1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ura-Tyube

URA-TYUBE, or Ora-tepe, a town of Russian Turkestan, in the province of Samarkand, lying 37 m. S.W. of Khojent, on the road from Ferghana to Jizak across the Zarafshan range. Pop. (1900) 22,088, chiefly Uzbegs. It is surrounded by a wall and has a citadel. The inhabitants carry on trade in horses and camel-wool cloth, and manufacture cottons, boots and shoes, oil, and camel’s-hair shawls. Ura-tyube is supposed to have been founded by Cyrus under the name of Cyropol, and was taken in 329 B.C. by Alexander the Great of Macedon. Later it was the capital of an independent state, though often held by either Bokhara or Kokand. The Russians took it in 1866.