Urgench

Urgench (Uzbek: Urganch/; Persian: / Gorganch) is a city (1999 pop. 139,100) in western Uzbekistan. It is the capital of the Khorezm Province, on the Amu Darya River and the Shavat canal. The city is situated 450 km west of Bukhara across the Kyzyl Kum Desert. It is located at latitude 41° 32' 60N longitude 60° 37' 60E, at an altitude of 91 meters. Modern Urgench is a Soviet-style city with cotton motifs adorning every object possible, from street lights to apartment houses. Of note is a monument to the twenty Komsomol members killed by Tekke basmachi on the banks of the Syr Darya in 1922, and a large statue to Muhammed al-Khwarizmi, the 9th century local mathematician who revolutionised algebra, outside the Hotel Urgench. A flat, drab place, this hotel is the main gateway for tourists to Khiva 35 kilometres to the southeast, whose old city, known as Itchan Kala, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.