Chorsu — "four streams" — is a bazaar at the crossroads of trade routes that has been humming on this very spot for over a thousand years. Silk Road caravans once unloaded where Tashkent locals now shop for herbs and flatbread. The market took its present shape in 1980, when a giant turquoise dome 80 metres across rose over the main rows and became one of the city's symbols.
A Gastronomic Map of Uzbekistan Under One Dome
Trade under the dome follows a strict geography: meat stalls in the centre, then rings of dairy, spices, nuts and dried fruit. Look for kurt — salty balls of dried curd, tandoor samsa in the far corner of the meat rows, and mountains of Uzbek flatbread from the neighbouring bakers' quarter. Around the dome lie the craftsmen's rows: knives from Chust, ceramics from Rishtan, skullcaps and suzani embroidery.
Tasting is the custom here: vendors will hand you a slice of melon, a pinch of nuts or a piece of halva unprompted. Smile, taste and bargain — it is part of the ritual, not an argument.
Guide's tip: come before 10 a.m., when fresh flatbread arrives and the bazaar lives its own life rather than the tourist one. Cash is essential, small notes especially. The Chorsu metro station is right next door — step inside: the Tashkent metro is a museum in its own right.