24th May (continued)
We entered Tajikistan via the Oybek border. This small country has soaring mountains, valleys and pristine lakes.
This is their flag.
Once across the border we drove to Khujand. It was only 70km away. We were now close to the mountains.
The border between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan is a lot more friendly these days. There are these pictures everywhere showing the 2 presidents confirming how friendly they are towards each other.
Khujand was formerly known as Leninabad between 1936-1991, and is the second-largest city of Tajikistan and the capital of the northernmost province of Tajikistan, now called Sughd. Khujand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, dating back about 2,500 years. It is situated on the Syr Darya at the mouth of the Fergana Valley and was a major city along the ancient Silk Road. It was founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. We stopped at the river to get some views. This is the mongol mountains behind the city.
We visited Pushkin Square also known as Victory Square.
We then passed the Timur Malik Fortress. Timur Malik was a governor who constructed a fortress just below the city. He entrenched himself in it with a thousand loyal warriors to hold off the Mongols.
Saw another photo of the president.
Next was the Historical Museum of Sughd. It had a wide range of artefacts related to the history of the Sughd region of Tajikistan.
We then went to Khujand Registan Square.
This is the Panjshanbe Bazaar which is on one side of the square.
We were impressed by the stately columns holding up the bazaar. It was lovely and colourful. The bazaar has a main pavilion and many stalls, tents and shops. Construction of the pavilion took place in the middle of the 1950s-60’s. The interior has both Soviet and oriental styles. On the ground floor we found fruit and vegetables, bread and spices.
This is the fatty backside of a special type of sheep they have here. I will try and get a picture of a real one at some stage.
These are the other buildings around the square.
In front of the square stands a memorial to the soldiers of World War 2.
The Arbob Palace was the former headquarters of a Soviet collective farm. It was built in the 1950’s and modelled on the winter gardens of Peterhof, St Petersburg. Outside the building is a procession of fountains and rose gardens. Inside, there are three wings. The building had particular significance in 1992, when it was the site for the meeting of the Tajik Soviet which officially declared independence from the Soviet Union.
There were heaps of water features but unfortunately due to Ramadan they were not working.
There was a group of youths walking around who spoke some English so once again we had a photo with them, and of course they did some selfies.
We then went and checked into our hotel. This is it from the other side of the river.
It is called the Parliament Hotel. It is only about a year old.
Once again, the rooms were massive, in fact we had 2 big rooms this time.
This is what the surrounds of the hotel looks like.
I took this photo from our hotel window of Shane relaxing by the river.
25th May
Before heading out of Khujand, we headed for the biggest Lenin monument left in Central Asia. He is made of aluminium.
There was also another monument there.
While we were there our Tajik guide Neos talked about his life under soviet rule. He still had his book that he used to get stamped each week.
We also passed the Monument to Ismoil Somoni. He was the 10th-century founder of the Samanid dynasty
As we left town there were quite a few rice paddies being prepared.
We then drove to Panjikent via Istaravshan town. Located in the northern foothills of the Turkistan mountain range, Istaravshan is one of the oldest cities in Tajikistan, having existed for more than 2500 years. In the first two centuries AD it was an important city with walls 6km long. Later it became a staging point on the Silk Road.
Views of the city.
We visited the Mugtepa Fortress. The site of this fortress was stormed by Alexander the Great in 329 BC. A modern reconstruction of one of the citadels medieval gateways dominates the site.
Kok-Gumbaz, which served as both a mosque and a religious school was built in 1436 by ‘Abd al-Latif, the eldest son of the astronomer king Ulugh Beg and great-grandson of the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane). Its name refers to an original light blue dome, destroyed with much of the structure from earthquakes in this seismically active area.
You can see the mosque stands out in the city. I took this photo from the fortress.
We also visited the Sar I Mazor mosque. The original mosque was only very small and was built in the 16th century.
The tree is over 800 years old.
This is the mausoleum that is there.
They then built a second mosque which was beautifully decorated inside.
They are now building their third mosque on the site which is so much bigger than the other two.
Everyone was very friendly there and there were lots of inquisitive kids. They all wanted their photos taken.
This mum was really proud of her baby.
We went to a local bazaar where we got to see local metalworkers and woodworkers.
Some of the goods they have made.
There are lots of tolls on this road, this is the first country in the stans where we have encountered toll roads.
We then stopped at the statue of Romulus and Remus. In Roman mythology they are twin brothers whose story tells the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome. They were raised by a wolf.
We then continued on towards Panjikent through the Shakhristan Gorge. We had lunch in a local restaurant. While we were there, we watched a herd of sheep come through. These sheep have extra big behinds that are all fat. We have seen it being sold in the meat markets.
We then drove four hours to our next home. The scenery was amazing.
There was lots of snow on the top of the mountains and a lot of it was fresh.
There was a 5km long tunnel built by the Chinese.
Some of the roads were on the side of cliffs and there were a few rock falls.
This was the funniest thing we saw all day. Have mosque will travel!!
At one of our stops there were lots of villagers cooking up yoghurt to make their dried products.
We stopped at one of the stalls but weren’t game enough to try anything.
Unfortunately, it poured with rain for the last part of our journey, so it was hard to see too much.
We then arrived in Panjikent which is in the Zerafshan Valley. The ruins of the old town are on the outskirts of the modern city. This small city has a population of around 35,000. It was a major city established in the 5th century by the Sogdians.
26th May
We awoke this morning to sunshine. This was the view from our room.
This morning we looked around Panjikent.
We explored the Rudaki Historic-Ethnographic Museum. This was opened in 2001 with a majority of the collection from archaeological excavations throughout Tajikistan.
This is his statue.
We then visited the statue of Haikali Devashtich who was the last king of ancient Panjikent.
Panjikent has the remains of an ancient Zoroastrian civilisation that is still being excavated today. 2500-year-old walls stand in the ruins of old Panjikent. It might look like random hills in a field at first but after exploring we were able to identify former walls and buildings. Remember the city is 2500 years old, so the fact that anything remains at all is amazing.
There were lots of poppies and wildflowers in amongst the ruins.
The yellow flowers were really unusual.
I found this bird sitting on some of the ruins.
From the top of the ruins we could see new Panjikent.
While we were walking back to the vans this old car came along. Neos walked out into the middle of the road and flagged them down so we could have a look. The man was proud to show off his car. It is 50 years old and the motor is in the boot.
We also drove out to the ruins of Sarazm. It is an ancient town which dates back to the 4th millennium BC and is today a UNESCO World Heritage site. They have put shelters up to protect the ruins they have uncovered.
We were lucky enough to see archaeologists at work.
While wandering around by myself I found these little creatures heads popping out of holes in the ground. They are long tailed marmots.
There were people living nearby who were happy for me to take their photos.
After lunch we farewelled Panjikent. We continued for around 7 hours on to Dushanbe. We had to back track for some of the way today. This was a good thing as due to the rain yesterday we had missed a lot of it. The scenery was spectacular and changed quite a bit.
We then slowed right down as there was stock all over the road and it had created a traffic jam.
We then turned off the main road and had to travel 26km on dirt road to visit Iskanderkul lake. We first had to cross a bridge that was being repaired.
Once again, the scenery was stunning.
Iskanderkul is a mountain lake of glacial origin. It is at an altitude of 2,195 metres on the northern slopes of the Gissar Range in the Fann Mountains. Triangular in shape, it has a surface area of 3.4 square kilometres and is up to 72 metres deep. It was claimed to be one of the most beautiful mountain lakes in the former Soviet Union. It was named after Alexander the Great.
We the back tracked to the main road on the way we were lucky enough to see a herd of yaks.
Once back on the main road the scenery continued to impress us.
There were lots of tunnels.
We then arrived in Dushanbe which is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. Dushanbe means Monday in the Tajik language. It was named this way because it grew from a village that originally had a popular market on Mondays. With soviet era pastel buildings and public squares contrasted with the hinterlands of mountains and rural villages it is one of the most charming capitals in Central Asia.
It had been a 12 hour day, so we headed straight to a late dinner then settled into the hotel.
27th May
The hotel we are staying in is a bit confusing. Our key cards say Sheraton, the front of the hotel says Hilton but then the wifi and the sheet over the front of the hotel say H hotel. Anyway, besides that, it is a lovely hotel and nice and secure. They even have a security guard on the gate checking under cars with a mirror.
We had a lovely view of Dushanbe from our room.
We then headed out to see some of Dushanbe. We stopped to look at the Opera Theatre which was built in 1939.
Right next door was the Stalinabad Hotel. This was the first 3 storey building in Dushanbe which was also built in 1939. During the war the hotel was used to nurse the injured soldiers back to health.
We visited the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.
We got to see quite a few objects that had been found in Sarazm where we visited recently. The most interesting thing in the museum was the 13m buddha lying in the Sleeping Lion traditional pose from the Buddhist Monastery of Ajinateppa. It is made of clay, so the excavation process was difficult.
This is an original picture of how they found the remains.
We visited the monument of Ismoil Somoni which is situated on Ozodi square. The height of the monument is more than 25 metres. This monument was placed in 1999 in honour of the 1100 anniversary of the state of the Samanids. The monument is richly decorated with gold and looks impressive. Abu Ibrakhim Ismoil was the Amir from the Sasanids dynasty, the founder of the state in Central Asia.
Opposite the monument was Parliament House.
We walked down the beautiful promenade with lots of fountains, towards the Tajikistan monument.
This is the National Library. They have over 1000 computers in there for public use.
We then took a stroll through Rudaki Park. It had meticulous landscaped gardens, beautiful fountains and statues. There was a monument to 9th century poet Rudaki.
This is the Palace of Nations.
This used to be the highest flagpole in the world, but it has apparently now been beaten by Saudi Arabia. It was in a lovely park.
The National Museum was right next door.
We stopped at Kohi Navruz. The complex building began construction in 2009 and was fully completed in September 2014. From the very beginning the complex was planned as the biggest national tea house in Central Asia but is in the process of turning it into a museum. Unfortunately it was not open so we could not go inside.
We visited another bazaar but again it was quite different.
We had a walk around the botanical gardens.
Then we found a squirrel. He had a hairy tail and hairy ears.
We then travelled on to Hissar and visited the Hissar Fortress. This used to be a palace of one of Bukhara Emirate becks. The fortress with 1 m walls and loopholes for guns and cannons towered on a high hill's slope and was carefully guarded. Inside there was a pool and a garden. The only remaining part is a monumental gate made from burned bricks with two cylindrical towers with the arrow-shaped arch between them. They have recreated what it would have looked like.
One of the original walls.
Opposite the entrance to the fortress was the Kukhna madrasah which was built in the 17th century. This madrasah prepared scholars and clergy representatives. They learned the Koran, Arab language and history of Islam. The madrasah taught up to 150 pupils. The madrasah is a brick building with an entrance portal crowned with a dome. Next door are the remains of the Caravanserai where they slept with their camels.
We had a lovely dinner tonight. We went to a Soviet Tea House.
28th May
We had a late check out and headed to the airport as today we are leaving Tajikistan.
This featured blog entry was written by shaneandnicola from the blog The 5 Stans.
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