Bazaars

If travelling through different countries of the world is the best way to find out what goes on there, stopping in bazaars and letting yourself being carried away by the show of noises, aromas and colors will always be an important goal for travellers, for those who want to get involved in the hustle and bustle in order to get close to the roots of the society that surrounds them, as well as for those who get enough out of enjoying the bazaar as a purely aesthetic experience, and authentic gift for the senses.

Uzbekistan is situated in the region made up of a group of countries and cultures of Central Asia. It is an area with specific features derived from the peoples who humanised the landscapes and made a host of exchanges.

The market is an economic institution governed by its own rules. It makes trading activity more efficient. It means law and order, agreements, equivalences, coins, weights and measures, contracts, guarantees...
The market played a fundamental role in an urban economy that had to guarantee foodstuffs and raw materials.

Uzbek markets are the reflection of ancient traditions and customs of local people. They reflect the complex, dynamic process in which, as well as goods, people, knowledge, values, ideas and tastes have circulated.

As well supplying, markets have other functions that enable us to capture the rhythms of peoples and their tradition. The market is a highly socialised place, a synthesis of specific cultural codes. Markets help to preserve the memory of places. Even in these modern times, all forms of trading are still in existence, from the most primitive rituals of selling and buying goods to the most modern ones.

People still trade in the open air, on the ground, or use improvised structures such as tables or wood benches to form covered stalls or open air stands, from motor vehicles, teprorary booths, or other bases.

As well as in past, in present times we find all kinds of vegetables and fruits in the local bazaars: watermelons, melons, peaches, cherries, pears, apples, apricots, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, rice, peanuts, almonds, pistachios and big choice of spices and dried fruits that come from different parts of Uzbekistan and other parts of Asia, and others that were once unknown, once that were only introduced or established through the bazaar.