Tajikistan Map

Shape and borders

Tajikistan is a landlocked country of about 143,100 square kilometers and about 10.8 million people (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate). It has an awkward shape. A northern lobe, Sughd, reaches into the Fergana Valley around Khujand. It is cut off from the capital by the Turkestan and Zeravshan ranges, which roads cross through the Shahriston and Anzob tunnels. The southwest is a region of lowland valleys around Dushanbe and the Khatlon region, and the whole eastern half is the high Pamir plateau. The Panj River forms most of the roughly 1,350-kilometer border with Afghanistan, and in the far southeast only Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor separates Tajikistan from Pakistan. China lies to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the west and northwest.

The Pamirs

More than 90 percent of Tajikistan is mountainous, and about half of it lies above 3,000 meters. The Pamirs, known in Persian as Bam-i-Dunya, the "Roof of the World", hold the highest point, Ismoil Somoni Peak (7,495 meters, formerly Communism Peak), which was also the highest mountain in the Soviet Union. Lenin Peak (7,134 meters) stands on the Kyrgyz border. The Fedchenko Glacier, about 77 kilometers long, is the longest glacier outside the polar regions. In 1911 an earthquake triggered the Usoi landslide, which dammed the Bartang valley and created Lake Sarez; the landslide dam, more than 500 meters high, is the tallest natural or man-made dam in the world. The Pamir Highway (M41) crosses the plateau from Khorog to Murghab and on to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, reaching 4,655 meters at the Ak-Baital Pass. In the northwest, the Fann Mountains around Iskanderkul and the Seven Lakes are the most accessible trekking area. See the mountain ranges of Asia for the wider Pamir and Tian Shan system.

Rivers and dams

The Panj and the Vakhsh join on the Afghan border to form the Amu Darya, Central Asia's largest river. The Syr Darya, which rises in Kyrgyzstan, crosses Sughd past Khujand. Tajikistan's glaciers supply much of the water that downstream Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan depend on, and hydropower produces more than 90 percent of its electricity. The Nurek Dam on the Vakhsh, 300 meters high, was the world's tallest dam until 2013. Upstream, the Rogun Dam has been generating power since 2018 and is designed to rise to 335 meters, which would make it the tallest dam in the world.

Climate and when to go

The southwestern lowlands have hot, dry summers, with Dushanbe often above 35°C in July, and mild, wet springs. The eastern Pamir plateau around Murghab, at over 3,600 meters, is a cold high-altitude desert with bitter winters. The Pamir Highway and the high trekking routes are best from July to September, the Fann Mountains from June to September, and the lowlands in spring, when Navruz is celebrated on 21 March.

Regions and Major Cities

Tajikistan has two regions, Sughd and Khatlon, plus the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), which covers about 45 percent of the territory but holds only about 3 percent of the people, the Districts of Republican Subordination around the capital, and the city of Dushanbe. City populations below are official estimates for 1 January 2024:

• Dushanbe - About 1.24 million, which includes districts added to the city in 2020; it grew from a market village into the capital of the Tajik SSR and was called Stalinabad from 1929 to 1961
• Khujand - About 204,000, one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, often identified with Alexandria Eschate, founded by Alexander the Great in 329 BC
• Bokhtar - About 131,000, formerly Qurghonteppa, the center of the cotton-growing Vakhsh valley
• Kulob - About 110,000, the main city of eastern Khatlon
• Istaravshan - About 67,000, an old Silk Road town known for its knife-makers and the Mug Teppe citadel
• Panjakent - About 45,000, beside the ruins of a Sogdian city and near Sarazm, a proto-urban settlement from the 4th millennium BC listed by UNESCO
• Khorog - About 31,000, the capital of Gorno-Badakhshan, at about 2,100 meters on the Panj River opposite Afghanistan

History, people and economy

Tajiks trace their statehood to the Samanids, a 9th-10th century Persian dynasty whose founder, Ismoil Somoni, gives his name to the highest peak and the currency. The region later came under the Emirate of Bukhara and then Russian rule. In the Soviet border-making of the 1920s Tajikistan became an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan and then, in 1929, a full republic with Khujand added. The historic Tajik-speaking cities of Samarkand and Bukhara stayed in Uzbekistan. Independence on 9 September 1991 was followed by a civil war from 1992 to 1997 that killed tens of thousands of people and ended with a peace accord in June 1997. Emomali Rahmon has led the country since 1992.

Tajik is a variety of Persian written in Cyrillic, and Russian is widely used. Most people are Sunni Muslims, but many Pamiris in Gorno-Badakhshan are Ismaili Shia and speak their own Pamir languages. Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet republics, with GDP per capita of about US$1,600 in 2025 (World Bank). Remittances, mostly from migrants in Russia, were equal to roughly 45 to 49 percent of GDP in 2024 according to World Bank data, among the highest shares in the world. The TALCO aluminium smelter at Tursunzoda is the largest industrial plant.