The walnut forest city — Arslanbob's ancient grove and Fergana Valley spring
Jalal-Abad is the administrative capital of Kyrgyzstan's south — a Fergana Valley city best known as the gateway to Arslanbob, home to the world's largest ancient walnut forest (70,000 hectares, some trees over 1,000 years old). The forest is also a living community — Kyrgyz families have sustainably harvested walnuts, apples, almonds, and wild cherry from these slopes for centuries. Jalal-Abad itself has a significant Uzbek minority and a Uzbek-influenced bazaar culture distinctly different from northern Kyrgyzstan. The city's hot springs have been a curative destination since the Soviet era…
Jalal-Abad and the surrounding Fergana Valley were part of the Kokand Khanate until Russian conquest in 1876. Under the Soviets, the region became part of the Kirghiz SSR and Jalal-Abad became an oblast (regional) capital. The valley has historically been one of Central Asia's most ethnically mixed zones — Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tajik, and Russian populations living in close proximity. The 2010 inter-ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in Jalal-Abad and Osh left over 400 dead and displaced 400,000 — the worst violence in post-Soviet Central Asia. The region has stabilised since, thou…