Tashkent is not an ancient city, but rather more of a crossroads on the Silk Road. It started as an oasis on the Chirchik River, near the foothills of the Golestan Mountains. In ancient times, this area was the principality of Chach, whose main town had a square citadel built around the 5th to 3rd centuries BC, some 8 km south of the Syr Darya River. By the 7th century AD, Chach had over 30 towns and a network of over 50 canals, forming a trade center between the Sogdians and Turkic nomads. The region subsequently came under the sway of Islam in the early parts of the 8th century.

Alexander the Great conquered Sogdiana and Bactria in 327 BC, marrying Roxana, daughter of a local Sogdian chieftain. However, the conquest was supposedly of little help to Alexander as popular resistance was fierce, causing Alexander’s army to be bogged down in the region.