Chorsu Bazaar, Tashkent

Chorsu Bazaar opening hours: is it open every day?

Yes — Chorsu Bazaar is open every day of the week, Mondays included, with no weekly closing day. There is no official timetable, though: each hall and stall keeps its own hours. Unofficial listings put trading from about 5:00–7:00 until 18:00–20:00, and the market is at its liveliest between 8:00 and noon.

The food hall under the dome wakes up first, as bread, meat and dairy arrive at dawn. Souvenir and clothing stalls outside start later, around 9:00. From about 17:00 many traders pack up, so late afternoon is the worst time to come for choice.

On the first days of the big Eid holidays (Ramazon Hayit and Qurbon Hayit) some sections may stay shut, so keep a backup plan if your visit falls then.

What to buy at Chorsu Bazaar

• Dried fruit and nuts — apricots, raisins, dried melon, almonds, walnuts and salted apricot kernels. The best thing to take home.
• Spices piled in cones under the dome — cumin, red pepper, barberries, saffron. Traders happily let you sniff and taste.
• Sweets — navat (crystal sugar), parvarda, pashmak and halva.
• Dairy — suzma, katyk and kurt, hard salty balls of dried sour milk. Taste kurt before you buy a bag: it's an acquired taste.
• Non (bread) — round tandoor loaves stamped with a pattern in the middle, sold warm around the dome.
• The meat hall with kazy, horse-meat sausage — not for everyone, but as local as it gets.
• Crafts in the outer pavilions — skullcaps, chapan robes, ceramics, knives, kurpacha quilts and musical instruments.
• Street food next door — plov, samsa, shashlik, norin and manti in small cafés.

Is Chorsu Bazaar worth visiting?

Yes — it's the one place in Tashkent where the old Central Asian city still feels like everyday life rather than a museum. You don't need to buy anything: an hour under the dome, tasting dried apricots and watching bread come out of the tandoor, is a good morning in itself.

It's less worth it in the late afternoon, when half the stalls are closing, and in the midsummer midday heat. If you've already done Siyob Bazaar in Samarkand, Chorsu is bigger and more urban, but the products are much the same.

A short history of the dome

Chorsu means “four roads” in Persian: routes from the four quarters of old Tashkent met here, and there has been a market on this spot since the Middle Ages. Locals also call it Eski Juva; in Soviet times it was the October Bazaar.

The bazaar took its present form by the early 1990s. The main dome, by Vladimir Azimov and Sabir Adylov, is about 80 metres across and the largest in Uzbekistan, with seven smaller domes around it. Historian Boris Chukhovich traces the idea to a 1955 covered market in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria. In July 2026 the dome joined UNESCO's Tashkent Modernist Architecture listing, alongside nine other buildings including the State Museum of Arts and Kosmonavtlar metro station.

Chorsu vs Hazrati Imam vs the Applied Arts Museum

Chorsu and Hazrati Imam are neighbours — do them back to back in one morning. Visit the Applied Arts Museum first if you want to know what good craftsmanship looks like before you shop.

Nearby — add to your day

43

Hazrati Imam Complex

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

45 min · Free; Quran museum has a small fee · 22 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Hazrati Imam Complex

41

Tashkent City Park

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

1 h · Free · 26 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Tashkent City Park

How to do it right

• Start on the upper level under the dome: you'll see how the aisles are laid out before you dive in.
• Haggle for dried fruit, spices and souvenirs; bread and meat usually have fixed prices.
• Taste before you buy — dried-fruit and nut sellers will offer anyway.
• Flying home with dried fruit? Ask for it to be packed tight, vacuum-sealed if they offer.
• Want a quality souvenir? Look at the pieces in the Applied Arts Museum first — it makes handmade easier to tell from factory-made.
• Heading to the mountains at Chimgan? Stock up on bread and apricots here first.

Questions