Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Penjikent
(80TJS to 100TJS, five hours) Taxis
leave from 100m further south, beyond the
terminus of marshrutkas 4 and 5, though
cheeky freelancers may tell you otherwise
hoping to get a full charter.
Khojand
Although minibus 314 (8TJS, 90 min-
utes) should start 3km north of town from the
Avtovokzal, some fill up at the same place as the
shared taxis (15TJS, 50 minutes), near the black-
smiths workshops opposite the central bazaar.
From the bazaar take marshrutka 6 for the hotel
Sadbargi and Avtovokzal, 5A for Mug Teppe and
3A to get close to the old town sights.
Panchshanbe¨Bazaar¨
MARKET
(
h
5am-7pm, 6am-5.30pm winter)
The core of
the bazaar is an unusually elegant, purpose-
built hall (1964) with arched entrance por-
tals and a pink-and-lime-green neoclassical
facade - think Stalin meets
1001 Nights
. It's
one of the best-stocked markets in Central
Asia, especially on Thursday (
panchshanbe
in Tajik).
Sheikh¨Massal¨ad-Din¨complex¨
ISlAMIC
(ploshchad Pobedy)
In striking comparison to
the bazaar opposite, this religious complex
comprises the 1394 brick
mausoleum¨of¨
Sheikh¨Massal¨ad-Din
(1133-1223), cov-
ered porticoes with carved wooden pillars,
a 20th-century mosque with sensitive, if
modern, white-stone frontage and a 21m-
high brick minaret dating from 1865. A
matching second minaret is nearing com-
pletion directly north, attached to a new,
traditionally designed brick mosque that
looks archetypally Central Asian but for the
luridly reflective emerald-green dome.
Citadel¨
FORTRESS
The city's oldest remains are the formless
baked-earth walls of the 10th-century cita-
del, which once boasted seven gates and
6km of fortifications. Earlier this had been
the site of Alexander the Great's original set-
tlement. The fort was the scene of pitched
battles in 1997 between rebel Uzbek war-
lords and government troops, during which
300 people were killed. The main section
remains occupied by the army but much of
the eastern wall has been rebuilt creating an
impressive, if one-photo scene, when viewed
from the southeast corner. That's where the
rebuilt bastion now contains a
museum
(foreigner/local 6/3TJS;
h
8am-4pm Tue-Fri, 9am-
4pm Sat & Sun)
, lavished with colourful stone
mosaics and partly 3D murals though it
contains little in the way of historical arte-
facts. A much more modest one-room
ar-
chaeological¨museum
(Tanbyri 4; foreigner/
local 2/0.5TJS;
h
9am-noon & 1-4pm)
inside the
central section of the rebuilt wall has a few
old plans of the original citadel and allows
access to a section of battlements.
Lenin¨Statue¨
MONUMENT
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
Khojand
Худжанд
%
3422 / POP 164,500
Khojand (or Khojent/Khujand, formerly
Leninabad) is Tajikistan's second-largest
city. Although it's a massive sprawl, most
hotels and sights are close to Lenin, which
snakes north-south-southeast for almost
10km, crossing the Syr-Darya River near
the point where Alexander the Great once
founded his northernmost Central Asian
outpost, Alexandria-Eskhate.
Commanding (and taxing) the entrance
to the Fergana Valley, Khojand built pal-
aces, grand mosques and a huge citadel
before the Mongols bulldozed the city into
oblivion in the early 13th century.
Khojand's population has a strong Uz-
bek contingent, although it always provid-
ed Tajikistan's Soviet elite. When President
Nabiev, a Khojand man, was unseated in
1992 and Tajikistan appeared to be becom-
ing an Islamic republic, Khojand (Lenina-
bad) province threatened to secede. Secure
behind the Fan Mountains, it managed to
escape the ravages of the civil war and re-
mains the wealthiest part of the country.
Several sparkling new monuments add to
the air of comparative prosperity, the ba-
zaar and mosque complex is impressive,
and there are a few historical curiosities to
glimpse as you transit between Kyrgyzstan
or Uzbekistan and the Fan Mountains.
1
¨Sights
Minibus 55 between the Avtostanitsa and
Abreshim bus stations passes both of Kho-
jand's two main attractions. For the bazaar
and mausoleum get off at the big
WWII¨
Monument
and walk 100m east. For the cit-
adel get off opposite the Hotel/Trade Centre
Kheson and walk two blocks west of Lenin
down Rajabov.
