Alisher Navoi Library

(1 Independence Sq-, www.natlib.uz; © 08.00-20.00 Mon-Fri, 08.00-17.00 Sat-Sun)

The National Library of Uzbekistan, named in honour of the 15th-century polymath Aiisher Navoi, is a sprawling modern building that opened at the end of 2011. Dating back to 1870, the core of the collection includes books and manuscripts originally belonging to General Kaufman. The rare books department has a vast number of pre-revolutionary Turkic-language newspapers, and separate catalogues list Uzbek and Russian sources, materials in Kyrgyz Kazakh and Soviet-era journals relating to Uzbekistan. Though not of such great interest to general visitors due to the language barriers involved, it is nonetheless an invaluable resource for research, and many of the items are visually appealing whether you can read them or not.