Penjikent Ruins

The ruins of ancient Penjikent, about 60 kilometers from Samarkand across the Tajik border in the Zerafshan valley, are one of the most important archaeological sites in Central Asia. The excavated city shows what a Sogdian merchant settlement of the 7th century looked like — temples, a bazaar, residential quarters, and the walls that once held the famous frescoes.

The site museum has some of the remaining frescoes and artifacts in situ; the best pieces went to the Hermitage and the National Museum of Tajikistan. From Dushanbe, Penjikent is about 280 kilometers via the Anzob Tunnel; combined with the Fann Mountains, it makes a good multi-day excursion from the capital.

things to do sight
A story
Ancient Penjikent was a Sogdian merchant city of the 5th–8th centuries, and when Soviet archaeologists began excavating it in the 1940s, they found something extraordinary: the walls of the private houses were covered in elaborate frescoes depicting Sogdian myths, banquets, hunting scenes, and battle episodes. These paintings are among the finest surviving works of pre-Islamic Central Asian art. Many are now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.