One of the oldest cities in Central Asia, with a history running back 2,500 years and a cast of characters to match, Alexander the Macedonian, his wife Roxana, Zoroastrian priests, Greek colonists, Buddhist monks in the south, and eventually Islam. It wears the layers lightly, which is either admirable or a function of how much has been destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries.
Sights & Culture
Mug Tepe Fortress
A fortified hill with 2,500 years of continuous use. Roxana, Alexander's wife, was here, she and her son were killed on this site. The fortress originally used smoke signals for communication, with up to 16 simultaneous signals carrying different meanings. The religious history runs Zoroastrian to Greek to Muslim, with Buddhist influence in the southern regions. The Soviet period was less kind, it was bombed and largely destroyed in the 1970s, and the current structure is a 2010 reconstruction. Worth knowing before you arrive expecting ancient stonework.
Khazrati Shokh Complex
A mausoleum complex in the old city comprising three structures in a semicircle: the Khazrati Shokh Mausoleum, the Khudoyor Valami Mausoleum, and the Khazratishokh Mosque, built in the 19th century. The complex dates formally to the 18th century but has roots in the 10th to 11th centuries.
The mausoleum is said to contain the tomb of Khazrati Shokh, brother of Kusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Mohammed — the same family line buried at the Shahi Zinda complex in Samarkand. The connection makes it a significant site for pilgrims. In front of the mausoleum a spring considered holy and medicinal feeds from what legend holds was the emergence point of Caliph Ali's crosier, dropped into a mountain lake elsewhere and surfacing here — the spring, by this account, is where the mausoleum's history began. The current mausoleum building is a modest two-domed brick structure with a tomb chamber and a chapel, restored multiple times.
National Emblem monument
Between the mosque and the lunch stop. Cotton, wheat, book, the three symbols of the Tajikistani national emblem on a monument worth a photograph.
Restaurants & Bars
Zam-Zam
A substantial spread with multiple meat dishes. The kind of Central Asian lunch that makes the afternoon's walking feel earned in advance.