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A small town with a long history, Ozgon (Uzgen) used to depend on coal for employment.  Recorded history mentions this settlement as far back as the 1st Century. The Chinese knew it as Yu. In the 13th Century, Ghengis Kahn destroyed the city.  The Karakhanid mausoleum and minaret that survived the ages is said to have been the basis of Samarkand’s (Uzbekistan) famous tomb complex.

The entire complex is being restored and interest is gaining among the Kyrgyz and foreign tourists to visit the site. A photograph of both structures is found on the reverse side of the 50 Som bill.

Ozgon has experience a sort of revival in recent years.  As Uzbekistan border policies have tighten, requiring visas from even the Kyrgyz, a road that connects Osh and Jalal-Abad in one hour’s drive through Uzbek territory has become a difficult travel route. Now, the almost three hour drive around Uzbek territory takes people through Ozgon.

A silver color statue of Lenin welcomes visitors to the the mausoleum and minoret.

About half-way between Osh and Jalal-Abad, this town is best known for events it would rather forget.  About 80% Uzbek ethnic, Ozgon experienced three days of violent fighting between Kyrgyz and Uzbek ethnics in 1990.  The long standing gerrymandered boundaries in the region (back to Stalin’s time) resulted in the death of at least 300 people while Soviet authorities looked the other way.

[Home] [Fall 2006] [GTU] [Kyrgyzstan] [Bishkek in February 2003] [Osh] [Ozgon] [Djalal-Abad (Jalal-Abad)] [Karakol] [Maps] [Cambodia] [Mongolia]