Nestled at the foot of the mountains, Dushanbe is a new city, whose development dates from the Soviet period. Some buildings of the colonial era, with their pastels pastel like Ferghana in Uzbekistan or Karakol in Kyrgyzstan, have an interesting architecture, but they begin to find themselves in the shadow of new modern constructions. There are many green spaces, especially with the huge central park and the city has some well-furnished museums. In general, however, nothing special will take you back to the Tajik capital, and Dushanbe will be above all a transit point to the Pamir or Kyrgyzstan depending on your journey.HistoryIn Tajik, Dushanbe means «Monday», the day the market took place in what was only a small village a hundred years ago. Just about fifty of the earth houses, located near the Hissar fort where the bek resided. In 1920, the Emir of Boukhara found refuge in it, then continued his flight south when the Bolsheviks took Doushbe. In 1922, Enver Pasha and the basmashi became masters of the city for a few months. In 1929, she was named Stalinabad - a name it will keep until 1961 - and became the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tajikistan. The population quickly passed from a few hundred to several thousand.It is therefore not his historical past that Dushbe owes its reputation. Before the war, the city had the reputation of being the sweetest to live among Central Asian capitals, enjoying a microclimate thanks to the proximity of the Hissar mountains, the mountain chain located north of the city. In summer, the heat is less suffocating and the evenings are sometimes fresh. So many Russians (almost 50% of the population) began to leave the capital from independence and during the civil war, many fled to Russia. In 1992 and 1993, Dushanbe was the scene of poorly publicized and unknown atrocities by the West, whose attention was then focused on war in the former Yugoslavia: political, religious and account killings decimated the capital and gharmia population of the capital (two minorities living in mountainous regions of the eastern part of the country). The following years, armed bands with a very distant relationship with any political commitment were the capital of the capital.The city, which was slowly beginning to emerge from the state of siege after the peace negotiations between the government and the opposition in exile, found a lead atmosphere at the end of 1997, following the tragic hostage-taking of two Frenchmen working for Tacis and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1998, tourists were still advised to visit Dushbe, the expatriates who resided there for ngos limited their travel to the strict necessary. The city has recovered calmly from 1999, and no longer poses a particular security problem. The relative growth of tourism in the region has even led to the emergence of some bars, restaurants and guesthouses which, given the modest size of the city, add a certain, unexpected charm to the small Tajik capital.The power in place, conscious of leading the poorest of the CIS republics, and after the disasters caused by the civil war, while another war ton on the southern borders of the country, has become aware of the need for reforms, both politically and economically.Economic activity has resumed, and we even have the surprise of seeing many very large and expensive cars driving on the streets of the capital… The main street remains animated after dark, and we can safely walk around, although night activities remain drastically limited.

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Tadjikistan, Douchanbe, librairie religieuse près de la madrasa Haji Yakoub. Sylvie FRANCOISE

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