Tashkent TV Tower: Visiting the 375-Metre Tower
The observation deck, the revolving restaurant, the passport check at the door and whether the view over Tashkent justifies the queue.
Tashkent's skyline has one thing in it that you can see from anywhere: a 375-metre steel tower with a saucer near the top, built in the 1980s and still among the tallest structures in Central Asia.
You can go up it. The observation deck is not at the top, the restaurant turns, and getting in involves handing over your passport, which surprises people who have not been warned.
The tower
Construction began in 1978 and the tower entered service in 1985. It is a Soviet broadcasting tower of the same family as those in Moscow, Kyiv and Vilnius: a steel lattice on a concrete base, designed with seismic resistance in mind, which mattered here after the 1966 earthquake destroyed much of the city.
The height usually quoted is 375 metres. The public levels sit far lower: the observation gallery is at roughly 94 metres and the restaurant at about 104. That is the single most common disappointment, so it is worth knowing in advance. You are going up a quarter of the tower, not to the top of it.
At 94 metres the view is still good. Tashkent is flat and low-rise, so you see the whole spread of the city, the mountains to the northeast on a clear day, and the pattern of Soviet planning laid out beneath you.
Getting in
The entry process is more bureaucratic than the attraction warrants, and it goes roughly like this: security at the gate takes your passport or ID, you pay at a separate desk, then return with the receipt to collect your ticket and your document.
- Bring your passport. A copy is sometimes accepted and sometimes not. Carry the original to avoid an argument.
- Tickets are inexpensive, in the region of 40,000 som for the observation deck, payable in cash or by card (last checked: July 2026).
- Hours run roughly 10am to 8pm daily. Times change; check before making a special trip.
- Security is airport-style. Large bags are a problem.
- Time needed: 45 minutes to an hour including the process.
Weekends and holidays bring queues of local families. A weekday morning is quiet.
The revolving restaurant
Above the observation deck is a panoramic restaurant that rotates, completing a turn in about three quarters of an hour, so that every table gets every view.
Judge it as an experience rather than a meal. The food is ordinary and the prices reflect the location. What you are buying is a slowly changing view of Tashkent with a coffee or a dessert in front of you, which is a perfectly good way to spend forty minutes.
Go at dusk if you can, when the city lights come on during your rotation. Booking ahead is sensible in the evening.
What you can pick out from the deck
The view is more rewarding if you know what you are looking at, because Tashkent from above is a legible city.
To the south you see the centre: the wide avenues, the government buildings, the green of Amir Timur square, and beyond it the low sprawl of the old city towards Chorsu, distinguishable by its denser, more irregular street pattern.
To the northeast, on a clear day, the foothills of the western Tien Shan rise on the horizon. Spring and autumn give the best chance of seeing them; in high summer the haze usually hides them.
All around you is the reason the city looks the way it does. The earthquake of April 1966 destroyed a vast amount of central Tashkent, and the rebuilding that followed was done by teams from across the Soviet Union in a hurry: wide roads, microdistricts of standard apartment blocks, generous parks and public squares. From ground level that reads as ordinary post-war city; from 94 metres the plan is obvious.
Look also at the trees. Tashkent has an enormous tree canopy for a desert-edge city, planted deliberately and maintained with irrigation channels, and from above the green cover is far more extensive than you would guess while walking a hot street.
Is it worth doing?
Honest answer: it depends on what you like.
If you enjoy Soviet engineering, panoramic views or the specific pleasure of a revolving restaurant that has not been refurbished since it was fashionable, this is an hour well spent and very cheap.
If you are in Tashkent for two days and want Silk Road architecture, skip it. Tashkent's real highlights are the metro stations, the Chorsu bazaar, the old city and the Museum of Applied Arts, and the tower is a long way behind all of them.
Children, on the other hand, tend to love it.
Practicalities and what is nearby
The tower stands in the Yunusabad district, north of the centre. The nearest metro station is Bodomzor, a few minutes' walk, or take a taxi for a couple of dollars.
Two things worth combining with it:
- The Central Asian Plov Centre, a short walk away, which serves the city's most famous plov from mid-morning until it sells out. Our Tashkent eating guide explains the timing.
- The Japanese Garden and the exhibition halls nearby, pleasant in the late afternoon and free or cheap.
A sensible plan is plov at noon, the tower at one, and the metro back into the centre afterwards. That makes a good half day out of a sight that does not deserve a whole one.
Our Tashkent travel guide covers the rest of the city, including how to fit the northern districts into a short stay.
Featured image: BeshevI (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons.