Independence Square Tashkent: Storks, Memorial, History
What the storks on the Ezgulik arch mean, where Lenin stood, finding the Mourning Mother, and what you can't photograph on Tashkent's main square.
Walk into Independence Square in Tashkent and look up before you look anywhere else. Along the top of the long white arch at the entrance is a line of birds with their wings open. They're storks. The arch is called Ezgulik, roughly "goodness" or "noble aspiration", and the country's official tourism portal says the white storks stand for peace, calm and "our clear sky", while the birds shown mid-flap point to a people reaching for bigger goals (uzbekistan.travel, Uzbek-language page, last checked: September 2026).
That's the key to the square. Almost everything on Mustaqillik Maydoni is a symbol placed on purpose, on ground that's been the seat of whoever ran Tashkent for 160 years. Read the symbols and it's an interesting hour. Skip them and it's a lawn with guards.
The Ezgulik arch, up close
The arch is 150 m long. Its sixteen white columns are 10 m tall, and the central one rises to 12 m, joined by a metal canopy that throws the sun back at you (portal figures). It opened in 2005, during the rebuild President Islam Karimov ordered in 2004, according to Gazeta.uz's photo history of the square.
Storks aren't random. They're a good-luck bird across Uzbekistan (Bukhara's stork-shaped scissors carry the same idea), and here they're doing political work too: a peaceful sky over an independent country.
The detail most guides miss: the portal describes newlyweds passing under the arch and crossing the white marble to lay flowers at the Happy Mother. On a weekend in wedding season, expect several parties and their photographers on the same few metres. Give them room.
The globe, the Happy Mother, and what stood there before
The centrepiece is the Monument of Independence and Humanism: a golden globe with Uzbekistan's outline on a tall pedestal, and a mother holding a baby at its foot. The official portal gives the mother as 6 m tall and the child as 3.5 m, and credits the sculptors Ilhom and Kamol Jabborov.
Dates drift between sources. The globe went up in 1992. The mother, Baxtiyor Ona or the "Happy Mother", was added in 2005 per Gazeta.uz and a University of Pennsylvania note, 2006 per some tour operators. A decree of 3 February 2006 made the monument the official setting for state ceremonies.
Now the more interesting part. The globe sits where Lenin used to point.
- 1867 onward: Konstantin von Kaufman, appointed the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan in July 1867, has his residence built here, the "White House". The Senate building stands on that site today.
- 1870s to 1888: the Spaso-Preobrazhensky military cathedral goes up on the square, giving it the name Sobornaya (Cathedral) Square. The Soviets demolish it in 1929.
- 1917 onward: it becomes Red Square, and from 1956 Lenin's Red Square.
- November 1936: the first Lenin statue, by Boris Korolyov. Matvey Manizer's replacement follows in 1956.
- 1974 to 1975: after the 1966 earthquake, the centre is rebuilt and the square is enlarged three and a half times. A new Lenin rises on the high pedestal. Sources split between 1974 and 1975.
- 1991 to 1992: Lenin is dismantled, the square is renamed Mustaqillik Maydoni, and the globe takes his place.
(Timeline from Gazeta.uz's "From Red to Independence" photo history, cross-checked against the official portal and Turkestan Travel. Last checked: September 2026.)
A tsarist governor, a Soviet leader, then a map of the new state, each on the same spot facing the same parade ground. You don't need a guide to feel that, just to know it beforehand. Our piece on how the 1966 earthquake reshaped central Tashkent explains why so little of the older square survives.
The Mourning Mother and the Book of Memory
Walk north towards the Anhor canal and the mood drops. This is the Alley of Memory and Honour, laid out in 1999, the same year 9 May was renamed the Day of Remembrance and Honour.
Both sides of the alley are lined with carved columns and metal pages. Together they're called the Book of Memory, and the pages carry, in gold letters, the names of Uzbek soldiers killed in the Second World War. The portal counts about 1.5 million people sent to the front from a republic of roughly 6.55 million, and more than 538,000 killed. Some older guides say 400,000; we'd go with the portal. A 33-volume Book of Memory also sits in the museum at Victory Park in Olmazor district.
At the end of the alley an eternal flame burns in front of the Motamsaro Ona, the Mourning Mother, a bronze woman with her head bowed, by the sculptor Ilhom Jabborov. She's the counterweight to the Happy Mother: one waits for a son who didn't come back, the other holds a child in a country that's now its own. That pairing is the best thing on the square.
Behave as at any war memorial: no posing on the steps. Fresh flowers appear year-round, and on 9 May the alley fills with families.
The government buildings, and the fountains between them
The square sits on two levels, with a natural 3.5 m drop across more than 12 hectares, per the portal. Along one side stand the Senate, the Cabinet of Ministers and other ministries. They're working offices, which is why the security is real.
The fountains, including a cascade, are what draws Tashkent families in summer. We couldn't find a published schedule, so don't count on water in March or November.
Access and hours: what's actually known
It's free, there's no ticket, and you can walk most of the square. The caveats:
- No official opening hours. The "9:00–18:00, Mon–Sat" shown on the portal page is the tourism centre's phone line, not the square. Families are out here well after dark in summer.
- The monument itself is fenced off. You see the globe and the Happy Mother down an avenue of hedges, from a distance.
- Parts close without notice. Expect cordons around 1 September (Independence Day), 9 May, and when foreign delegations lay wreaths, which the portal says is routine. Visitors report some entrances shut on ordinary days too.
- Getting there. Mustaqillik Maydoni metro station is directly beneath the square. Its marble hall and chandeliers date from November 1977; our station-by-station metro walk-through has the route.
Photography: where the line is
Photographing the arch, fountains, globe and memorial is normal. The line is the buildings and their guards. The UK Foreign Office warns that photography of government buildings in particular can upset the authorities, even though restrictions have relaxed (last checked: September 2026). In practice that means:
- Don't make a guard or a police officer your subject.
- A wide shot with the Senate in the background is fine. A zoomed study of its entrance is the kind of thing that gets you a polite question.
- Leave the drone at the hotel.
- If someone asks you to delete a picture, delete it. It's not worth the argument.
Is it worth your time?
Our own one-day Tashkent plan tells you to cut it, and for a single day that still stands. With two days, or one free evening, we'd reverse that. Go at sunset. Read the arch, find where Lenin stood, then walk north to the Mourning Mother and finish by the canal.
It pairs with the walk south: the exiled Grand Duke's palace sits between this square and Amir Timur Square, so one stroll covers tsarist, Soviet and post-1991 Tashkent in about an hour. For the rest of a zero-cost day, our list of free things to do in Tashkent picks up from here.
One practical point: in July and August the white marble around the arch throws the heat straight back at you, and shade is scarce until the northern end. Before about 18:00, start at the memorial and work south.