Give Osh two days. Day one is Sulaiman-Too: climb to Babur's House early, go inside the rock at the Cave Museum, then walk down to the Rabat Abdullah Khan Mosque. Plov for lunch, the Kurmanjan Datka monument at dusk. Day two drives out to the Uzgen minaret, or south over the Taldyk Pass on the Pamir Highway.
Osh is Kyrgyzstan's oldest city and the capital of the south, a Fergana Valley town as Uzbek as it is Kyrgyz, built around a sacred rock that rises from its centre. It is also the northern end of the Pamir Highway, so most travellers arrive on the way to the mountains.
The rock in the middle of the city has drawn pilgrims for centuries and became Kyrgyzstan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. The stair to Babur's House, a 1989 rebuild of the prayer room Babur built here in 1497, is steep: climb it early, before the heat.
The Sulaiman-Too museum complex, founded in 1949, fills a natural cave in the rock with more than 30,000 objects from the Fergana Valley, from Bronze Age pottery to Kyrgyz jewellery. It holds at about 15°C all year, the coolest hour of a summer afternoon.
Said to be the oldest mosque in Osh, this 16th-century prayer hall sits at the foot of Sulaiman-Too and is still in use. Visit outside prayer times with shoulders and knees covered; women should carry a headscarf.
Southern plov is cooked with the red devzira rice grown around Uzgen, and Osh plov is the version Kyrgyzstan rates highest. Navat's Osh branch is the dependable place to try it, alongside lagman, manty and samsa from the tandoor.
The riverside Jayma Bazaar was flooded in July 2024 and cleared, and since July 2025 its traders work from the new municipal market at Japalak, with 2,500 stalls. Go in the morning for dried fruit, nuts, spices and sacks of Uzgen rice.
Kurmanjan Datka held the Alai together through the Russian annexation and now appears on a banknote. Her statue stands under a great arch in the park named for her, above the old Silk Road route, with a clear line back to Sulaiman-Too.
The Osh State Academic Uzbek Music and Drama Theatre is more than a century old and reopened in April 2023 after a $5 million renovation paid for by Uzbekistan. Shows are in Uzbek; the music and staging carry a visitor through.
Uzgen was a Karakhanid capital, and its 11th-century brick minaret, 27.5 m tall, still stands beside three carved mausoleums. Combine it with the town bazaar, where the district's red devzira rice is sold by the sack.
At Abshir-Sai a river bursts from a cave in a cliff face and falls about 30 m to the valley floor. Pilgrims bathe in the spray and fill bottles with the water, so treat it as a shrine as much as a viewpoint.
Osh is the northern end of the Pamir Highway. The M41 climbs over the 3,615 m Taldyk Pass to Sary-Tash, and Achik-Tash base camp, at 3,600 m under Lenin Peak, is about 280 km and five hours away. Acclimatise before you sleep high.
The oldest mosque in Osh by local account, 16th century and still in use.
The Kyrgyz-language company, named for the former premier Sultan Ibraimov.
Eid al-Fitr, a public holiday that moves with the lunar calendar. Mosques overflow.
A public holiday, marked with flowers, concerts and family meals.
The spring new year and the biggest date of the year, with sumolok and concerts in the parks.
A public holiday, and the start of the warm, green weeks in the valley.
The 1945 Soviet victory, marked with wreaths at the war memorials.
Eid al-Adha, about ten weeks after Orozo Ait. Families share the sacrifice.
Concerts and fireworks for the 1991 break with the Soviet Union.
Two public holidays of remembrance, centred on the 1916 Urkun uprising.
About 10 km from the centre. Flights to Bishkek take under an hour, and there are direct routes to Russia, Turkey and the Gulf. A taxi into town is the simple option.
Around 600 km over two passes, eleven or twelve hours, about 2,000 som a seat. Do it once in daylight; the flight is the sane return.
The crossing to Andijan sits a few kilometres from the city and reopened fully in 2017. Taxis run to the post; walk across and pick up another.
Yandex Go works across Osh and is cheap. Numbered marshrutka minibuses cover the main roads for a few som, cash only.
Rice, carrot and mutton in a kazan, made with Uzgen's red devzira rice.
Hand-pulled noodles under a stew of beef, peppers and garlic.
Tandoor pastries stuffed with mutton and onion, eaten straight from the oven.
Steamed dumplings of minced lamb, or pumpkin in autumn.
Mutton skewers over coals, sold from every grill on the main roads.
A layered, flaky flatbread fried in butter.
Fermented mare's milk, sour and lightly fizzy, sold in summer.
Squares of fried dough piled on every table at a celebration.
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Kyrgyzstan
