In the morning, meet your guide and driver at your Tashkent hotel. Drive to Parkent village (55 km, 1 hr 20 min) to tour the Big Solar Furnace, a truly unique Soviet relic at The Physics-Sun Institute of Materials Science, also known as the Solar Institute of Uzbekistan.
Upon arrival, begin your tour of the institute’s Big Solar Furnace, a technical complex with a solar concentrator, technological tower, and special mirrors (heliostats) that work in harmony to create an ideal environment for solar energy research.
During the tour, you will visit the following:

• Heliostat field filled with 62 mirrors;
• Solar museum;
• Hydrometeorological station;
• Concentrator of the Big Solar Furnace (BSF), which you can climb to observe the process of melting materials at temperatures reaching 3000°C (Note that melting does not occur on weekends, or on some weekdays);
• The upper area of BSF, which offers a nice mountain view and fresh air (As of April 4, 2023, the elevator is out of order, so the observation deck is only conditionally accessible. To get there, you need to climb 13 floors on an external staircase on foot).

The complex is located at an altitude of 1100 meters in the foothills of the Tien Shan Mountains. After your tour of Physics-Sun, you will have free time to enjoy the beauty of nature before returning to Tashkent.
End of Solar Furnace near Tashkent Tour.
Tour Duration:
BSF tour time - 3 hours
Travel time – 6 hours