Unusual capital city spotting: Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

A few years ago, I wrote about the weirdest capital city I’ve ever been to, Astana, Kazakhstan. Yeah, that one might now be Dushanbe, Tajikistan. I have to revisit Astana to compare notes.

We went to Dushanbe after visiting Khujand, Tajikistan. We decided to skip the 8-10 hour marshrutka through the mountains and save that for our Dushanbe to Penjakent trip since it wasn’t as long. My limbs are getting too old for these marshrutka rides. The flight costs only about 30 euros and takes around 40 minutes. It’s one of the prettiest short flights you can take. Check out these stunning mountain views.

What makes it weird?

Dushanbe, in comparison to the other Central Asian and Eastern European capitals, was much less organized transportation-wise than Tashkent. I try to refrain from dropping the “Post Soviet” word when describing Central Asia and Eastern Europe like I might have done in my 20s, but in this case, it is unavoidable. A legacy from the Soviet times is excellent transportation and a functioning metro in most of the capitals of the republics. Unfortunately, Dushanbe is absent from this, like Bishkek.

Although you can use Yandex (a Russian taxi app) everywhere, the chance of the police pulling it over is relatively high. We were stopped by the police for some routine thing in nearly every taxi we rode in Dushanbe. They are out there in full force, pulling people over. It’s probably often revolving around a small bribe. The average salary in Tajikistan is the lowest in Central Asia. Tajikistan has significant economic problems, so many Tajiks move to Russia to find work to support their families. The choices for those who don’t or can’t leave Tajikistan are limited.

Tajikistan, like nearly everywhere else in Central Asia, is a dictatorship. It’s not as bad as Turkmenistan, but it has one of the longest-running presidents in the world. He’s been in power since the 1990s. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have made a few reforms and have new presidents. The Tajik president, Emomali Rahmon, has built many things to showcase himself; you can find his face in every corner. This includes Dushanbe.

What is there to see

Many tourists use Dushanbe as a jumping point to the Pamir Highway, which we didn’t do because of time and money restrictions. But there are plenty of things to see in Dushanbe.

The first is the massive statue of Ismoil Somoni. The monument of Ismoil Somoni was built in 1999 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the Samanid State. Ismoil Somoni is the national hero of Tajikistan. They even named the money ( Tajiki Somani) after him.

You also can’t forget the massive flag! Unfortunately, it was down for most of the time I was there. It was put back up when we were leaving, so we weren’t able to get the best shot.

Across the Somani statue, you can see the Parliament and its splendor.

You can also see the library, which we weren’t allowed to see because they were hosting the president of Azerbaijan (a dictator himself who is presently conducting ethnic cleansing and mass deportations of Armenians ) that day.

We also couldn’t see much of the Place of Nowroz for the same reasons. We were only allowed to walk around the gardens in the back, which gave us a nice view of the mountains. There is still no shortage of appearances from ” his excellency.” in the garden.

He’s hard to miss all over town.

There are some other sights in Dushanbe aside from him. You can see some modern architecture and different mosaics around.

You can even find this baby right here—a golden watermelon.

It begs me to ask how, in a country with one of the world’s lowest rates of food security, how can they build all this type of stuff. I know some edge lord will retort with, “How is America so rich with many poor people? They can’t afford healthcare, but they can afford war?

This is a good and valid point; it’s usually safe to say 50% or more of the country hates whoever the current president is, and if there were a bunch of monuments and posters of one, someone would trash it, no matter who it was except maybe Dolly Parton. This is the same in Europe. Pretty much any sign of a politician will met with a marker. This leads to the following question: how is he still really popular, or is he? My suspicion is he isn’t, and everyone just self-censors. You can look at RSF and see that Tajikistan is ranked 153 regarding freedom of the press. It scored lower in 2023 than Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Hisor Fortress

An easy “half-day trip” from Dushanbe is to see the Hisor Fortress. We went there with our Swedish and Bulgarian friends, who also took advantage of Wizzair’s cheap deals with Central Asia. The Hisor Fortress is just southwest of Dushanbe. The Hisor Fortress is one of the best-preserved archaeological sites in Tajikistan. The first activity around the fortress dates back to the Achaemenid Empire around 500 BC. The place is a popular wedding and weekend venue for many Tajiks.

We went on a Tuesday or something and had it to ourselves. Getting there is easy; you can take a Marshrutka for nearly nothing on the outskirts. Since there were four of us, we just took a taxi from the outskirts, which does not cost more than a few bucks. Although, as I said, the chance of the taxi being stopped is high, it is entertaining for tourists to watch the drama go down. On the other hand, you feel really sorry for the driver. This is probably a weekly or maybe even daily thing for them.

Alright, so here is my take on Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The next post will be about Khujand, which digs deeper into personality cults. It will also reflect on the overall hospitality of Tajiks and what distinguishes them from the rest of Central Asia.