Panjakent

The archaeological site of the ruins of old Panjakent, a walled inter-city which stood 2,500-years ago, was once a Sogdian trading city on the Silk Road. Today, only ruins are left as a consequence of the main construction material being clay-bricks. Sometimes referred to as The Pompeii of Central Asia, it is well worth a visit. Duplicates of old Sogdian art are exposed in the nearby museum. The director will also take you on a tour, which will open your eyes to many interesting details which will normally escape the layman's eye.
Ancient Panjakent was divided into a shakhrestan (residential quarter) covering an area of about 13 hectares, an ark (citadel) with a palace, covering an area of 1 ha, a rabat (fortified suburb) and a necropolis. The site is huge. Located on the top of a hill, it offers amazing views over the entire valley. The living quarters and fortress were separated by a narrow wadi with a bridge connecting the two parts of the city.
Two temples in the shakhrestan formed the center of the urban area. The two temples contained statues and mural paintings. During the 5th and 6th centuries, no building in Panjakent was as magnificent as the two temples and even the houses of the wealthiest residents seemed rather humble compared to the two temples.
The buildings were made of mud bricks and paksha. The residential houses ranged from single room buildings to large estates, reflecting the social status of their inhabitants. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the houses of the rich dominated the architecture of the city. At the beginning of the 8th century, the spaces between the houses were converted into passageways and often covered with vaults. The houses of the rich became two-story buildings with vaults over the room on the first floor. All residential houses were covered with wall paintings and woodcarvings.
The larger houses consisted of halls with four columns and benches along the walls. They were the most important part of the houses and served religious purposes. More than a third of the houses had such reception halls. It is here where the archeologists discovered many exceptional mural paintings. These paintings date from the 5th to the 8th century and are considered the most important works of early medieval art in Central Asia before the arrival of Islam. Most houses had a dark vaulted room for storage and a spiral staircase leading to the living quarters in the second floor. The houses of the well-to-do population usually had a room with a fire altar and a ceremonial hall decorated with wall paintings and wood carvings. In the main hall, there was a niche up to 4 m wider opposite the entrance with giant images of tutelary gods and small pictures of the praying members of the household. The center of the hall was marked by four wooden columns which supported complex wooden structures with a dome on a square foundation on the top. The hall was decorated with woodcarvings in high relief and even with small statues of caryatids and atlantes. The most common motif of the reliefs in the ceiling were arched niches with figures of the gods, including the sun-god in his chariot. The wall paintings on the other three walls were much smaller than the gods facing the main entrance. They formed two or three friezes depicting royal feasts, hunting scenes, the heroic deeds of Rostam, local heroes, amazons or persons from the Indian epic Mahabarata. The layout of the Sogdian central hall is unique. The decorations show that the Sogdian artist were familiar with the artistic and literary traditions of different cultures, as Persia, Greece and even India.
The majority of the population observed some local variation of Zoroastrianism, which is proved by the wide distribution of ossuary funerals and fire-altars. There is some evidence of the presence of Christianity and Buddhism and eventually even of the cult of Shiva. Zoroastrianism was combined with cults of additional gods and goddesses. Not all of these deities were of Iranian origin, as can be seen from the cult of the Mesopotamian goddess Nana.
The iconography of these goods can be traced back to the Hellenistic period, such as the image of a defeated goddess. It was also influenced by Sasanian ideas of the royal attributes of gods and observed some Hinduistic features as well. The iconography took its final form in the 5th and 6th centuries. Each household had its own divine protector, but all gods formed part of a single pantheon, as can be seen from wall paintings depicting several deities side by side. The three-headed god of the wind Veshparkar, who resembles Shiva, and the four-handed Nana riding on a lion or seated on a throne in the shape of a lion can easily be recognised. Altogether, more than 20 deities can be found on small terracotta images, murals, woodcarvings and clay figurines. The images of Nana, a god sitting on a throne in the shape of a camel and of a god standing over a fallen demon are most common.

This interesting museum of local history has been rehabilitated and should not be missed. Abu Abdullo Rudaki was a famous poet of the 10th century. He lived in Panjakent for a while and later became the national hero of Tajikistan. Among the exhibits in the museum are frescoes from the ancient city of Panjakent depicting a banquet, a battle, and daily life scenes; statues of Zoroastrian divinites and a wooden statue of a dancing woman. Apart from showing artifacts and frescoes of the archeological site nearby the city, it also features exhibits from Sarazm, a neolithic site a few kilometres further west. There excavators found proof human settlement as old as 5,500 years and, most notably, the richly decorated remains of a young woman referred to as the "princess of Sarazm". The museum has 8 halls. The first hall is devoted to the history and culture of ancient Sarazm with exhibits illustrating the beginnings of farming and city building in the area. The second hall shows findings from Panjakent from the 5th to 8th century AD. In the third hall, artifacts from the period of the Somonid empire are at display. The fourth hall is devoted to Rudaki, the founder of Tajik literature. The fifth hall shows objects of Tajik ethnography: clothes, embroideries, copper and bronze dishes, clothes from the 19th and 20th centuries. The sixth hall refers to the establishment of the Soviet power in Tajikistan, the seventh hall to the independence of Tajikistan in 1991. In the eighth hall, animals of Tajikistan are exhibited.

A Friday Mosque dating from the 18th and 19th centuries for up to 1,500 people

According to the legend, Ali, the cousin of prophet Muhammad, visited this place which at this time accommodated only serpents. When Ali came to Kainar Ato, he prayed, the snakes disappeared and a spring was formed. Today, 6 water pumps work at Kainar Alto, supplying water to about 2/3 of Panjakant's population.