Hisor Fortress

The Hisor (Gissar) valley west of Dushanbe has been farmed and fought over since antiquity, and the fortress at its centre was for centuries the seat of whoever controlled it. In its latest form, from the 18th and 19th centuries, Hisor was the residence of the beks who governed the valley on behalf of the emirs of Bukhara, one of the emirate's richest provinces. The fortress fell into ruin after the Soviet takeover of the 1920s, and what you see today is a combination of the old mound, excavated remains and substantial modern reconstruction.

The gate and citadel

The postcard image of Hisor is its gate: a tall arched portal of fired brick flanked by two round, slightly tapering towers with small windows, rebuilt on the old pattern. Behind it the citadel mound rises steeply. A path leads to the top, where the outline of the walls can still be traced and the view stretches across cotton fields and orchards to the snowy Hisor range in the north. Archaeologists have uncovered building remains and a stone-lined pool on the plateau below the mound.

Madrasas and mausoleum

Facing the fortress across a wide lawn are the buildings of the old town centre. The Old Madrasa (Madrasai Kuhna) now houses a small museum of local history and ethnography, with textiles, ceramics and household objects. Next to it are the 19th-century New Madrasa and the mausoleum of Makhdumi Azam, a 16th-century brick tomb associated with a revered Sufi teacher. Remains of a caravanserai and a bathhouse complete the ensemble, which is preserved as a historical-cultural reserve.

How to visit

Hisor lies about 25 kilometres west of Dushanbe, roughly half an hour by car, and is easily combined with a morning in the capital's museums. It also falls on the route to and from the Uzbek border near Tursunzoda for travellers heading to Termez. Climb the mound early or late in the day; there is little shade.