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.

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.

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.

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.

Khorugh

Pop 31,000

Capital - Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region

Republic of Tajikistan

August 22, 2019

Khorugh is surrounded by mountains.

Not just hills mind you.  The Pamir Mountains.  

Mountains so high I must lift my chin and stretch my neck to see the very tops.

Langar

Langar Region

Wakhan Corridor

Tajikistan

August 23, 2019

My guidebook printed a cautionary notice:

“Visiting the Wakhan Corridor should come with a strong warning: having trekked or driven down the Tajik side of the corridor, you will return home and start planning your trip to Afghanistan.  It’s unavoidable.  The Tajik side is majestic, but Afghanistan is so tantalizingly close that it drives you almost to distraction.” *

Will I ever visit Afghanistan?  The prospect is “tantalizing.”

Nevertheless, the Tajik side of the Wakhan Corridor is truly “majestic.”