Located in the heart of Central Asia between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya River, Uzbekistan has a long and interesting heritage. The leading cities of the Silk Road - Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva - are located in Uzbekistan. As Russia extended its empire into Central Asia in the second half of the nineteenth century, Uzbekistan became part of Tsarist Russia and later of the Soviet Union. It declared its independence from Soviet rule in 1991.

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