Kyr Uzkand

Kyr Uzkand preserves the remains of Uzgent, a medieval town of the lower Syr Darya. Like Sighnaq and other towns along the river, it stood between the cultivated river country and the steppe. It must be distinguished from the better-known Uzgen in the Ferghana Valley, far to the southeast. Coins found at the site show that Uzgent was a minting centre under the eastern rulers of the Golden Horde. Among them is a silver coin naming Tokhtamysh and bearing the date 783 of the Islamic calendar, corresponding to 1381. The finds place the town in a network of political and commercial centres along the Syr Darya during the fourteenth century.