My biggest Fans

From: Bukhara, Uzbekistan

OK, I'm way behind on posts. Since the last time I wrote, I've done the following:
- spent a couple of days in the Fan mountains
- crossed into Uzbekistan
- visited the beautiful city of Samarqand
- been followed by a KGB agent in Bukhara

I'll cover all this stuff later; this post is about my trip into the Fan mountains.

There are several ways to get from Dushanbe to Uzbekistan. The most scenic route takes the M-34 north to the mountains, cuts west along some very poor roads, and ends up in Penjikent, a town on the Uzbek border.

The trip to Penjikent was uneventful by Tajik standards: no Tunnel of Death, roadblock delays less than 3 hours, minimal radiator/engine failures. I got to Penjikent in the evening. Turned out there were some American girls staying at my homestay, and I ended up joining them on a trip to the nearby Sogdian ruins and to the Marguzor lakes.

On the hills above the town are the ruins of Old Penjikent, a settlement from pre-Islamic times. Our guide explained that, with the arrival of the Muslim armies, the former residents were forced to abandon the old town and move down towards the river, where they still live today.

I'm usually not a huge fan of ruins, but these were interesting, and in good enough shape to give a sense of the former city's size. The town was built out of a combination of stones, clay and bricks, some of which are in good shape for having been exposed to the elements for over a thousand years. The ancient Sogdians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sogdiana) were Zoroastrians (members of an ancient Persian religion that worshipped fire), and you can still see the ruins of the town's fire temples:


After the ruins, our driver drove us into the Fan Mountains and dropped us off at the Marguzor lakes. There are seven mountain lakes in the system, each connected by small streams and waterfalls. We started at the second lake and hiked up to the sixth one, a several-hour walk uphill. The scenery was some of the most beautiful I've seen on this trip:


We stopped and had lunch at a picturesque set of rapids, then hiked until we reached the village of Marguzor itself. The village is remote -- an hour's drive by Jeep to Penjikent on very rough roads. The village has no shops or public buildings of any kind, just herding and subsistence agriculture on a few patches of arable land irrigated by the river. Definitely a strange place to settle, right? Our guide explained that the ancestors of the mountain dwellers had fled to the hills to avoid invaders, and their children had just stuck around. The Marguzorians are a welcoming bunch; it seemed like every kid in the town followed us until we reached the next lake:


The sixth lake (where we stopped) was spectactular and we stopped to swim for a while. Not that a lot of swimming took place; the highest lake is fed by glacial runoff so the water temperature was chilly indeed. Our driver showed up in late afternoon with a giant plastic thermos of hot tea, a welcome sight after a few plunges into the lake.


Thus were the Fans. I'll write more about Samarqand soon.