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Dushanbe
Capital and largest city of Tajikistan

Dushanbe

Dushanbe is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan.

Plan a trip to Dushanbe→From Bokhtar

As of February 2023, Dushanbe had a population of 1,228,400, with this population being largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as Stalinabad, after Joseph Stalin. Dushanbe is located in the Hisar Valley, bounded by the Hisar Range in the north and east and the Babatag, Aktau, Rangontau and Karatau mountains in the south, and has an elevation of 750–930 m. The city is divided into four districts: Ismail Samani, Avicenna, Ferdowsi, and Shah Mansur.

Get in

Getting to Dushanbe

  1. 01
    Dushanbe Airport
  2. 02
    Dushanbe Railway Station

    From Moscow via Volgograd, Atyrau and Termez.

  3. 03
    Terminal Khujand
  4. 04
    Korvon Market
See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Haji Yaqub Mosque

    It has a crescent-topped minaret and burnished golden dome.

  2. 02
    Ismaili Centre
  3. 03
    St. Nicholas Cathedral (Свято-Никольский собор), Druzhby Nar
  4. 04
    Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments
  5. 05
    National Museum of Tajikistan
  6. 06
    Monument of Amir Ismail Samani
Do

Things to do

  1. 01
    Aquapark Dolphin
  2. 02
    Circus
  3. 03
    Botanical Gardens
  4. 04
    Dushanbe Zoo
  5. 05
    Park named after S
  6. 06
    Victory Park
Eat

Where to eat

  1. 01
    Cafe Merve

    92 Rudaki Avenue (next to Orima supermarket).

  2. 02
    Tiflis

    One of two Georgian restaurants in the city with some of the best meat dishes in the city, and a substantial wine list.

  3. 03
    Steakhouse

    Despite the name, it is one of the only places in Dushanbe to get sushi.

How locals move

Getting around Dushanbe the local way

  • Get inIf you are planning to go to a different town in Dushanbe there are 'terminals' that you can either find a shared taxi or a minibus.
  • Get aroundIt is very useful to figure out the marshrukta system (private cars and minibuses), which run on a standard set of routes.
  • Get aroundMinibuses are overcrowded, stop more frequently, and cost С2.50, while private cars are much quicker and cost С7.
  • Go nextIskander-Kul lake is popular with locals in the summertime and it's very much possible to reach it for free through hitchhiking and hiking.

From Wikivoyage: Dushanbe, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.