Dushanbe and the Journey to Uzbekistan
Dushanbe
As mentioned in my last blog post, given the circumstances I wasn’t initially that pleased with Dushanbe, which was busy, hot and had heavy traffic.
The prominent statue in Dushanbe of Ismail Samani who is venerated by the Tajiks:
Fortunately, after a lengthy night’s sleep and a slow morning (one of my favourite things), I felt ready to venture out and explore a bit of the city. Given the heat, a long-sleeved shirt and shorts alongside my backpack was sufficient, and even with that I was warm as I wandered about. In my view, the key feature of Dushanbe (at least the city centre where I spent most of my time in) is the large wide tree-lined avenues which it possesses. They are very pleasant to walk down, and the trees (a now largely lost tool of the skilled city planner) provide shade and are pleasant to look at.
The wide avenues and decoration of central Dushanbe:
The population of Dushanbe seemed quite well dressed (both men and women), which surprised me for some reason – perhaps it was the contrast with the countryside and my own dishevelled state? The men’s suits and often shoes seemed a bit cheap, but I guess that’s to be expected in a developing country.
The pleasant tree lined streets are themselves lined with a wide array of public buildings amidst the usual shops and apartments. Some of these are more classic and reminiscent of early Soviet or even pre-Revolution Russian buildings, the latter which I liked quite a bit, particularly those coloured in blue and white, they were very elegant. I also quite liked the Turkish Embassy.
A selection of the classic older buildings of Dushanbe. The Turkish Embassy is in yellow/white:
Left, a more traditional statue, and right, an enormous screen of the president of Tajikistan on the side of a building (from distance):
The new legislature (called a "Palace of the People") which has been built by the Chinese along Rudaki Avenue is attractive and reminded me of a smaller and much less grand version of the Parliament building in Budapest.
The new legislature/Palace of the People, along Rudaki Avenue:
Interestingly, along with my hotel there are other fairly obvious areas of Chinese influence around Dushanbe, for example a store selling Lanzhou beef noodles, a delightful dish that would be difficult to go without were I from Lanhzou and working in Dushanbe.
Lanzhou Beef Noodles in Dushanbe! I'd have tried them if not for my being ill:
I had a stroll through the central park and was promptly shat upon by a bird much to the amusement of two gentlemen on a park bench across from me, and after cleaning myself up, I took a circuitous route to exit the park.
A few shots of Dushanbe's large central park:
There are some rather gaudy looking Palaces dotted around the central park which I didn’t find very amusing. Further up Rudaki avenue and elsewhere there are several large buildings that look like they would be better placed in Gotham City or something, I couldn’t quite place why, but something seemed off about them. Other office buildings seemed eerily empty, despite their presence in the downtown core.
Some rather strange buildings:
Arriving back at Rudaki Avenue I noticed a rather hip looking bar/restaurant and stopped in to check it out. It was still only around 5:00pm so I decided to stop for a tonic water and to try to get some wifi and figure out what to do next.
A Dushanbe restaurant with clear western influence:
After studying the staff and the menu I decided that I would stay and have dinner. To my surprise the food was quite good, and the menu/décor would not have been out of place in London or New York. I think it was being run by Western or Middle Eastern management but was not certain. I ended up speaking to an Irish/Australian gentleman who was travelling the 5 stans, and later a Kiwi girl I had met at Karakul Lake stopped by for a few drinks, so I couldn’t resist trying some of the local wine, which wasn’t bad. Not wanting to overdo it I called it a night after three and had a pleasant walk down the tree line avenues back to my hotel, which fortunately had power this time on my arrival.
A decent meal in Dushanbe:
National Museum of Antiquities
The following day I visited the National Museum of Antiquities. As one might expect, the museum has a large amount of Silk Road artifacts, and it provides a comprehensive overview of the ancient history of Tajikistan going back to the Neolithic period. It’s not a large museum and unfortunately it looks like it hasn’t got much by way of budget so it’s a bit sparse in some areas and doesn’t have English translations on everything (understandable). Some of the artifacts on display could be arranged better to provide the visitor with a better impression of how they might have looked previously in ancient times – I always prefer when museums do this as it allows the visitor to immerse themselves better as it communicates more images.
Entrance to the Tajikistan National Museum of Antiquities:
A small selection of the displays within the museum:
I think the most outstanding element is the large sleeping Buddha from the Buddhist monastery of Ajinateppa. I understand that the original monastery complex was made of clay and quite fragile and the decision was made to cut up and extract the Buddha, in a manner not dissimilar to the Egyptian Temple built by Ramesses II at Abu Simbel.
The sleeping Buddha from the Buddhist monastery of Ajinateppa:
The museum does a decent job of providing some translated plaques giving an overview of the various phases of history from the Neolithic onwards and providing a map of the major sites within Tajikistan. I tend to photograph these types of displays at museums to read later. I have included a few of them in this post.
A selection of informative plaques covering the more ancient history of Tajikistan:
After visiting the museum, I walked a long way up Rudaki avenue in search of a store selling English books, as I had finished reading all of mine long before I left China. There weren’t many options for sale in English aside from quite a few copies of various works by George Orwell (I found this amusing and ironic), I settled on a copy of “The Richest Man in Babylon” and retired to the hotel.
I spent the rest of the time in Dushanbe largely mostly at the hotels resting and catching up on the blog and organizing/backing up my photos. I also re-packed my bags to head to Panjakent and Uzbekistan.
Dushanbe to Panjakent
The drive from Dushanbe to Panjakent was initially rather boring, simply a long straight exit down Rudaki avenue from Dushanbe and then a slowly elevating winding road up into the mountains. I would stop for lunch in the mountains.
However, once you climb further into the mountains the roads at higher altitude become quite something. Whilst the roads are much better maintained than those on the Pamir Highway (M41), the altitude, vastly increased speed due to superior road conditions, and enormous number of poorly lit and ventilated tunnels, requires a fair bit of caution. My back window had a little malfunction and was locked open (user error perhaps…), so this made driving through one particularly long tunnel quite unpleasant. The tunnel in question is known as the Anzob Tunnel, which sits at around 2750 meters near the 3300-meter Anzob Pass. Built by an Iranian company, the tunnel still seems relatively unfinished, it has no lighting, and no ventilation system… and it is also 5 km long, which means the lack of a ventilation system is actually a serious issue. I also learned later that the locals call it “the tunnel of death”, how pleasant, I am glad I didn’t have a breakdown amid it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t about to stop for photos, so you can see a few here[1]. Thankfully, the tunnel is now in better shape than it was after being built by the Iranians, thanks to Chinese engineers (a common site on the Silk Road for obvious reasons). I found one video from about 18 years ago which must be from not long after the Iranians built it, and it looks grim / akin to a mine;[2] In another more recent video it looks more or less the way I saw it, but without any further construction and without even temporary ventilation.[3]
The high mountains heading towards Anzob pass:
After safely navigating the tunnel of death and descending from the mountains, I entered a lowland of yellow/brown fields and lush trees, somewhat reminiscent of the Wakhan Valley, and the mountains fade into the distance as one gets further into the valley. The city of Panjakent was very quiet so I checked into my hotel and didn’t do that much. There were a couple of food places open, but given I was still recovering from dysentery, I didn’t bother to try anything slightly risky, so I cooked some of the remnants of my camp food with my stove in the large garage of the small hotel I was staying at.
Some lunch in the mountain foothills and a shot of the lowlands once one descends from the mountains:
The drive from Panjakent to the Uzbekistan / Tajikistan border was relatively uneventful save a stopover to visit the ancient city of Sarazm.
The Ancient City of Sarazm
Whilst Sarazm was mentioned in the Tajikistan museum of antiquities, I didn’t quite appreciate the reference at the time, and I actually stumbled upon the site some 15km West of Panjakent quite by accident. I saw a large gate, typical of the “grand” public buildings which characterize parts of Tajik cities. Upon entering (for free) it was quite empty save for a few old ladies sweeping and several donkeys. I would learn that the site is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Tajikistan and was once a major hub in the region. The ruins which had been excavated (only a small fraction of the approximately 90-hectare total site) were certainly older than many of the Silk Road sites I had seen previously. After being designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010, covered structures were assembled to protect the excavated sections, and others were reburied. Unfortunately, it does not look like the present site is that well maintained, even the tourist sections are quite neglected, it seems due to simple lack of tourists.
A selection of photos of the ancient city of Sarazm in Tajikistan:
The History of Sarazm
Sarazm is not your typical Silk Road city, in fact, it is significantly older than most of the Silk Road sites I visited and may be the oldest city in Central Asia, and of the small group of World’s major ancient cities that vie for the title of oldest, it is the most northeasterly. The name "Sarazm" comes from the ancient Tajik word "sarizamin" (meaning “beginning of the Earth”), so it is little surprise that the Tajiks (for example in the writings on some of their Embassy websites) describe Sarazm as the cradle of Tajik civilization. Archaeological research and radiocarbon dating has placed the founding of Sarazm around 3500 BC, meaning it in the same league as Egypt’s Old Kingdom (when the pyramids were built). The ancient inhabitants of Sarazm were sophisticated and able to both produce and import pottery (from regions as far away as modern Iran and Pakistan, then the Indus Valley Civilisation), some of which is beautifully decorated. They also had domesticated animals and agriculture, as one would expect for a city. However, it appears that they were particularly known for their metallurgy[4] given the abundance of minerals locally, namely, gold, silver, tin, and copper, and thanks to the latter two minerals, bronze. In the 1980s a French and Tajik joint venture allowed the excavation of numerous artifacts demonstrating the population’s mastery of metallurgy, many of these are on display in the museum of antiquities in Dushanbe. The religion of the ancient people of Sarazm is unknown, but it is thought that they had temples where sacred fires burned[5] perhaps like the later Zoroastrians.
Onward to Uzbekistan
After leaving Sarazm I drove around 10 minutes to the Uzbekistan border, where I dropped off the now trusty Toyota Land Cruiser, unloaded my many bags, and crossed into Uzbekistan. I would meet a driver/car on the Uzbek side and head from the border to the magnificent Samarkand. The Golden Journey per J.E. Flecker’s poem was nearly complete, but I shall leave that for a separate blog post.
Cheers,
Simon
[4] Isakov, A.; Kohl, P. L.; Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C.; Maddin, R. (1987). "Metallurgical Analysis from Sarazm, Tadjikistan SSR". Archaeometry.
[5] SAKOV, A. I. (1994). "Sarazm: An Agricultural Center of Ancient Sogdiana". Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 8: 1–12.
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