Khojand

Introducing Khojand

Khojand (or Khojent) is the capital of northern Tajikistan (Sughd province) and the second-largest city in the country. It’s also one of Tajikistan’s oldest towns, founded on the banks of the Syr-Darya by Alexander the Great as his easternmost outpost, Alexandria-Eskhate. In 1986 Khojand – or Leninabad as it was then named – celebrated its 2500th anniversary. Commanding (and taxing) the entrance to the Fergana Valley, Khojand built palaces, grand mosques and a huge citadel before the Mongols steamrolled the city into oblivion in the early 13th century. Today the economically booming town is of marginal interest to visitors, useful mainly as a springboard to the spectacular overland route south to Dushanbe.

Khojand, made up mostly of Uzbeks, has remained aloof from Dushanbe, although it always provided Tajikistan’s Soviet elite. When President Nabiev, a Khojand man, was unseated in 1992 and Tajikistan appeared to be becoming an Islamic republic, Khojand (Leninabad) province threatened to secede. Secure behind the Fan Mountains, it managed to escape the ravages of the civil war and remains the wealthiest part of the country, producing two-thirds of Tajikistan’s GDP, with 75% of the country’s arable land and only one-third of the population.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009