Tajik Air deposited us in Khojand, Tajikistan's second largest city in the geographically distinct Feghana Valley. Stalin added the largely Uzbek Khojand to Tajikistan to give it the million people needed to make it a full republic, and probably also to divide and conquer the volatile valley. Uzbekistan, on the other hand, kept the traditionally Tajik areas of Samarkand and Bukhara.
Stalin's gerrymander makes for bizarre borders now that the states have become nations. The rich Ferghana Valley is divided among Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and the borders cross crazily between historically connected towns. Border crossings are painful for us too, because they leave us open to searches and bribes to policemen on the make, so we decided to minimize them. So we stayed within Tajikistan until we're done, and we might later come back and visit nearby towns on the other side of the Uzbek border.
Khojand was founded by Alexander the Great, and its original name was Alexandria Eschate (“furthest”). The Soviets renamed it Leninabad for a time, and the town’s nostalgia for the more prosperous soviet times have given a place for the largest Lenin statue remaining in Central Asia. The only signs of its ancient history were the walls of its ruined citadel, but it had a nice mosque, mausoleum and covered market that kept us entertained for a morning.
After lunch, we moved to Istaravshan, a small town an hour to the southwest. This town is known for an old town with several fine mosques and madrassas with domes and beautifully painted ceilings. We got lost quickly and would have never found these sites on our own. But we talked with an old man at a mosque, who invited us to join a group of his friends inside for watermelon. And then a group of teenagers were curious about us and served as informal tour guides. One of the teenagers would have invited us home to sleep if we hadn't already found a place, saying “A guest is a gift from God.”
The next day we traveled in a broken-down car over an even more broken road to Penjikent, a small town in the western corner of Tajikistan. Penjikent is famous as the site of a 7th-century Sogdian town and citadel. Most of its art was excavated and taken to the Hermitage (see my August pictures from St. Petersburg), but the town remains decaying on top of the hill. A small museum has a few of the frescos that weren't taken to Russia.
The following morning we finally left Tajikistan over the border connecting Penjikent to Samarkand. We had been warned to expect corruption from both the Tajik and Uzbek border guards but had no problems at all. Within an hour, we were in Samarkand. More on that soon.
———- end of detailed Tajikistan postings ———–