As I promised before I mentioned I would be traveling to places I hadn’t visited before. This was one of the first trips to “unknown” territory. I went to Penjakent, which occupies a pretty interesting space. Basically there are two close mountain ranges that run from east to west that bisect Tajikistan. It’s kind of like if you place you hand flat down on a table the space between your thumb and pointing finger is the southern part of Tajikistan and the space between the pointing finger and middle finger is the valley I was in. Penjakent lies at the far western end of the valley…. So, to get there from Dushanbe you have to cross a high mountain pass to get into the valley then travel to the far end… A better route goes around the mountains on flat land, but the route is in Uzbekistan and the border there is closed. So.. no going around the mountains you must go up and over….The trip was picturesque for sure and the opening of a tunnel helped speed travel along somewhat.
We left Dushanbe on Saturday morning. It was overcast but you could see the mountain peaks well enough. Dushanbe is at the base of the mountains so we were climbing up and up right away. About 30 miles out of the city the road turned into a gravel/ dirt/ potholed road.. which is the main reason it takes so long to travel the road. Imagine crossing the Rockies on a dirt road and you basically have the picture right.
Within an hour I began to see snow that hadn’t melted this spring yet. Streams and waterfall form snow melt could be seen in many places. Sometimes, the streams went across the road. As we climbed higher we eventually came to places where there was still snow banks higher than the car that hadn’t melted yet.
Besides the scenery, the tunnel was quite the adventure. There is a 5km (about 1 mile) long tunnel that they are building so that you don’t have to go over the mountain pass, which is closed all winter long too. The tunnel is only ½ finished, but somehow open for traffic. When we came to the tunnel on Saturday the entrance was shrouded in smog. Our driver had prepared for the awful smell by brining an incense stick which we lit just before entering. Besides the ventilation system not being up and running, they are still coating the tunnel in cement so the only that exists right now is basically the hole through the mountain so it all looks pretty rough and scary. The worst part is that they haven’t gotten the drainage system up and running so part of the tunnel looks like a river.. the water in some places was at least a foot high and some low cars end up with water seeping in under their doors or up their exhaust pipes. We had a nice high soviet car and made it through just fine. The whole experience kind of reminded us of the Greek myths about the river Styx and the boat ride into Hades.
After the tunnel, it was down hill from there and then we began following the Zerafshan river. We then turned west and followed the river as the valley widened and we began seeing villages and eventually came to Penjakent.
It is quite the interesting place because in the sense of modern day Tajikistan, it is one of the most secluded towns as they have horrible roads connecting them to the capital and other major cities and the mountain passes are closed in the winter. But from a geographical point of view, they are only about 30 miles away from Samarkand, one of the largest and most historically important cities in Tajikistan. Many of the people have relatives in Samarkand, they used to work and study in Samarkand, and it was their link to the outside world during the Soviet Union. Uzbekistan closed and mined the boarder and doesn’t let anyone through without paying high fines and harassing the citizens. So they end up being pretty cut off form the world, even though they are in a great geographic location.
Penjakent also has an ancient history. We went to the ruins of the old Sogdian city from 500-800 AD. The site today was mostly mud bricks melting into the landscape, but archeologists working here have found lots of great things, especially colorful frescoes. Unfortunately, the frescoes are mostly in Russia and Uzbekistan, but the archeological museum in Dushanbe has some and the local museum does as well. They are interesting mosaics because they are definitely eastern looking and very bright.
Also, one of the most important Persian/ Tajik poets, Rudaki, is from the area so we went to see his mausoleum in the mountain village where he was born. The road up there was much like the road we traveled to get here, beautiful views, but poor road. The mausoleum has a beautiful setting, it is surrounded by gardens and there were lilacs and flowering trees.
The road back on Tuesday was just as beautiful, but very long. We left at 3:45 in the morning and arrived at about 2 in the afternoon. It was the longest 150 miles I’ve ever traveled, but a great place to visit.
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