Things to Do in Osh

Sulaiman-Too is the reason most people come to Osh: a five-peaked limestone ridge, more than 1,140 metres long and 560 metres wide, rising about 150 metres above the rooftops. It has long been a place of worship, and in 2009 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the only one that lies wholly inside Kyrgyzstan. About 300,000 people visit it each year.

The paths and stairs lead up past cult stones, caves and some of the mountain’s 101 recorded petroglyph sites to Babur’s House on the top. Babur wrote that he had a pavilion built here in 1496–97. The original was blown up in the 1960s during a Soviet campaign against religion and rebuilt in 1989. We’d start at the western entrance by the blue-tiled Sulaiman-Too mosque, where the climb is gentler and the ticket office is, and come down the steeper eastern side by the museums. Allow about an hour and a half.

Entry was 70 som in 2026. Hours change with the season, roughly 08:00–22:00 from May to August and 09:00–18:00 in winter (2026), so the evening light is easy to catch in summer. Since April 2026, QR plaques on the mountain play audio guides in Kyrgyz, Russian and English. A rebuild of the paths, entrances and museums, worth about 12 million dollars, was due to start in October 2026 and run to the end of 2028; the ministry says the mountain won’t close, but sections under repair will be fenced off.

On Rushan peak, at the western end of the mountain, a Soviet modernist front is set into the rock. This is the cave museum, built in 1978 by the architect K. Nazarov as a restaurant with tables in the caves overlooking the plain. It became part of the Sulaiman-Too national historical and archaeological museum complex, founded in 1949 and now holding about 35,000 items.

Inside, the halls run through a chain of linked caves, which stay at about 14–15 °C all year, so it’s a cool break on a hot afternoon. The archaeology and nature displays are the usual regional museum fare; the reason to go is the building itself and the big window over the city.

A ticket is sold separately from the mountain entry: visitors paid 50 som in 2025 and 70 som in 2026. It was open daily 09:00–18:00 in 2025, and some listings show a 12:00–13:00 lunch break. The museums are due to get new exhibitions under the 2026–2028 rebuild, so parts may be closed when you visit.

The blue-and-white Church of the Archangel Michael, behind its stone gate, was built in 1877, after the fall of the Kokand Khanate, and is described as the first Orthodox church in the Fergana valley. It is still a working church, and it is thought to be the only Russian church left in Osh.

It stands about 200 metres from the city’s central square in front of the mayor’s office, where Osh has been rewriting its landmarks. Its 23-metre Lenin statue, put up in 1975, was taken down in the early hours of 7 June 2025. A statue of Alymbek Datka now stands in its place, and a 95-metre flagpole went up in September 2025. Lenin Street was renamed Alymbek Datka Street in July 2025.

Next to the square is Toktogul Satylganov park, founded in 1919 and the oldest park in Osh. Put the church, the square and the park together for an hour’s walk south of Sulaiman-Too.

The Ak-Buura is Osh’s river, 148 km long, and it runs straight through the city. Its banks are being remade. The biggest project so far is a new riverside park, billed as the largest in the city, which opened on 28 August 2026. It covers 15 hectares along the river from Isanov Street to the bridge on Bakhapov Street.

It has walking and cycling paths, playgrounds, a workout area, a summer theatre and a flower garden of about a hectare with more than 40,000 flowers. Come in the early evening, when the heat drops. The city plans to landscape another 3 km of the embankment, with a bike path, pavements and trees.

Further north, the stretch where the Jayma bazaar stood is being cleared for green space. The central Alisher Navoi park next to it was rebuilt in spring 2026, with its old rides repaired, some replaced with new ones and new trees planted.

Uzgen was a capital of the Karakhanid state in the 11th and 12th centuries, and three of its monuments still stand together, about 55 km north-east of Osh by road. The minaret is a tapering brick tower 27.5 metres high, 8.5 metres across at the base and 6.2 metres at the top, dated to the early 12th century. Its top, with the arched windows and small cupola, was added in 1923–24.

Next to it is the row of Karakhanid mausoleums. The middle one is the oldest; the northern one was built in 1152–53 and the southern one in 1187, with a portal covered in carved terracotta. Look closely at the brickwork, which is the point of the trip.

The Bishkek–Osh road runs through Uzgen, so it can also be a stop on the way in. Uzgen district grows the red devzira-type rice used for Osh plov, so lunch here should be plov. A new museum next to the minaret is planned with 3.5 million dollars from the World Bank (2026), with no start date yet. We couldn’t find a published 2026 ticket price.

Kyrgyz-Ata is the easiest mountain escape from Osh: a national park of 11,172 hectares, set up in March 1992 to protect the juniper forests on the northern slopes of the Alay range, about 66 km from the city by road. The limestone here has outcrops of multicoloured marble.

Most visitors head for the Karagoy (Kara-Koi) gorge, a picnic spot for Osh families that gets busy at weekends. Beyond it the park is barely developed, so plan hikes in advance or go with a guide. There are guesthouses and chalets near the park information point.

In July 2026 the park put in automated gates that take cards, QR payments and e-wallets. Students and schoolchildren pay half price under the 2026 rules for protected areas. We couldn’t confirm the 2026 entry fee, so check it at the gate.

Abshir-Ata is one of the strangest waterfalls in Kyrgyzstan: an underground river that bursts out of a 1.5-metre cave in a sheer cliff and falls in two steps, of 15 and 12 metres. It sits at about 1,800 metres in the Abshir-Sai valley in Nookat district, about 79 km from Osh by road, and has been a protected geological site since 1975.

The spring is considered sacred, and pilgrims come to it as well as day-trippers. Dress modestly and be respectful of people praying.

In June 2024, mudflows hit Abshir-Ata village hardest of all, washed out the road to the waterfall and cut off about 1,300 people in the recreation area, who had to be evacuated. We couldn’t confirm that the road has been fully rebuilt, so ask in Osh before you set off, and don’t go in heavy rain.

From Osh, the Pamir Highway climbs south over the Taldyk pass, at about 3,615 metres, to Sary-Tash, 186 km away on paved road. From there the Alay valley runs west for 174 km at around 3,000 metres, with the Trans-Alay range and Lenin Peak, 7,134 metres, along its southern side.

Sary-Mogol is 219 km from Osh, and the yurt camps at Achik-Tash, the Lenin Peak base camp at about 3,600 metres, are 242 km away; the last stretch is unpaved. The peak was first climbed from Achik-Tash in 1934. Even if you aren’t climbing, a night or two in the camps, with walks around them, is one of the best things you can do from Osh.

The commercial base camps opened from 28 June to 30 August in 2026, and the area needs a border-zone permit, which tour operators arrange. Shared taxis and minibuses for Gulcha, Sary-Tash and Sary-Mogol leave from a stand in central Osh; a seat to Gulcha cost 250 som in June 2025.