Country file · Asia & the Middle East

Cryptids of Uzbekistan

What cryptids are in Uzbekistan? The best-known are Zhalmauyz Kempir and Simurgh.

Uzbek folklore shares figures with Kazakh and Persian tradition. The witch Jalmogiz Kampir is the local cousin of the Kazakh Zhalmauyz Kempir, and a madrasa in Bukhara is decorated with a Simurgh, a reminder of the bird’s reach across Persianate Central Asia.

  • 2 cryptids

Cryptids reported in Uzbekistan

Humanoid · Oral tradition

Zhalmauyz Kempir

Kazakh steppe Zhalmauyz Kempir, the “devouring old woman” of Kazakh fairy tales: a seven-headed shape-shifting witch outwitted by heroes in epics like Er Tostik. Folklore
Flying · Ancient (Avesta)

Simurgh

Mount Alborz, Iran The Simurgh, the benevolent giant bird of Persian myth, who raised Zal in the Shahnameh and became a symbol across Iran and Central Asia. Folklore

The legends of Uzbekistan

The 7th-century Afrasiab murals in Samarkand also show the Simurgh as a royal emblem.

Hotspots

  • Bukhara

    Madrasa decoration includes the Simurgh.

  • Samarkand

    Site of the Afrasiab murals of 648–651 CE.

Nearby

Kazakhstan1 cryptidAfghanistan2 cryptidsPakistan1 cryptidIran1 cryptidNepal1 cryptidIndia2 cryptids