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GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF TAJIKISTAN

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10

Dec

The Gissar Range: Geology and Farming

The Gissar Range cuts across central Tajikistan like a rugged spine, a long chain of folded mountains that rises between the fertile valleys of the Vakhsh and Zarafshan rivers. It is not the highest range in the country, nor the most remote, but it is one of the most inhabited and historically shaped by human
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1

Oct

Lake Sarez: The Sleeping Giant

Lake Sarez begins quietly, with stillness. Its turquoise surface stretches across the narrow Bartang Valley in eastern Tajikistan, framed by steep slopes that rise like walls. The lake is beautiful, almost unnaturally so. But beneath that calm lies a story of sudden catastrophe, geological upheaval, and an uncertain future. Sarez is a lake born in
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4

Sep

Mining Landscapes: Gold, Aluminum, and Scars

In the mountains of Tajikistan, stone carries secrets. Beneath ridges and valleys lie veins of gold, seams of coal, and ores that shimmer with aluminum and antimony. Mining here is not new, the land has long offered minerals, but its scale and intensity have deepened since the Soviet period. Mines dig into mountainsides, rivers turn
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8

Jun

Tugai Forests: Riparian Lifelines of the Vakhsh and Amu Darya

Along the banks of Central Asia’s great rivers, there is a forest that clings to water. It is not alpine spruce or mountain juniper but tugai, a riparian woodland woven from willows, poplars, reeds, and tamarisks. In Tajikistan, fragments of tugai forests remain along the Vakhsh and the Amu Darya, stretching like green ribbons through
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5

Jun

Sacred Mountains: Spiritual Geographies of Tajikistan

The mountains of Tajikistan rise like walls and altars at once. In the early light, their ridges catch fire before the valleys wake, and their shadows stretch like fingers across rivers and fields. For centuries, people living in their folds have treated certain peaks not only as physical landmarks but as sacred presences: places where
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4

May

Remoteness & Connectivity: Mountains in Motion

In the Pamirs, remoteness is not absence- it is a state of motion. The roads twist through high passes, snow closes them in winter, avalanches block them in spring, and landslides rearrange them without warning. Villagers speak of when a fellow from Rushon returned after five years and gasped: “The road turned!” It seems hyperbole,
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13

Apr

The Yaghnob Valley: A Cultural and Ecological Enclave

To enter the Yaghnob Valley is to step sideways in both space and time. The road narrows into a dirt track, winding along the turquoise Yaghnob River as cliffs rise steeply on both sides. Occasional suspension bridges sway above the current, linking clusters of stone houses perched on alluvial terraces. At dawn, mist lingers over
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5

Mar

Urban Gardens in Dushanbe: Green Between Concrete

In the heat of midday, among the narrow alleys of Dushanbe’s old districts, small gardens push through cracks in pavement and curling edges of walls. Tomato vines climb trellises made from broomsticks. Basil and mint grow in buckets. In tiny patches between apartments, green patches flourish as unexpected reprieves from concrete. These urban gardens are
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1

Mar

Pastoral Routes: Herders and Seasonal Mobility

The high Pamirs open in wide silence. Valleys stretch upward toward passes, where wind carries dust and snow. Paths cut into slopes, barely visible from a distance, mark the movement of herds and families. These pastoral routes are not only trails of animals and people but geographies of mobility, tradition, and survival. To follow them
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21

Feb

Roads and Passes: Human Traces in High Mountains

At the top of a mountain pass, the air thins until every breath feels like effort. The road unwinds beneath you in tight, improbable switchbacks, carved into slopes where rivers tumble a thousand meters below. Trucks grow small like toys on the hairpins. A prayer flag flutters against stone. There is a moment of silence
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