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Worlds Biggest Teahouse
Still under construction, this vast festival of blue semi-traditional tiling is reputed to have cost a mind-bending percentage of the national GDP. It is rising near to Komsomol Park, one of several popular family-friendly relaxation spots.
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Bayrak (Worlds Tallest Flagpost)
Built to commemorate 20 years of independence, the worlds tallest flagpole (165m) is the centrepiece of Dushanbes growing ensemble of fountain-parks and public buildings including the new National Library and the gold domed Palace of Nations government building.
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Panchshanbe Bazaar
The core of the bazaar is an unusually elegant, purpose-built hall (1964) with arched entrance portals and a pink-and-lime-green neoclassical facade – think Stalin meets 1001 Nights . Its one of the best-stocked markets in Central Asia, especially on Thursday (panchshanbe in Tajik)
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Bunjikath
The Sogdian site of Bunjikath near Shakhristan, was the 8th-century capital of the kingdom of Ushrushana. It is noteworthy for a famous Sogdian mural depicting a wolf suckling twins, a clear echo of the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus that is repeated in statues across the countr
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Museum of Archaeology & Fortifications
The reconstructed eastern gate houses the Museum of Archaeology and Fortifications, which has some interesting 19th-century photos and plans of the original citadel. You can climb the ramparts but be careful when photographing, as the citadel behind is occupied by the military.
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Statue of Ismoil Somoni
Dushanbe’s most visible monument to nation-building sees the 10th-century founder of the Samanid dynasty, emerging through a giant crown-topped theatrical hoop waving a wand. Rising behind him the Parchan is a gold-topped white-marble column reminiscent of a Roman centurions standa
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Sarazm
Unesco-listed Sarazm is a 5500-year-old site 15km west of Penjikent. One of the oldest city-sites in Central Asia, finds here include a fire temple and the grave of a wealthy woman whose lapis beads and seashell bracelets from around the 4th century BC are now at Dushanbes National
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Central Park
It’s hard to believe that Khorog’s Central Park was dug up to grow crops during the famine of the 1990s. It has since been renovated by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and is now a delightful place to read a book or take a riverside stroll after visiting the nearby tourist informati
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Khaakha Fortress
Beside the main road at Namadgut village (around 15km from Ishkashim), this dilapidated fortress ruin covers two riverside knolls. There are clear traces ancient mud walls (originally 3rd-century BC) along with pathways and a 20th-century hut from the time the site was used by Taji
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Shoh Kambari Oftab Mazar
By the bridge, across the main road from the village jamoat khana (prayer house, easily recognisable by its colourful window-frame murals), this evocative Pamiri shrine-garden is overloaded with ram horns and contorted ancient trees. It commemorates man credited with bringing Ismai
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Bazaar
The vast, colourful central bazaar is a town unto itself. Dont miss the 12 blacksmith workshops which make top-quality knives using remarkably archaic-looking equipment. Theyre in the sick-green, low-rise building across from the three-storey, triple arch of the main mustard-yellow
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Lenin Statue
A 22m-tall statue of Lenin was moved here from Moscow in 1974 when Khojand was called Leninabad. In 2011 Vlad was quietly removed from his central plinth north of the river (replaced by an equally large Somoni) and was re-erected in an obscure retirement spot in the 18th-microrayon
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Sary Mazar
Old grey-bearded men shaded by even older chinar (plane) trees survey a pair of small but ornately stucco-fronted 17th-century tombs beside a mosque and appealingly authentic chaikhana. From the bazaar take marshrutka 3a, get off 300m beyond the cross-sabres gateway, walk straight
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Kobadiyan
The ancient site of Kobadiyan (7th to 2nd centuries BC) in southern Tajikistan is famed for the nearby discovery in 1877 of the Oxus Treasure, a stunning 2500-year-old Achaemenid treasure-trove unearthed at Takht-i Kobad, which now resides in the British Museum (www.thebritishmuseu
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Haji Yakoub Mosque and Medressa
With its crescent-topped minaret and burnished golden dome, the Haji Yakoub mosque and medressa, just west of the Hotel Avesto, is one of the few visible manifestations of Islam in Dushanbe. The mosque is named after Haji Yakoub, a Tajik religious leader who fled to Afghanistan. Wo
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Saturday Market
Some 5km west of Khorog centre, the Gunt River merges with the Pyanj which is crossed by a border bridge into Afghanistan. Every Saturday Afghan traders are allowed to cross the bridge as far as a market area making an interesting, colourful scene for those travellers who dont plan
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Gurminj Museum
Hidden within a private family compound behind unmarked green gates is a three-room collection of antique musical instruments from all across Central Asia. What makes the place special is that local musicians often gather here to practise/jam together creating a special musical mag
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Regional Museum
Musty and loveably Soviet in conception, this archetypal old-school museum has plenty of fun exhibits to pique ones interest, including early crampons and the first Russian piano to arrive in Badakhshan (10 Russian soldiers spent two months carrying it over the mountains from Osh i
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Pamir Botanical Gardens
The Pamir Botanical Gardens, 5km east of town at the entrance to the Shokh Dara Valley, has a couple of hundred hectares of parkland and is claimed to be the world’s second-highest botanical garden. Most three-route minivans go as far as the lower gate from which its half hour cimb
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Iskander
This opal-blue mountain lake looks almost tropical in strong sunlight. It isnt. At 2195m, dont expect to swim here. But adding greatly to the visual spectacle is the variegated colouration on the superlative mountain backdrop. The scene is especially dramatic around 1.5km before ar
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