Map of the City of Tashkent, drawn by Vladimir Pirogovsky in 1913, captures a Silk Road capital at the instant it steps into modernity. Conceived to present the newly launched electric tramway, the map centers decisively on Amir Temur Square, the showcase of “Russian Tashkent” and a carefully planned counterpoint to the organically evolved Old City. Bold red lines announce both operational and proposed tram routes, threading between imperial boulevards and timeworn marketplaces to chart the city’s daily rhythms. Tashkent’s role as administrative heart of Russian Turkestan is written across its ordered streets and legible districts, while the presence of Chorsu Bazaar, the Tashkent Fortress, and the Railways Station conveys a metropolis where imperial ambition, commercial tradition, and long-distance mobility converge.

Pirogovsky’s drafting revels in the logic of the new order. The gridded avenues of Russian Tashkent—Amir Temur Boulevard, O’zbekiston Avenue, and Tashkent Avenue among them—marshal traffic toward squares, ministries, and the Tashkent Railways Station, a keystone of the city’s regional command. Streets such as Narimanov, Molodoi, and Navoi are crisply named, their intersections measured and assured, with administrative clarity reinforced by deft color coding. The map’s tramlines loop and intersect with intent, their geometry echoing the era’s modernization ethos. This urban choreography, legible at a glance, makes the sheet an exemplary city map: it translates power, planning, and public movement into a coherent, navigable design.

By contrast, the Old City unfurls as a textured palimpsest anchored by Chorsu Bazaar and the Tashkent Fortress, its lanes bending to older logics of craft, kinship, and water. The Akhor Canal threads through these quarters, a life-giving artery whose course shapes blocks and pathways as surely as any boulevard. Streets named Buxoro, Khorezm, and Kashgar whisper of caravan routes and mercantile ties that once knit Central Asia. Yakkasaray Street and Chiroqchi Street signal residential clusters and community spaces, the kind of daily geographies a tram stop would newly knit into the city’s wider tempo. Here the map’s administrative neatness gives way to organic intricacy, revealing how Tashkent’s identity rests on the dialogue between inherited form and imposed plan.

Electric tramways—rendered in emphatic red—are the map’s animating feature, charting both service in operation and corridors still on the drawing board. Lines pulse along Alisher Navoi Street and Amir Temur Boulevard, converging on Amir Temur Square before fanning toward the Railways Station and key markets. Proposed extensions trace ambitions outward along routes like Zangiza Street, Yakkasaray Street, and Turkistan Street, signaling where the city would soon swell. The network’s nodes—near Voskresensky Bazaar Street, O’zbekiston Avenue, and Tashkent Avenue—document how mobility, commerce, and administration were being bound into a single urban system. For the city-map connoisseur, this is a rare, lucid record of electrified transport reshaping a Central Asian capital at pace.

Little is known beyond the page about Vladimir Pirogovsky, yet his cartography speaks with the confidence of an imperial surveyor attuned to civic life. His labels, alignments, and color fields turn Abdullayev, Sodiqov, Sultan, Zeleniy, and Tulpar Streets into a readable social atlas, while the juxtaposition of Russian boulevards and the Old City’s meanders frames Tashkent’s plural heritage with tact and precision. Created when Tashkent served as the administrative center of Russian Turkestan, the map distills an urban turning point—where fortress and bazaar meet station and tram, and where expansion is not just imagined but plotted. As a city map, it is notable for rendering complexity without clutter, and for revealing a capital’s aspirations in the very lines that carry its people.

Streets and roads on this map

• Abdullayev Street
• Akhuny Street
• Alisher Navoi Street
• Amir Temur Boulevard
• Bahodir Street
• Buxoro Street
• Chiroqchi Street
• Dzhavlon Street
• Jalal-abad Street
• Jogorku Street
• Kashgar Street
• Khorezm Street
• Mirzoian Street
• Molodoi Street
• Navoi Street
• Narimanov Street
• O'zbekiston Avenue
• Sodiqov Street
• Solo Street
• Sultan Street
• Tashkent Avenue
• Tulpar Street
• Turkistan Street
• Voskresensky Bazaar Street
• Yakkasaray Street
• Yerish Street
• Zarkent Street
• Zangiza Street
• Zaliv Street
• Zeleniy Street
• Zurnabod Street

Notable Features & Landmarks

• Amir Temur Square
• Chorsu Bazaar
• Tashkent Fortress
• Tashkent Railways Station
• Akhor Canal
• Electric tram lines (operational and proposed)
• Residential neighborhoods and community areas

Historical and design context

• A rare city street map showcasing Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, and a significant Silk Road city.
• Created to illustrate the electric tram system launched in the same year.
• The map is centered on Amir Temur Square, a focal point of “Russian Tashkent” developed after the city’s conquest in 1865.
• Provides a distinct contrast between the well-planned Russian sections and the organic growth of the Old City, reflecting Tashkent’s diverse history and cultural heritage.
• Illustrates urban expansion trends and Russian influence following modernization efforts.
• Features clear delineation of streets and districts, with color coding for different areas and modes of transport (tram lines).
• Administrative in nature, with detailed labeling of streets and landmarks.
• Reflects Tashkent’s status as the administrative center of Russian Turkestan in the early 20th century.
• Showcases a blend of Russian colonial modernization with elements of Central Asian heritage.
• Provides insight into transport development and urban planning during Russian rule.

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This is a very large map that must be ordered at a large size, so that you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 70in (180cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.