Category Archive: Destination

Firuz Hotel

Situated in Khujand, Firuz Hotel offers 4-star accommodation with barbecue facilities and a garden. Among the various facilities are a bar and a restaurant. The property features a 24-hour front desk and free WiFi is available.

The units are fitted with air conditioning, a flat-screen TV with cable channels, a fridge, a kettle, a bidet and a desk. Rooms are complete with a private bathroom fitted with free toiletries, while certain rooms are fitted with a seating area. The rooms include a wardrobe.

A buffet breakfast is served daily at the property.

You can play billiards at the hotel.

Important information
Prepay
The total price of the reservation may be charged anytime after booking.
Extra charges
18 % VAT is included.
Additional costs may vary depending on the room category
Preauthorize
The property reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Room amount
20
Internet Services
WiFi is available in the hotel rooms and is free of charge.
Address
Lenina Street 223
Cancellation
Please note, if canceled, modified or in case of no-show, the total price of the reservation will be charged.
Children
All children are welcome. One child under 6 years stays free of charge when using existing beds. There is no capacity for extra beds in the room.
Parking
Free private parking is possible on site (reservation is not needed).
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Check-in/out
Check-in from 12:00
Check-out until 12:00
Hotel’s languages
  • English
  • Russian
Accepted credit cards
American Express, Visa, Euro/Mastercard, Maestro

Muhammad Bashoro Mausoleum

The center of the building hosts a spacious domed hall with a number of vaulted rooms on its left and right. The main facade of the mausoleum faces a small mountain river where you can get using the only available road. A clay Mehrob with graceful ornamental and calligraphic inscriptions towers in the center of the hall.

Muhammad Bashoro Mausoleum (11th — 14th centuries) is located in a picturesque Mazori Sharif village among juniper groves is the Mausoleum of Muhammad Bashoro who was an expert in Hadises (the legends of deeds and pronouncements of Prophet Muhammad and his associates). Originally the building had no portal. It was added only in the 14th century. The portal was distinguished by a special beauty: it had graceful and noble proportions and was decorated with carved terracotta of unique beauty and complexity. The portal is bicolor — pink patterns of terracotta are placed within the double frame of glazed turquoise bricks — and has the exact date preserved among the inscriptions (743 years of Hijri which corresponds to the years of 1342-1343).
The center of the building hosts a spacious domed hall with a number of vaulted rooms on its left and right. The main facade of the mausoleum faces a small mountain river where you can get using the only available road. A clay Mehrob with graceful ornamental and calligraphic inscriptions towers in the center of the hall.
The presence of Mehrob (a niche in a mosque wall indicating the direction to Kaaba — the main relic of Islam) testifies that originally the building might not have been a mausoleum but a mosque. This is not the only mystery of Muhammad Bashoro Mausoleum: another one is whether the remains of this notorious religious figure are buried there.

Kok-Gumbaz Istaravshan

When you take a look at the city from above you immediately notice the light-blue dome of Kok-Gumbaz mosque-madrasah as if floating in the air over it.

The building is located in the western part of the city and is named so because of its light-blue tiled dome (Kok-Gumbaz means «the Light-Blue Dome»). This 16th-century structure was erected by the order of Abdullatif Sultan — the son of the well-known scientist, astronomer, and philosopher — Ulugbek, the grandson of Tamerlan.
The folk legend says that Abdullatif after he had quarreled with his father, left home and found a job digging an aryk for an old peasant who needed it for irrigation of his land. He was supposed to receive 100 tenges for this job. His father found out about it and took away the hard earned money from the peasant and pooled it with his own in order to build the madrasah. Even three centuries after that at the end of the 19th century the madrasah still continued to train students. The main building the Kok-Gumbaz was made of square bricks. The main large square hall is extended by four deep niches on all sides. The niche with a mihrab is richly decorated with molding. The walls are gracefully painted. The entrance portal and the dome are tiled with majolica in incrustation fashion.

Hazrati Shoh Mausoleum

 If you ask any local resident who is buried in Hazrati Shoh Mausoleum you will get the answer that this sacred place is the tomb of St. Hazrati Shoh — the brother of Kusam ibn Abbas, the cousin of Prophet Muhammad buried in the 11th century in Samarkand complex of Shakhi Zind. This is the way the legend is told in this place.

The mausoleum itself being one of the most ancient landmarks of Tajikistan is a part of the historical-architectural complex «Hazrati Shoh» located in the old part of Istaravshan. The complex consists of three cult structures: Hazrati Shoh Mausoleum, Khudoyor Valami Mausoleum and Hazrati Shoh Mosque (also known as Namozgokh) built in the 19th century. All three structures stand in a semicircle. Each of them was erected at different times and has its own history of creation and purpose. In the past, the city cemetery and the Madrassah were also a part of the complex.
Today Hazrati Shoh Mausoleum is a modest two-dome brick building with a tomb (gurkhan) and a chapel (ziyoratkhon) which has been repeatedly restored.
In front of the mausoleum, there is a spring the water in which is considered holy and medicinal. According to a legend the spring was formed after caliph Ali dropped his crosier into a high-mountain Lake Ojkul. The crosier emerged at the feet of Hazrati Shoh buried in Uro-Teppa right where the spring was born. It was from this spring that the history of the mausoleum started. According to the scientists the Muslims consider a spring as a source of life; this is why the burial place of the honored religious figure appeared there. Later the mausoleum was erected above his tomb.
The complex is dated the 18th century though historically it emerged much earlier — in the 10th — 11th centuries.

Minaret of Khujand

The oldest minaret that is still standing is the one you see here close to the Mosque of Shaikh Muslihiddin, in North of Tajikistan, which was built for the same Mosque.

A minaret was a tower that Islamic holy men called muezzins climbed in order to call out the call to prayer, five times a day. At the top, there was an opening for the muezzin (moo-EZZ-in) to call out the prayers so everyone would know that it was time to pray. The oldest minaret that is still standing is the one you see here close to the Mosque of Shaikh Muslihiddin, in North of Tajikistan, which was built for the same Mosque.
For the first times, these were built with woods considering as watchtowers in 200 AD and later the inspiration allowed the architects to build them with the stone in 500 AD, which makes them last longer than ever before. A minaret was a tower that Islamic holy men called muezzins climbed in order to call out the call to prayer, five times a day. It was a tall thin building with stairs inside it (or sometimes outside) and small windows to let in daylight. At the top, there was an opening for the muezzin (moo-EZZ-in) to call out the prayers so everyone would know that it was time to pray.
Most minarets were near mosques, where men (though not women) came to pray. When the Almovarids ruled North Africa and Spain, they disapproved of minarets, and so people built mosques without minarets in those areas during the 1000s AD. But when the Almohads conquered the Almovarids, they built a lot of minarets to show that they had won.
 

Mosque of Shaikh Muslihiddin

A large religious building complex known as the Sheikh Muslihiddin mausoleum is located in the historical center of Khujand. It was named after Muslihiddin Khujandi, a poet, and ruler of the town, who lived in the 12th century.

His biography, Manokib, has been preserved. According to folk legend, Sheikh Muslihiddin was a holy miracle man. After his death, he was initially buried in Unji village (a suburb of Khujand). However, after some time his followers carried the Sheikh’s ashes to the place where he lies now and built a mausoleum over his tomb.
The 12th-century burial-vault consists of a small burial vault made out of baked bricks decorated with terracotta and spray decor. It was later destroyed during a Mongol invasion and also suffered as a result of the general economic decline of Maveraunnahr in the 13th century. In the 14th century the mausoleum was rebuilt but with a different design and now consisted of two rooms. Its new look existed for some time, but then it was destroyed again for unknown reasons. In the 16th century a new building, quite different from previous one in its construction and plan, was built on the ruins of the old mausoleum. It acquired a new purpose — from being just a mausoleum it turned into a mausoleum-khonako, i.e. a building for prayer and ritual ceremonies.
The memorial has been reconstructed and repaired many times since and that has led to a distortion of the 16th century look of the mausoleum-khonako. In the second half of the 20th century the mausoleum for a long time housed the regional historical museum. In there museum in the building ceased to exist and its displays were taken to another place.
 

Panjshanbe Bazaar

Covered market Panjshanbe is one of the most colorful sights of Khujand. which is located in the center of Khujand, opposite Sheikh Muslihiddin mausoleum. Panjshanbe is considered as one of the oldest markets of Tajikistan.

The Silk Road which passes Khujand city had always made Panjshanbe to be crowded with traders and tourists.The bazaar consists of the main pavilion and many stalls, tents and shops adjust to it.Panjshanbe bazar has many shops offering different kinds of goods and services. It is always noisy there since not only residents of the city but also neighboring villages flock there for shopping.
The main feature of the Panjshanbe market is its unique architecture and design. Construction of the pavilion took place in the middle of the 20th century and finished in 1964. There is a semi-spherical portal above the central entrance adorned with a bright painting and sculptures of man and woman on the sides. When you enter, you will see a long arched hall with a row of columns.

Khujand Museum

 The Historical Museum of Sughd is a regional history museum in Khujand, Tajikistan. It has a wide range of artifacts related to the history of the Sughd region of Tajikistan.

Kayrokum

20 km from Khujand there is one of the natural attractions of Sogdian region – Kayrakkum reservoir, stretching for 50 km to the east. This artificial lake was made in the 50-s of the XX century to build a hydroelectric station and control the Syr Darya runoff. The country’s inhabitants, having no access to the ocean, often call it the «Tajik Sea»

 

The statistics of the Kayrakkum reservoir in figures look quite impressive: its length is 55 km, width is 20 km, maximum depth is 25 meters, and the total water volume is 4.2 km3. The length of the dam is 1,205 meters and while the height is 32 meters. In addition, in cold winters the Kayrakkum freezes, and in summers the air temperature near the coast reaches 30-35 degrees Celsius.
An artificial lake has become a new ecosystem of the region: its waters are rich in fish species (pike, carp, catfish, perch, bream, etc.), moreover, it became a stopover for birds of passage, annually migrating from north Asia to India and other countries.
The Kayrakkum over its half-century history has become a popular holiday destination. It has various sanatoriums, recreation areas and children’s camps stretching along the coast. This is a great place for swimming and fishing. Its coast along the whole length is covered by numerous fruit orchards.