Tashkent Metro (1977)

The Tashkent metro is worth touring like a museum: it is one of the most ornate underground systems anywhere, and the fare is the admission.

Digging began soon after the 1966 earthquake, at the turn of the seventies. The city was growing fast and needed transport, but the task was hard: a hot climate, a seismic zone, groundwater and underground streams beneath the Bozsu canal. Local specialists worked alongside invited engineers from Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, and built in enough margin for the tunnels to withstand shocks of magnitude nine.

The first stretch, on the Chilanzar line from the centre to the Chilanzar housing district, opened in 1977; in 1980 it was extended to Buyuk Ipak Yuli. That line now has twelve stations and nearly seventeen kilometres of track.

The Uzbekistan line was begun in the same year, 1980. By 1984 it linked Alisher Navoi with the railway station, by 1987 it reached the factory districts, and in 1991 a third stretch joined the centre to Chorsu market, the old city and the university quarter. It has eleven stations and a little over fourteen kilometres.

The Yunusabad line came after independence: the first section, from the centre to the TV tower district, opened in 2001, and the network has kept growing since.

The stations are the point: marble, carved ganch, ceramics, stained glass and chandeliers, each on its own theme, from space flight to the poetry of Navoi. Photography was banned underground for many years; it is now allowed.