Toʻrtkoʻl

Toʻrtkoʻl, also spelled Turtkul, is a city in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, and the administrative center of the Toʻrtkoʻl District. Its population is 58,200 as of 2016. The city was founded as a Russian garrison after the Khivan campaign of 1873 and was known as Petroaleksandrovsk before 1920. It was then a major jewelry producing center of Uzbekistan, and was equipped with a telegraph in 1913 and a radio station in 1922. In 1932 it was renamed Turtkul, from a Turkish word meaning square, and between 1932 and 1939 it was the capital of the newly formed autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan. The city is located near the Amu Darya River. Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, so Toʻrtkoʻl has no coast.