The hot springs at Garm-Chashma, near Ishkashim in the Wakhan Corridor close to the Afghan border, are one of the more dramatic natural phenomena accessible from Dushanbe — though the journey takes two days each way by road along the Pamir Highway. The springs boil out of the rock at very high temperatures and flow into a series of natural and man-made pools ranging from scalding to comfortably hot.
The setting is extraordinary: the Afghan Hindu Kush and the Wakhan mountains visible across the Panj River valley, the springs steaming in the cold mountain air. The journey is worth it only as part of a longer Pamir Highway trip rather than a day excursion from Dushanbe.