* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    ‘Lilo & Stitch’ director unpacks key animation-to-live-action changes (exclusive) – ew.com

    Behind the Scenes: Key Changes in the Animation-to-Live-Action Transformation of ‘Lilo & Stitch

    HG Vora Files Definitive Proxy Materials and Sends Letter to PENN Entertainment, Inc. Shareholders – Business Wire

    HG Vora Takes Action: A Bold Move to Engage PENN Entertainment Shareholders

    Downtown Frederick Partnership announces Alive@Five season lineup – The Frederick News-Post

    Get Ready for Fun: Downtown Frederick’s Exciting Alive@Five Season Lineup Revealed!

    ‘American Idol’ Top 3 revealed as 2 contestants eliminated: Who advanced to the Season 23 finale? – Yahoo

    ‘American Idol’ Top 3 revealed as 2 contestants eliminated: Who advanced to the Season 23 finale? – Yahoo

    60,000 Fans Caused a Small Earthquake Because of One Famous Rock Song – Yahoo

    How 60,000 Fans Rocked the Ground with One Iconic Song!

    Dan Spilo Out at Industry Entertainment After Incident on Set of Alan Ritchson Movie (Exclusive) – The Hollywood Reporter

    Dan Spilo Exits Industry Entertainment Following Controversial Incident on Set of Alan Ritchson Film

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Administration issues RFI on health technology – American Hospital Association

    Unlocking Innovation: Administration Seeks Insights on Health Technology

    Bridger Photonics Appoints Ryan Sullivan as Chief Technology Officer to Accelerate New Era of Data Insights – Business Wire

    Bridger Photonics Welcomes Ryan Sullivan as CTO to Propel Data Insights into a New Era!

    Michigan Public Policy Survey suggests uncertainty among local officials on AI police surveillance technology – The Michigan Daily

    Local Officials Grapple with Uncertainty Over AI Surveillance Technology in Policing

    Trump Media & Technology Group: When Politics Gets A Ticker Symbol (NASDAQ:DJT) – Seeking Alpha

    Trump Media & Technology Group: When Politics Gets A Ticker Symbol (NASDAQ:DJT) – Seeking Alpha

    GenTech offers coding, AI lessons for elementary students – KTAR.com

    GenTech offers coding, AI lessons for elementary students – KTAR.com

    Arkansas Tech Univeristy-Ozark collision repair technology program re-accredited – Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

    Arkansas Tech University-Ozark’s Collision Repair Technology Program Earns Re-Accreditation!

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    ‘Lilo & Stitch’ director unpacks key animation-to-live-action changes (exclusive) – ew.com

    Behind the Scenes: Key Changes in the Animation-to-Live-Action Transformation of ‘Lilo & Stitch

    HG Vora Files Definitive Proxy Materials and Sends Letter to PENN Entertainment, Inc. Shareholders – Business Wire

    HG Vora Takes Action: A Bold Move to Engage PENN Entertainment Shareholders

    Downtown Frederick Partnership announces Alive@Five season lineup – The Frederick News-Post

    Get Ready for Fun: Downtown Frederick’s Exciting Alive@Five Season Lineup Revealed!

    ‘American Idol’ Top 3 revealed as 2 contestants eliminated: Who advanced to the Season 23 finale? – Yahoo

    ‘American Idol’ Top 3 revealed as 2 contestants eliminated: Who advanced to the Season 23 finale? – Yahoo

    60,000 Fans Caused a Small Earthquake Because of One Famous Rock Song – Yahoo

    How 60,000 Fans Rocked the Ground with One Iconic Song!

    Dan Spilo Out at Industry Entertainment After Incident on Set of Alan Ritchson Movie (Exclusive) – The Hollywood Reporter

    Dan Spilo Exits Industry Entertainment Following Controversial Incident on Set of Alan Ritchson Film

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Administration issues RFI on health technology – American Hospital Association

    Unlocking Innovation: Administration Seeks Insights on Health Technology

    Bridger Photonics Appoints Ryan Sullivan as Chief Technology Officer to Accelerate New Era of Data Insights – Business Wire

    Bridger Photonics Welcomes Ryan Sullivan as CTO to Propel Data Insights into a New Era!

    Michigan Public Policy Survey suggests uncertainty among local officials on AI police surveillance technology – The Michigan Daily

    Local Officials Grapple with Uncertainty Over AI Surveillance Technology in Policing

    Trump Media & Technology Group: When Politics Gets A Ticker Symbol (NASDAQ:DJT) – Seeking Alpha

    Trump Media & Technology Group: When Politics Gets A Ticker Symbol (NASDAQ:DJT) – Seeking Alpha

    GenTech offers coding, AI lessons for elementary students – KTAR.com

    GenTech offers coding, AI lessons for elementary students – KTAR.com

    Arkansas Tech Univeristy-Ozark collision repair technology program re-accredited – Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

    Arkansas Tech University-Ozark’s Collision Repair Technology Program Earns Re-Accreditation!

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

In Tajikistan, discover the ruins of a once mighty Silk Road kingdom

December 16, 2023
in Science
In Tajikistan, discover the ruins of a once mighty Silk Road kingdom
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

ByHenry Wismayer

Photographs ByMarcus Westberg

Published December 15, 2023

• 9 min read

At first glance, it doesn’t look like much, just a rectangular meadow in the Pamir foothills of central Tajikistan. But there was a time when this ground reverberated with the thunder of hooves.

Occupying a broad saddle, high above the mighty Panj River, this meadow is believed to be an ancient arena for the Central Asian sport of buzkashi, or dead goat polo. The playing field was a centerpiece of a once sprawling settlement, a political and religious capital inhabited for centuries but since lost to history.

What the whole 15-hectare site amounts to, according to those responsible for its conservation, is the most important archaeological site in Tajikistan. It is a keystone of national efforts to resurrect a distinctly Tajik identity from the country’s fragmented history—and a potential magnet for travelers who are already drawn to the legendary road that snakes along the Panj Valley, the Pamir Highway.

Its rediscovery has drawn comparisons with Machu Picchu in terms of historical importance, if not outright spectacle. Archaeologists have dubbed it Kala-i Kukhna, or Castle Karon, the fortress “located at a height.”

A key archaeological discovery in Tajikistan

It was 2012 when Yusufsho Yakubov, chief archaeologist at the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, was summoned to Darvoz district to investigate an incongruous mound of rubble above the small village of Ruzvat, in the western outriders of the Pamir Mountains. For centuries a crossroads of trade and empire, Tajikistan is littered with long-abandoned citadels and caravanserai built during the heyday of the Silk Road. 

But Yakubov, a veteran scientist, now 87, immedediately thought that they had stumbled upon something extraordinary. “For years the site had endured only as a rumor,” he told me in July, when I met him in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital. “I knew it was a special place within an hour of being there.”

As Yakubov’s team went to work on the mound, they began to unearth an intact building, around 20 feet square, its mud-brick walls topped with a dome. Closer inspection led Yakubov to conclude that it was a “fire temple,” which once would have sheltered an eternal flame, a relic of the Zoroastrian religion that spread out of Persia, modern-day Iran, with the rise of the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century B.C.

Other discoveries soon followed. Archaic mausoleums dotted the surrounding hills. The excavation of a suspected water temple and observatory, alongside the remnants of a substantial defensive wall, augmented Yakubov’s supposition that Karon may have been a place of special ceremonial prestige. Evidence of winemaking and gold processing pointed to a once thriving economy. Coins found in the vicinity of the fire temple date back to the second century A.D.

(Some of the most magnificent frescoes can be found in the “Paris of the Balkans.”

Karon is located at the western edge of Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), a vast province dominated by the Pamirs, where the scattered population is often at odds with the government in Dushanbe. As such, the uncovering of the Karon story holds significance not just as a milestone of Tajik history, but as an emblem of nation-building—part of a slate of “patriotic projects” that has seen the Dushanbe skyline transformed with extravagant monuments.

For all its historical significance, however, Karon’s timeline remains subject to conjecture. “From the size of the site it might have been a medium-sized town,” says Pavel Lurje, head of Central Asian Studies at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, who worked alongside Yakubov for three seasons. “Such settlements are extremely rare in the highlands of Central Asia where even today the life is essentially rural. Karon is a true enigma.”

By the Middle Ages, Lurje believes, the settlement at Karon had fallen into decline. Sparse literary sources suggest that the last of its population relocated to the Panj Valley in the early 17th century, perhaps prompted by the drying out of local mountain springs. By now Zoroastrianism had long since been displaced by Islam as the region’s dominant religion, though exactly what motivated the concealment of Yakubov’s fire temple remains uncertain.

What does seem clear is that the last chapter in a long period of forgetting came with the Soviet era, which required the erasure of local culture in the service of revolutionary communism. Soon after Tajikistan was absorbed into the U.S.S.R., in 1929, Soviet engineers began construction of the M41, the spectacular road that traverses the high plateaus of Murghob, and onto the trading hub of Osh, in Kyrgyzstan, which would come to be known colloquially as the Pamir Highway.

(See local life on a journey through Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains.)

The importance of Castle Karon now

Today, the nearest major settlement to Karon, Qalai Khumb, also called Darvoz, is a staging post for long-distance truckers and an increasing number of foreign travelers, who drive and cycle in their dust-plumes. The simple restaurant in the center of town, with its balcony protruding over the raging Obikhumbob River, is always busy.

But whatever mule trails once crossed the passes were forgotten generations ago—until now. As you ascend the southern hill, you can start to appreciate the strategic importance of the site and the scale of the settlement that once occupied it. At the crest, a knot of ruins comprise Karon’s best preserved complex, believed to be the remnants of a royal enclosure.

(These 6 European villages tell hidden histories.)

Looking back down to the pass, the polo field is cradled by tapering meadows. Faint ribs stratify the western hill—evidence, Yakubov claims, of stadium bleachers that could have accommodated 10,000 spectators. To fill the arena today, you would need to lure people from miles in every direction.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding its history, champions of the region—and Tajikistan tourism more generally—are hoping it may one day serve as an anchor site for heritage tourism. A modern luxury hotel, the Karon Palace, opened in Qalai Khumb in 2015. A small museum, designed to house the wealth of coins, pottery, and other artifacts that Yakubov’s team has unearthed, is in the planning stages. Huge swaths of the site are yet to be disinterred.

“It might not have the grandeur of Samarkand,” said Yakubov, referring to the Silk Road city in Uzbekistan, famed for its Islamic architecture. “But it is just as important to the story of Central Asia.”

What to know

How to get there: Travelers require a permit in order to visit GBAO; these can usually be obtained in advance through your tour operator or local embassy.

Qalai Khumb is located around 230 miles from Dushanbe by road. Buses and shared taxis go from the Badakhshan bus station and take around 12 hours.

Outfitters: Recommended tour agencies specializing in the Pamir region include Orom Travel and Paramount Journey in Tajikistan, and Silk Road Adventures in the U.K.

Where to stay: Karon Palace is a modern, comfortable hotel in the center of Qalai Khumb. Simple and more affordable accommodations can be found at one of the numerous homestays that are signposted on the main road.

What to do: For most travelers, Qalai Khumb is a stopping point on the road to Khorog, and the central Pamir valleys. The Tajik National Park is the country’s only UNESCO World Heritage site. Comprising 10,000 square miles of the Pamir range, it’s a spectacular region of stark desert plateaus and snow-bound peaks rising above 23,000 feet and a mecca for trekkers and climbers.

Castle Karon is one of a number of cultural sites in the Pamir region, including the thermal springs of Garm Chashma and the spectacular Yamchun Fortress, high above the Wakhan Corridor.

Henry Wismayer is a writer based in London. Follow him on Twitter.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : National Geographic – https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/tajikistan-discover-ruins-once-mighty-silk-road-kingdom

Tags: discoverscienceTajikistan
Previous Post

How centuries of Japanese folklore inspired ‘The Boy and the Heron’

Next Post

Overnight essentials, from space-saving organisers to sophisticated gadgets

The data-driven path to clean water – Department of Ecology – State of Washington (.gov)

Unlocking Clean Water: A Data-Driven Journey to a Sustainable Future

May 14, 2025
Modern-day alchemy! Scientists turn lead into gold at the Large Hadron Collider – Space

Transforming Lead into Gold: The Modern Alchemy Unveiled at the Large Hadron Collider!

May 14, 2025
This Is Who’s Causing Global Warming, According to Science – VICE

Unveiling the Real Culprits Behind Global Warming: What Science Reveals

May 14, 2025
Is Basting Your Steak in Butter Actually Worth It? – Yahoo

Is Butter-Basting Your Steak a Game Changer for Flavor

May 14, 2025
‘Captain America: Brave New World’ OTT debut: When and where to watch it at home – The Economic Times

‘Captain America: Brave New World’ OTT debut: When and where to watch it at home – The Economic Times

May 14, 2025
Media Advisory | United Nations to launch updated outlook for global economy – Welcome to the United Nations

Unlocking the Future: UN Reveals New Insights on the Global Economy

May 14, 2025
‘Lilo & Stitch’ director unpacks key animation-to-live-action changes (exclusive) – ew.com

Behind the Scenes: Key Changes in the Animation-to-Live-Action Transformation of ‘Lilo & Stitch

May 14, 2025
Hollister nonprofit receives $1.2 million to expand youth mental health services – KSBW

Hollister Nonprofit Secures $1.2 Million to Enhance Youth Mental Health Services!

May 14, 2025
A UN Judge convicted for slavery: power, politics and privilege – JusticeInfo.net

Unmasking Injustice: A UN Judge’s Conviction for Slavery Reveals the Dark Side of Power and Privilege

May 14, 2025
Administration issues RFI on health technology – American Hospital Association

Unlocking Innovation: Administration Seeks Insights on Health Technology

May 14, 2025

Categories

Archives

May 2025
MTWTFSS
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
« Apr    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (608)
  • Economy (619)
  • Entertainment (21,532)
  • General (15,215)
  • Health (9,662)
  • Lifestyle (624)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (622)
  • Politics (626)
  • Science (15,842)
  • Sports (21,129)
  • Technology (15,610)
  • World (610)

Recent News

The data-driven path to clean water – Department of Ecology – State of Washington (.gov)

Unlocking Clean Water: A Data-Driven Journey to a Sustainable Future

May 14, 2025
Modern-day alchemy! Scientists turn lead into gold at the Large Hadron Collider – Space

Transforming Lead into Gold: The Modern Alchemy Unveiled at the Large Hadron Collider!

May 14, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version