Tajikistan

The Pamir Highway is the second highest road in the world

Tajikistan is ninety three percent mountain and the least visited country in Central Asia, which is exactly why the people who do go tend to be evangelical about it. The Pamirs, called the roof of the world, are a range of 7,000-metre peaks and high plateaus that sit at the junction of the Himalaya, Tian Shan, Karakoram and Hindu Kush.

The Pamir Highway is the draw. Running roughly 1,200 kilometres from Dushanbe to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, it is the second highest international road on earth, crossing passes above 4,600 metres and following the Afghan border along the Panj river for long stretches. It requires a 4×4, a GBAO permit and a tolerance for altitude and discomfort.

What makes it more than a driving challenge is the Wakhan corridor, where you look directly across a river into Afghanistan, and the homestay network in Pamiri villages, where families with a distinct Ismaili culture and their own languages take in travellers. Dushanbe, the capital, is pleasant and leafy but nobody comes for it.

Annual events and festivals

• Navruz (21 Mar) — the biggest holiday of the year, with sumanak pudding, buzkashi and city celebrations.
• Eid al-Fitr, Idi Ramazon (varies) — a public holiday ending Ramadan.
• Eid al-Adha, Idi Qurbon (varies) — the second Eid, also a public holiday.
• Independence Day (9 Sep) — marks the 1991 declaration, with staged national celebrations.
• Roof of the World Festival, Khorog (Jul) — Pamiri music and craft in the mountains.
• Buzkashi season (winter-spring) — horseback goat-carcass polo, played seriously across the country.
• Mehrgon (Sep-Oct) — an autumn harvest festival with agricultural fairs.
• Day of National Unity (27 Jun) — marks the end of the 1990s civil war.
• Constitution Day (6 Nov) — a public holiday.
• Pamiri new year, Shogun Bahor (Mar) — a distinct highland celebration with house cleaning rituals.