Dushanbe

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Dushanbe

Dushanbe (Dushanbe; Dyushambe until 1929, Stalinabad until 1961), population 679,400 people (2008 est.), is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east....
. Dushanbe means "Monday" in Tajik

Tajik language

The Tajik language, or Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. An Indo-European languages language of the Iranian languages language group, most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan....
, and the name reflects the fact that the city grew on the site of a village that originally was a popular Monday marketplace

Marketplace

A marketplace is the space, actual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie....
.

ated on the confluence of two rivers, Varzob and Kofarnihon

Kofarnihon River

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Encyclopedia

Dushanbe (Dushanbe; Dyushambe until 1929, Stalinabad until 1961), population 679,400 people (2008 est.), is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajik language

Marketplace

A marketplace is the space, actual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie....
.

History

Situated on the confluence of two rivers, Varzob and Kofarnihon

Kofarnihon River

Kofarnihon River or Kofirnihan is one of the major tributaries of Amudarya . It rises on the southern slopes of Gissar Range in Vahdat district, formerly Kofarnihon district, and flows for about 400 km in the general south-western direction past the cities of Kofarnihon, Vahdat, and Dushanbe, where it turns south and runs through Khatlo...
, Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan. Although archaeological remnants dating to the 5th century BC have been discovered in the area, there is little to suggest that Dushanbe was more than a small village until around 80 years ago. In 1920, the last Emir of Bukhara

Emirate of Bukhara

The Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana....
briefly took refuge in Dushanbe (then called Dyushambe) after being overthrown by the Bolshevik

Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
revolution. He fled to Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
after the Red Army

Red Army

The Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
conquered the area the next year.

Dushanbe, which means "Monday" in Tajik

Tajik language

The Tajik language, or Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. An Indo-European languages language of the Iranian languages language group, most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan....
, developed on the site of a Monday marketplace village, Dyushambe-Bozor, and its former name Dyushambe meant "Monday" in Persian

Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
(du-shamba from du two + shamba Saturday, lit. "second day after Saturday", ??????). Following the Red Army victory in Central Asia the village was upgraded to town in 1925 and made the capital of the newly created Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR). After the transformation of Tajik ASSR to Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR) in 1929, Dyushambe was renamed Stalinabad, after Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
. As part of Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964....
's de-Stalinization

History of the Soviet Union (1953-1985)

The Cold War ensued as the USSR and the United States struggled indirectly for sphere of influence around the world....
initiative, the city was renamed Dushanbe in 1961.

The Soviets transformed the area into a centre for cotton and silk production, and relocated tens of thousands of people to the city from around the Soviet Union. The population also increased with thousands of ethnic Tajiks migrating to Tajikistan following the transfer of Bukhara

Bukhara

Bukhara , also spelled as Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian ?uxarak , is the Capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900 ....
and Samarkand

Samarkand

Samarkand , is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province.The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study....
to the Uzbek SSR

Uzbek SSR

The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924....
. A peaceful and relatively prosperous city under Soviet rule, Dushanbe was home to a university and the Tajik Academy of Sciences

Tajik Academy of Sciences

Tajik Academy of Sciences incorporates 20 research institutes and three territorial groupings: the Pamir Branch in the eastern part of the country , the Khudjand Scientific Center in the north, and the Khatlon Scientific Center in the south-west....
. Severe rioting occurred in February 1990, after it was rumored that Moscow

Government of the Soviet Union

Council of Ministers of the USSR was the Soviet government?the highest executive and Administration body of the Soviet Union. Between 1922 and 1946 it was named Council of People's Commissars of the USSR ....
planned to relocate tens of thousands of Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
n refugees to Tajikistan. Dushanbe riots

Dushanbe riots

The Dushanbe riots were an instance of anti-Armenian and anti-government unrest in Dushanbe, the capital of the Tajik SSR, from February 12–14, 1990....
were primarily fueled by concerns about housing shortages for the Tajik population, but they coincided with a wave of nationalist unrest that swept Transcaucasia and other Central Asian states during the twilight of Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a Russian politician. He was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and also the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991....
's era. The city was badly damaged as a result of the Civil War in Tajikistan (1992–1997) that sprang up in the nation shortly after its independence. However resurgences in the Tajik economy have transformed Dushanbe into a rapidly growing commercial, cultural and industrial center. Many multi-story apartment and office buildings were constructed and the city was beautified during this period. Monuments and statues commemorating the city's Persian

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
and Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
ian past were erected.

Districts

Dushanbe is divided into the following districts:

Abuali Ibn Sina
Firdavsi
Ismail Somoni
Shokhmansur

Climate

The climate is damper than other Central Asian capitals, with an average annual rainfall over well over but is still highly continental and has the hot, dry summers typical of the region. Winters are not as cold as further north owing to the shielding of the city by mountain from extremely cold air from Siberia

Siberia

Siberia , is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of North Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the Soviet Union from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the 16th century....
.

Economy

Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
, lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
, and arsenic

Arsenic

Arsenic is a well-known chemical element that has the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250....
are mined nearby in the cities of Nurek

Nurak

Nurek is a city in the Khatlon province of Tajikistan. It is situated on the Vakhsh River, 885 m above sea level, and is 70 km southeast of Dushanbe, the capital....
and Kulob

Kulob

Kulob , also Kulab or Kulyab , is a city in Kulob district, Khatlon, Tajikistan. Located 203 km south-east of the capital Dushanbe on the Yakhsu River , it is one of the largest cities in the country ....
allowing for the industrialization of Dushanbe. The Nurek Dam

Nurek Dam

The Nurek Dam is a large earth fill dam located at 38.3715 N, 69.3492 E on the Vakhsh River in the central Asian nation of Tajikistan....
, the world's highest as of 2008, generates 95% of Tajikistan's electricity, and another dam, the Roghun Dam, is planned on the Vakhsh River

Vakhsh River

The Vakhsh River, also known as the Surkhob and the Kyzyl-Suu , is a Central Asian river, and one of the main rivers of the nation of Tajikistan....
. A leading cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
textile

Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
center, Dushanbe also produces silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from Pupa#Cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity ....
, machinery, electrical appliances, clothing, leather

Leather

Leather is a material created through the tanning of rawhides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses....
goods, tractor parts, and foodstuffs. The city of Dushanbe is now home to a number of modern telecommunications, aeronautic and other business corporations adding vitality to its economy. Tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from...
and ecotourism

Ecotourism

Ecotourism is a form of tourism, that appeals to ecologically and socially conscious individuals. Generally speaking, ecotourism focuses on volunteering, personal growth and learning new ways to live on the planet....
to the the Dushanbe region is a component of the city's service industry, which includes shopping centers, cafes, restaurants, and hotels. Museums and theatres add a cultural element to the economy.

Buildings and attractions

]]

*Dushanbe Airport

Dushanbe Airport

Dushanbe Airport is an airport located in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Work has begun on upgrading facilities at the airport. Funds made available from unnamed sources will finance enhancements to the runway and apron and the upgrade of the terminal buildings to handle modern western aircraft....

Haji Yakoub Mosque
Dushanbe Synagogue
Dushanbe synagogue

The Dushanbe Synagogue, also known as the Bukharian Synagogue, located in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, was constructed in the 19th century in one of the two Jewish Quarters in Dushanbe at the time....
(destroyed in summer 2008)
Museum of Ethnography
Tajikistan National Museum
Tajikistan National Museum

The Tajikistan National Museum is a museum in Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan....
(Tajik Unified Museum)
National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan
Vahdat Palace
Palace of Nations
Dushanbe Zoo
Dushanbe Zoo

Dushanbe Zoo or Dushanbe Zoological Park was founded in 1960 in Dushanbe, Tajikstan. The Zoo is located in the center of the city on the Luchob river bank , next to the Pamir Stadium, and measures roughly twice the size of the stadium....
Botanical Garden
Dushanbe Opera
Dushanbe Circus
Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments
Gurminj Museum

The Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments, more commonly known as Gurminj Museum is a museum located in the center of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, behind the Office of the Mayor of the city on Bokhtar Street....
(Gurminj Museum)

Education

]] Many of the most important universities and institutes are based in Dushanbe:

Tajik State National University
Tajik State National University

File:Donishgohi Davlatii Millii Tojikiston .JPGTajik State National University is a national university of Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Tajikistan Humanitarian International University
Tajikistan Humanitarian International University

Tajikistan Humanitarian International University is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Agricultural University of Tajikistan
Agricultural University of Tajikistan

File:Donishgohi agrarii Tojikiston.JPGAgricultural University of Tajikistan is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Tajik State Medical University
Tajik State Medical University

Tajik State Medical University is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe and named after Avicenna....
Tajik State Pedagogical University
Tajik State Pedagogical University

Tajik State Pedagogical University is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Tajik State University of Commerce
Tajik State University of Commerce

File:Donishgohi davlatii tijorati Tojikiston.JPGTajik State University of Commerce is an economics university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Tajik University of Law, Business and Politics
Tajik University of Law, Business and Politics

File:Donishkadai sohibkori va khizmat.JPGTajik University of Law, Business and Politics is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Tajik-Russian Slavic University
Tajik-Russian Slavic University

File:Donishgohi slavyanii Tojikistonu Rusiya .JPGTajik-Russian Slavic University is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Tajikistan University of Technology
Tajikistan University of Technology

Tajikistan University of Technology is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Tajikistan-Russian Modern University
Tajikistan-Russian Modern University

Tajikistan-Russian Modern University is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....
Technical University of Tajikistan
Technical University of Tajikistan

The Technical University of Tajikistan is a university in Tajikistan. It is located in Dushanbe....

Transport

The city is served by Dushanbe Airport

Dushanbe Airport

Sister cities

Currently, Dushanbe has 10 sister cities. Kabul

Kabul

Kabul is the Capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of approximately three million. It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 foot above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River....
, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
Shiraz

Shiraz

Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Shiraz Ali, former Bermudian cricketer...
, Iran

Iran

Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
, Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea....
, Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
Akhisar

Akhisar

Akhisar is a county district and its town center in Manisa Province in the Aegean Region, Turkey region of Western Turkey. Akhisar is also the ancient city of Thyatira or Thyateira....
, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
Boulder

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is a Colorado municipalities#Home_Rule_Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County, Colorado, Colorado, in the United States....
, USA

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt am W?rthersee is the capital of the federal state of Carinthia in Austria. With a population of over 90,000 it is the sixth-largest city in the country....
, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and the country's List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of cities in Turkey after Istanbul....
, Turkey

Turkey

Lahore

is the capital of the Pakistani Subdivisions of Pakistan of Punjab and is the List of most populated metropolitan areas in Pakistan city in Pakistan after Karachi....
, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
Sana'a

Sana'a

is the Capital of Yemen and the center of San?a? Governorate. It is Yemen's largest city. Sana'a is located at and has a population of 1,747,627 ....
, Yemen

Yemen

Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....
Lusaka

Lusaka

Lusaka is the capital city and largest city of Zambia. It is located in the southern part of the central plateau of the country, at an elevation of 1300 m ....
, Zambia

Zambia

The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

Dushanbe

History

Districts

Climate

Economy

Buildings and attractions

Education

Transport

Sister cities

See also

External links