Nukus
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Nukus (Karakalpak: Nökis/Нөкис) is the sixth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and the capital of the autonomous Karakalpakstan Republic. It has a population of 199,000 (1999 census estimate).
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[edit] History
Nukus developed from a small settlement in 1932 into a pleasant, modern Soviet city with broad avenues and big public buildings; however, the city's isolation made it host to the Red Army's Chemical Research Institute, a major research and testing center for chemical warfare weapons.
[edit] Ecological concerns
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the growing ecological disaster of the Aral Sea, the city has certainly seen better times. Contamination of the surrounding area by wind-borne salt and pesticides from the dry Aral Sea bed have turned the surrounding area into a wasteland, with very high rates of respiratory disorders, cancer, birth defects and deformities.
[edit] Sights
Nukus is host to the Karakalpakstan Art Museum and State Museum. The State Museum houses the usual collection of artifacts recovered from archaeological investigations, traditional jewelry, costumes and musical instruments, but more interestingly, displays of the area's now vanished or endangered flora and fauna, and on the Aral Sea issue. The Art Museum is noted for its collection of modern Russian and Uzbek art from 1918-1935. Stalin tried his best to eliminate all non Soviet art from this period, and sent most of the artists to the gulag. The collection at Nukus survived because of the city's remoteness.
[edit] External links
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