Khatlon

Khatlon is the southwestern, largely lowland (by Tajikistan standards) region of Tajikistan.

Cities

• 1 Kulob (Kulab or Kulyab) — one of the largest cities in the region.
• 2 Moskovskiy
• 3 Norak — a new city founded in 1960.
• 4 Qurghonteppa (officially Bokhtar, formerly Kurgan-Tyube) — capital of Khatlon region.

Other destinations

View of Ajina-Tepa

• 1 Nurak Reservoir — the largest reservoir in Tajikistan
• 2 Takhti-Sangin — the probable source of the Oxus treasure now on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum.
• Ajina-Teppa (8 km southeast from the city of Kurgan-Tiube) — the site of a 7th-century Buddhist monastery that was excavated during the Soviet period. A 13-m-long statue of a reclining Buddha, now exhibited at the National Museum of Antiquities in Dushanbe was discovered at Ajina-Teppa. Unfortunately there bus or Marshrutka goes there. Taxi drivers also don't know it. If you nevertheless found it there is nothing to see, no museum, no information plates, nothing. You can run around the ruins but that is all.
• 3 Tigrovaya Balka — a nature reserve at the board of Afghanistan. Its tugay (poplar) forests were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.

Understand

During the Soviet era, Khatlon became one of the two main cotton regions in Tajikistan, along with Sughd. Collectivisation of agriculture was implemented aggressively in the early 1930s, to expand cotton cultivation in Tajikistan as a whole, with particular emphasis on the southern part of the republic. The process included violations against peasants, substantial expansion of the irrigation network, and forcible resettlement of mountain peoples and people from Uzbekistan to the lowlands.

A results of this policy is that the Tajik population identifies themselves either as Gharmis (resettled from the mountains) or Kulobis. These groups never merged, and fought against each other during the 1992-97 Civil War in Tajikistan. Khatlon oblast suffered the heaviest damage in Tajikistan.

Since the conflicts leading to the civil war were never really resolved, tensions in the region still exist.

Get in

Bokhtar International Airport in Qurghonteppa handles flights from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Dushanbe. Beyond that, driving or riding in a mashrutka or bus are probably the best options.