Uchkuduk (Uzb. Uchquduq, from Uzbek “three wells”) is a city in the Navoi region of Uzbekistan.
From 1958 to 1978 – an urban-type settlement. The population is about 28 thousand people (2011).

Geographic location
The city is located in the central part of the Kyzylkum desert, 12 km from the Uchkuduk railway station. Since 1958, the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine (NMMC) has been operating in the city. Most of the residents are employees of this plant. Since 2001, the Uchkuduk-2-Miskin railway line has been operating in Uzbekistan. Since 1995, a gold extraction complex has been operating in Uchkuduk, with a design capacity of about 20 tons of gold per year.

History
The history of the emergence of Uch-Kuduk is connected with the fact that in the 50s the USSR was in dire need of uranium. The ideas of geologists at that time were such that uranium deposits can only be in the mountains, therefore deposits were first discovered in the area of ​​​​the settlement of Yangiabad of the Uzbek SSR, in the Kirghiz SSR. With the development of geophysical equipment, they began to equip aviation with it.
Geophysical equipment was installed on a Li-2 aircraft, which loitered over the Kyzylkum desert. Over the field, the equipment recorded a powerful burst of radiation, which was reported to Moscow. In the same month, a geological exploration expedition was urgently organized for a more detailed assessment of the deposit. After the arrival of the expedition, a place was chosen near the spring (at present, you can get there by going down from the city, passing over the “Sun”, along the road and railway tracks about 300-350 meters towards the TV tower and the old cemetery).
The expedition leadership decided to dig three wells, which served one for drinking, another for bathing, and the third for technical needs. This is how the name Uch-Kuduk (Three wells) appeared. Later, a stationary geological party No. 54 appeared at this place, which lasted until the mid-60s.

Then, until 1978, Uchkuduk became an urban-type settlement and belonged to the Bukhara region. Since 1978, it began to be called a city and belong to the Bukhara region until April 20, 1982, when the Navoi region was formed from parts of the Bukhara region.
Until 1979, it had the status of a closed secret strategic facility. In the late 1960s, thanks to the rapid growth of mining of uranium ore both by open and underground methods, and later by underground leaching, the city began to develop actively, mass arrivals for permanent work of the best miners and engineering and technical specialists from all over the USSR began.

Song about Uchkuduk
The city of Uchkuduk became widely known thanks to the song of the group “Yalla” “Uchkuduk – three wells” to the words of Yuri Entin.

Plane crash near Uchkuduk
In the vicinity of Uchkuduk, a plane crash occurred with the largest number of victims in the history of the USSR (200 people). On July 10, 1985, a Tu-154 passenger plane flying along the Tashkent-Karshi-Ufa-Leningrad route, shortly after taking off from the Karshi airport, fell into a flat tailspin and collided with the ground.