Since its discovery, Teshik-Tash has been recognized as the key Paleolithic monument or asset of Central Asia,which has since gained worldwide fame. Although as a result of the research carried out on the area, many Stone Age monuments were found, such as Obi-Rahmat and Kulbulak, still Teshik-Tash remained the only stratified site in the south of Uzbekistan for more than fifty years. Long-term exploration in the area of Teshik-Tash itself, carried out by both domestic and foreign specialists, did not bring the expected results. The Khatak cave, discovered in the fall of 2021, made it possible to establish that Teshik-Tash was not the only multilayered monument in this area. Located in the Sherabad district of the Surkhandarya region of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Khatak Cave is located near the Teshik-Tash Cave, some 50 km south-west from the latter. The Bagly-Dara Gorge, in which this cave is located, is part of the protection zone of the Surkhan Natural Reserve and has a peculiar natural and ecological environment. Because of its remoteness, the cultural layer of the cave remained practically intact. As a result of short-term visits to the cave, many arti-facts related to the Middle Paleolithic were collected from the daylight surface. The 2022 prelimi-nary studies showed that the site was intensively used by settlers in the Mousterian era. It becomes obvious that groups of Neanderthals occupied and settled in certain ecological niches that met the vital needs of the people of the Middle Paleolithic. It is possible that the Khatak Cave, not unlike Teshik-Tash Cave, served as a long-term refuge for the Neanderthal man. The article presents re-sults of the preliminary research made in this cave, provides the description of the cave and talks of its significance for the study of the Stone Age in Central Asia.