On the Road
The Pamirs
Tajikistan
August 21, 2019
Hello,
My driver Bachtiyar decides to take a break and refresh himself in the mists of the waterfall on the edge of the road.
On our return to Dushanbe along the same route, our vehicle enjoys the same refreshment.
Jan
Rushan Town
Rushan Valley
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region
Tajikistan
August 21, 2019
Hello from the Pamir Mountains,
Who cannot feel grateful for the opportunity to visit the “inaccessible” mountains and the white capped rivers of Tajikistan?
But it’s the kids who are enchanting.
Darvaz (Дарвоз)
(Khalai Khumb - Калай-Хумб)
Darvaz District
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region
Tajikistan
August 20, 2019
Hello,
The scenic viewpoint of the Nurek Reservoir heralds an exhilarating journey to the Pamir Mountains region of Tajikistan. Little girls persuade me to buy a snack.
Down the road from Nurek my driver Bakhtiyar and I stop at a watermelon market. Remind me to tell you the story of my “Watermelon Man.”
From Nurek the gravel highway leads to my first sight of the Panj River and the surrounding mountains.
And what a surprise. (I should have looked more carefully at my map.) The Panj River forms the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
Hisor City (pop 22,900)
Hisor District
Tajikistan
August 17. 2019
Set on a spacious open plain, surrounded by the Gissar, Babatag and Aktau mountain ranges, thirty kilometers from Dushanbe, the Hisor Fortress reminds us of the impermanence of empires and the futility of building walls.
It is said that the fortress was once the home of Cyrus the Great,
Since that occupation by the Persian invader, the fortress has been destroyed and rebuilt twenty-one times by succeeding forces of other brutal generals.
Iskanderkul – Lake Alexander
Sughd Province
Gissar Range
Fann Mountains
Tajikistan
August 16, 2019
Sunny and Hot
Hello,
The guidebook says that at midnight, Alexander the Great rides Bucephalus across the inky black lake. (Iskander in Tajik is Alexander. Kul is lake.)
During the day, the Iskanderkul is an intensely bright shade of turquoise.
The outflow maintains the same fluorescent hue as it crashes downstream to form the Iskander Darya and then over a 40m high (131 feet) waterfall.
