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Uzbekistan

Republic of Uzbekistan


Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Its capital and largest city is Tashkent. Uzbekistan has an area of 447,400 km² making it the 56th largest country in the world by area and the 42nd by population. Uzbekistan is a dry or arid country (100–200 mm/a), located within a series of endorheic basins, none of its rivers leads to the sea.

Uzbekistan has more tha 1000 caves, the deepest is Boy-Bulok with 1,415 m, and the longest is Dark Star with 17,400 m. Dark Star is an ice cave, and located at 3,751 m asl, so the current depth of 908 m might not be the end. National Geographic speculated that it might become the deepest cave of the world some day. The reason for this guess is nearby Alexander Vishnevskiy Cave. The two caves are only about 50 m vertically and 250 m horizontally apart, and connected the resulting system would be 30 km long and 2 km deep.

But despite the massive speleological importance of the country, there are actually no show caves, a result of the lack of tourism. It seems even the locals do not travel very much, so there is actually no use in developing caves. But there is actually one cave, which is visited by many people, but it is a religious site.