak
State Museum – is
worth visiting. It has interesting
section with models of Toprak Kala
Koy Kirilan Kala dedicated to the
history of the region, wide section
representing fauna and flora. Represented
in this section Turan Tiger is a
very last one, caught in 1972. Museum
also has wide section dedicated
to the problem of Aral Sea including
satellite maps of Aral Sea from
1957-1988.
•
Art Gallery – on
the same building with Karakalpak
State museum, there is an Art Gallery
of Igor Savitskiy – finest
collection of Soviet avant-garde
from 1920s 1930s and others are
different works of local masters.
Totally museum has 80 000 exhibits
ranging from ancient Khorezmian
art of Toprak Kala, to national
Karakalpak Cubism.
• Museum
of Applied Arts –
located 200 meters from above the
museums. It represents the examples
of local fabrics, traditional dress
and silver jewelry.
• Mizdar
Khan & Yusup Ishan
– 15km West from Nukus 2 holy
sites: Mizdarkhan & Yusup Ishan
– 2 enormous cemeteries with
several thousands graves –
each like mini-Jerusalem in the
desert. Mirdarkhan once was an important
center for handicrafts and trade.
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