About Tajikistan

Tajikistan – is a pearl in Central Asia.

Tajikistan is a unique tourist attraction because it has a great cultural and historical heritage with its unique culture and customs.

Roots of the history of the country go deeply into the ancient times, to the beginning of the civilization. In fact there are many ancient findings, which were found on the territory of Tajikistan , also Tajikistan is a homeland for such ancient cities and towns like – Kulyab, Khujand, Istaravshan, Panjakent. In Panjakent area there are two ancient towns like Sarazm ( the town of Aryan civilization) and Old Panjakent. The discovery of the ancient monuments of the Stone Age in 1956 was quiet a sensation. There were about 60 spots ( areas) with stone tools found on the territory of the country. More than 10 thousand stone tools were found in the areas difficult to access, in the highlands up to 4200 kilometers above the sea level. Among them were tools from the group of scrapers and grooved instruments, which were preserved in the process of Paleolithic traditions. Those instruments were dated back to 8-5 BC. The cave paintings were knocked out on the rocks and stones. There are more than 10 thousand pictures on the stones and rocks, they’re the pictures of the animals, people, and the whole compositions of pictures together. All they were joined into the specific group of archeological studies. Mountains and lowlands of Tajikistan, the people who lived on this territory – all these had been mentioned in the ancient scripts of Palin and Ptolomeo. The great Venice traveler Marko Polo, in honor of who there is a special type of mountains goat , had written in his books about his journeys to Pamir. Tajikistan, from the old times, was located on the way of the Great Silk Road , which connected the East countries and the West countries. And it played the main part at the international trade of that time and at cross cultural interchange. It had been connecting the old areas of Bactria – Taharistan ( cities like Chaganian, Shumon, Akhorun, Qubodiyon, Bakhsh, Khutal, Rasht, Qumed, Darvoz, Vandj, Rushan and Vakhan), Sughd, Istaravshan, ( Ustrushan), Ferghana with India, Afghanistan and China. The Silk Road was not only the way of caravan trading but also the way of cultural interchanging among the people and nations living along the road.

Nowadays , at the period of development of the modern economical trades and cultural interchange , the Silk road became the symbol of friendship and good relations among the nations and people along this road. The World Trading Organization ( WTO) and UNESCO , together with national Travel agencies of Tajikistan and another countries , take steps to develop spheres like Tourism and Hospitality in “Silk Road” regions. During the years of independence in Tajikistan, some valuable projects were realized in the spheres of road construction and repairing , which have great international value. The highway “Kulyab- Khorog – Qulma” with the entrance to Kayrakkum highway was opened by the 1100th anniversary of Samanid’s Empire. This highway connects Tajikistan with China and Pakistan and gives a possibility to reach the entrance to the sea, which is good for tourism exchange and the realization of WTO’s project “The Silk Road tourism”.

These days, historical, cultural and handicraft traditions have been carefully preserved in the cities like Khujand, Istaravshan, Panjakent and Kulyab , within the changes the cities have had over the years. The traditions of the most famous craftsmen in gold embroidery, silk, Abra, batik, needlework, national hat making, fabrics, jewelry, weaponry, ceramics have been preserved and kept. The ethnographical tourism is the most popular kind of tourism among the tourists who have visited those cities. It’s the way not only to study these traditions, customs and the way of live but also the tourists have a chance to get some skills or knowledge of ancient and old fashioned crafts. Also tourists could stay not only at the hotels but also with local families, during their journeys around the country. It’s one of the ways to understand the culture, traditions, the way of live, to feel Tajik hospitality better. Especially, it showed, that tourists like to stay with families in Yagnob. People who live there are representatives of the ancient Sughd culture, and still have the customs and speak the language which were preserved by them carefully.

Kayrakkym reservoir, which is called as Tajik sea, is located to the east from Khujand, and was made as a result of construction work of electrical power damonSir Darya river. Now it’s a wonderful place for tourists to rest. There are sanatoriums, places for recreation, and camp sites on the shore of the sea among the fruit gardens. For example, Sanatorium “ Bahoriston”. It was built by the seaside and now it’s a health-resort complex. The sanatorium is popular with both locals, who love to spend the holidays there, and tourists from different countries. The sanatorium is a modern place which conforms to the international standards and plays a key role at the international tourism of Tajikistan among the others places of tourism industry.

Modern Tajikistan is a mountainous country , where mountains get up from 300 meters to 7495meters above the sea level. There are 93% of the territory covered with mountains’ chains like Pamir, Gissar- Altay and Tien Shang. These mountains’ chains are separated by Fergana ,Zaravshon, Vakhsh and Gissar valleys. The shapes of the mountains and the amplitude of the peaks diversify the plants and animals of these territories.

Tajikistan is a motherland of the highest peaks, huge and old glaciers, rough and rapid rivers, the most beautiful lakes, amazing scenes , unique plants and rare animals. The mountainous landscape, gorgeousness of the mountain shapes and difference at climatic zones make Tajik nature inimitable. Within an hour and a half flight it changes from the hottest areas of Vakhsh Valley to the coldest parts of Pamir. All this wealth of Tajik land constantly attracts people from all over the World.

The nature in its virgin and purity, with its rare plants and animals, was carefully preserved on the territories of wildlife preserves and nature reserves like: Zorqul, Romit, Mozqul, Dashti-Dzhum and at Tajik national wildlife park. The rare types of animals and plants were recorded in the Red Book and preserved carefully at national parks. Among them we can find: markhor, argali( Marco Polo) , mountain sheep( Urea) , Bukhara dappled deer, snow leopard, Tien Shang brown bear and bar-headed goose. There are over 84 spices of mammals, 365 spices of birds, 49 spices of reptiles, 52 spices of fish and more than 1000 spices of insects are found in Tajikistan. The flora of the country consists of more than 5000 types of plants with some endemics. The area of national Park is about 2,6 million hectares which is 18% of the territory of Tajikistan and 60% of GBAO territory. Over the last few years, the steps towards the development of the infrastructure of ecological tourism are actively realized by the administration of the National Park. Also several steps were taken to make the ecological conditions in the high –altitude areas of Pamir better , which is a main tendency towards to the international tourism development in case of global warming and pollution.

One of the unique areas in the upper Amu Darya is “Tiger’s gully”. It’s a home for animals like:a Hangeul deer, an antelope- dzheiran, a jungle cat, a leopard, ahyena ,a Tajik pheasant ,partridge-Chil, an eagle, a wild boar, a badger and a porcupine. There are some kinds of reptiles which are very important for the science and medicine; they are cobra, blunt-nose viper, Echis and some others snakes from non-poisonous order. Different kinds of fish could be found in the lakes and rivers , they are : trout, catfish, carp , mudfish , marina fish , and skafiringus, which is a relict and ancient type of fish which could be found only down Vakhsh river.

There are about 125 tourists sanatoriums and health-resort facilities working in the Republic. There are 51 hotels, 9 sanatoriums, camp sites, recreation areas are among them. Most hotels are located in the cities like Dushanbe, Khujand, Kurgan – Tube, Kulyab, and Khorog.

There are 3 international airports in Dushanbe, Khujand and Kulyab. Three lanes of railroads cross the country from the west to east. They connect the central, northern and southern regions of the country through the territories of the border countries such as: Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which are close to Tajikistan not only according to the territory but also according to the history, culture, religion and traditions.

Natural recreational sources of the country, historical and cultural sights predetermine the features of the national tourism product, the movement and realization of this product. And it helps to increase the flow of the tourists into the country. The results of it were reflected in statistics data which is recorded by the Youth Committee of Sport and Tourism under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.