Current Time in Isfara, Tajikistan

Isfara lies in the far north of Tajikistan, in the Sughd Region, at the eastern end of the great Fergana Valley where the plain meets the foothills of the Turkestan Range. The Isfara River comes down from the mountains and waters a long green oasis of orchards and fields that contrasts sharply with the bare grey and red hills around it. The border with Kyrgyzstan runs close by, and the district contains one of the tangled patchwork of enclaves and exclaves left behind by the drawing of Soviet republican boundaries.

The town itself has a population of around fifty thousand, with roughly a quarter of a million in the surrounding district, most living in large villages among the orchards. Agriculture dominates, and Isfara is famous throughout Central Asia for its apricots. Millions of trees blossom across the valley each spring, and in summer the flat roofs and courtyards are covered with fruit drying in the sun, to be sold as the sweet dried apricots that are a staple of the region. Almonds, peaches, grapes, vegetables and tobacco are also grown, and there is light industry including chemical and food processing plants and a long-established craft sector.

The oasis has been settled for well over a thousand years and lay on a branch of the Silk Road running through the Fergana Valley between Samarkand, Khujand and Kashgar. Arab geographers mention the town in the tenth century. It later belonged to the Kokand Khanate before coming under Russian control in the nineteenth century, and it developed as a small industrial town during the Soviet period, when chemical works were built and irrigation expanded. Since independence in 1991 the district has faced challenges over water and land along the complicated border, but also a revival of trade and of religious and cultural life.

The chief monument of the district is at Chorku, a village a few kilometres from the town, where the mausoleum of Hazrati Shoh stands as one of the finest surviving examples of medieval wooden architecture in Central Asia. Its carved columns and doors, some parts more than eight hundred years old, are of remarkable craftsmanship, and the shrine remains a place of pilgrimage. Other attractions include old mosques and madrasas, the local museum, prehistoric rock carvings in the mountain valleys, and walking routes into the Turkestan Range towards alpine lakes and pastures.

Local culture is strongly Tajik, with Persian-language poetry, music played on the rubab and doira, embroidery, skullcap making and the great celebration of Navruz at the spring equinox. Hospitality is elaborate, with guests offered tea, bread, dried fruit and pilaf in shaded courtyards, and weddings involve whole neighbourhoods.

Roads connect Isfara with Khujand, about a hundred kilometres away, and across the border into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with an airport at Khujand. Schools, a teacher training college and technical institutes operate locally, with universities in Khujand and Dushanbe.

Isfara is known for its apricot orchards, its ancient wooden shrine and its position at a historic crossroads of Central Asia.