Dushanbe is the capital and largest city in Tajikistan. While historically a small village, it was made the capital of the Soviet autonomous republic and grew to a population of around 800,000. The name Dushanbe in Tajik means Monday and that’s because originally, it had a popular market here on Mondays. It has gone through a lot of building since the Soviet days but still has lots of parks, lakes, big trees, fountains, and views of snow-capped mountains.

You can see Tajikistan’s Palace of the Nation or “White House” in the first photo. This was as close as we got to it but it certainly looks impressive. I don’t believe that tourists are allowed in or near it.

Ismoil Somoni is the statue in the second photo. He is presiding over Friendship Square. Somoni was the 10th century founder of the Samanid Dynasty. This is a sort of renaissance of days long gone bye since it has been so long since any of the central Asia republics ruled themselves. I’m not sure if Lenin used to be here but we found him hiding behind a crafts building a couple of days later.

I don’t know what building is in the third photo. It’s in the main part of town but I thought it a very modern and impressive building. I also noted the dome on top and the dome in the lower right side. They still hang to their heritage.

The flag in the fourth photo is the Dushanbe Flagpole at 541 feet high. It’s near the Palace of Nations which you can see in the photo. I think we saw an incredibly tall flagpole in each country, though I don’t know why. This one was the tallest flagpole in the world from its installation in 2011 until a taller one was built in 2014 somewhere else in the world.

The two ladies in the last photo were sitting in front of the National Museum of Tajikistan. Several others were taking their photo so I did too. They seemed very comfortable and a bit flattered or amused by our interest in them. They had just been sitting there and chatting.