Panjakent

The terrace above the modern town carries the remains of a Sogdian city that flourished from the 5th century AD as one of the trading towns of the Zarafshan valley, with a citadel, temples, a market street and richly painted houses. Its wall paintings, showing feasts, epic battles and gods, are among the most important finds of Central Asian archaeology and have shaped what is known of Sogdian religion and daily life.

The city's end came with the Arab conquest of the early 8th century. Its last ruler, Devashtich, withdrew to a mountain fortress on Mount Mugh, where a cache of documents on leather, wood and paper was found — the main written source for the Sogdian world. The site was abandoned soon afterwards, which is why so much survived, and excavation has continued for decades. Further down the valley, Sarazm had been a farming and metalworking settlement thousands of years earlier, trading in lapis, tin and copper.

The valley later belonged to the emirate of Bukhara, and the modern town grew as a district centre under Russian and then Soviet rule, with schools, a museum and farms producing fruit and tobacco. Soviet border-drawing left Panjakent inside Tajikistan while its natural market, Samarkand, lay in Uzbekistan; the crossing was closed for long periods after 1991, and cross-border travel eased as relations between the two countries improved from 2016. Sarazm was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010, the first in Tajikistan.

This is a valley of villages, and life follows farming, family and the seasons. People are Tajik-speaking and largely Sunni Muslim, with mosques in each village, and the customs of the Zarafshan share much with those of Samarkand, a short distance away: the same dishes, the same wedding music, and families with relatives on both sides of the border.

The valley is proud of its literary past. Rudaki, the poet of the 9th and 10th centuries who is regarded as the father of Persian poetry, was born at Panjrud up the valley, and his mausoleum there is a place of visits, while the town's museum carries his name. The Sogdian heritage is also claimed as local history, and copies of the wall paintings appear in public buildings.

Higher in the mountains, in the Yaghnob valley east of here, communities speak Yaghnobi, a language considered a direct descendant of or close relative to Sogdian, and their survival is a matter of national pride. Hospitality in the villages is unstinting: walkers are offered tea and food and often a bed, and refusing entirely is harder than accepting. Nowruz in March is the great festival, and weddings, with long tables and the doira drum, are the main social events of the year.

Panjakent has some 52,000 residents, with many more in the district's villages along the Zarafshan and its side valleys, so the town functions as a market and administrative centre for a largely rural population. Buildings are low, courtyards are walled, and orchards and vineyards begin at the edge of the streets.

The economy is farming and trade. Apricots, apples, grapes, potatoes and vegetables are grown on irrigated terraces, livestock is kept on the pastures above, and produce is sold in the bazaar or trucked to Khujand and across the border. Small-scale mining and quarrying operate in the district, tourism provides seasonal income through guesthouses, drivers and guides, and, as everywhere in the country, money sent home from relatives working in Russia supports many households.

The day begins early, with the bazaar busiest soon after dawn; in summer work pauses in the worst heat and the evenings bring people out to the square and the tea houses. Roads, irrigation water, winter electricity supply and the shortage of local work are the standing concerns, and the state of the border crossing matters to traders and to families with relatives in Uzbekistan.

The Zarafshan table is close to that of Samarkand. Oshi palav, rice cooked with mutton, carrot and onion in a kazan, is the dish of weddings and guests. Qurutob, torn flaky fatir bread soaked in a sauce of dissolved qurut and topped with onion and herbs, is eaten by hand from a shared bowl, and shurbo, a fatty mutton and vegetable soup, is the everyday winter meal.

Bread is central: non baked in tandoors in every village, stamped in the middle and never set down face first, along with fatir made in layers with butter or oil. Sambusa from the tandoor, manti, laghmon noodles and shashlik grilled over coals are the usual restaurant dishes, and in the mountain villages the diet is simpler — bread, dairy, potatoes, mutton, eggs and dried fruit.

Fruit is the valley's pride. Apricots, apples, grapes, cherries, mulberries and melons are eaten fresh in season and dried on rooftops for the winter, along with walnuts and almonds; dried mulberries, sometimes ground into flour, are a staple in the high villages. Chakka, strained sour milk with herbs, is spread on bread, chalop is drunk cold in summer, and green tea is poured all day with bowls of dried fruit and sweets set out for guests.