Khujand fortress

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value:

KHUJAND FORTRESS

Khujand fortress is an outstanding example of a structure whose military engineering features attracted the attention of Russian specialists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Formation of a large urban type center in the delta of the Takob River in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. marked the onset of an important stage of urbanization in the Syrdarya basin. The character of the buildings and the entire material culture, show a local appearance that embodied the synthesis of several cultures of this region.

Since the 10th century AD Khujand fortress becomes a political, administrative, economic and trade and cultural center in the area of Khujand in Sughd region.

In the late Middle Ages the city citadel with an internal arch and the palace of the ruler towering over the city, monumental architectural ensembles of Sheikh Muslihiddin, Hazrati Bobo, buildings of city-wide schools (Medrese), large market complexes Panchshanbe and Chorshanbe, guesthouses, centers with their mosques, teahouses, houses, ramified network of streets, lanes and dead ends, created a unique appearance of a densely populated eastern city.

First of all the uniqueness of the Khujand fortress, is that the history of its centuries-old functioning reflects not only the main stages of the Tajik peoples history, but also the history of the peoples of entire Central Asian region. It withstood the invasion of the armies of Alexander the Great and the Arab caliphate, the Mongol hordes. It has witnessed periods of creative urban planning under the formations of Kushan and Samanid states. Served as an object of controversy between the Karakhanids and Khorezmshahs, the Sheibanids and Ashtarkhonids, Bukhara and Kokand khanates.

苦盏Bakirgan区灌溉系统分布图

城墙

苦盏要塞平面图，18-19世纪，1为城堡、2为城墙、3为街道