OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River

Karon, the Lost City of the Pamirs

How do you lose a city? I’ve often wondered that. It is sort of comprehensible in an environment where there’s thick jungle or other forest cover, but on a barren mountainside? That sounds more far-fetched.

 

Castle Karon — a citadel and substantial trading town just east of Kalai Khumb — was rediscovered only in 2012. A local shepherd saw a strange mound in the earth and must have mentioned it to someone, because a local archaeologist came to have a look. At first, they thought they’d found a mausoleum, but on further study it turned out to be a Zoroastrian fire temple: the empty chamber in the centre of the structure was for an eternal flame, not a body.

I came to Karon in 2019 and described it then as the Machu Pichhu of Tajikistan. Miskola has visited the site previously, too, so it was an appropriate reminder to us both about why it remained lost for so long that this time we missed it, drove past, and had to retrace our steps.

In 2019 I drove up all the way to Karon, albeit slowly and gingerly as the track is steep and narrow, with sharp bends. Now, it’s not allowed. Tragically, a team of my REDP colleagues were killed falling from the cliff after the driver made a minor mistake. Until the track is improved and made safe, everyone must walk.

We had left it as late in the day as possible to visit, but even around 5 pm the heat was still searing. We plodded and sweated our way up, wishing above all else for shade. Karon isn’t visible until you’re right on top of it, so there’s no visual cue as to how much further you must walk.

The first thing you see at the site is the fire temple, now excavated and protected from the elements beneath a plastic roof. It is grand enough in scale to almost justify visiting for it alone, but as you turn and scan the plateau, you realise there’s more all around you.

To one side, there is a polo field and stands, a couple of thousand years old. I was told by an archaeologist excavating the site that it could have accommodated 10,000 spectators; that’s not much smaller in capacity than Wembley Arena! This is a sparsely populated area. Was the climate and population density so very different then?

In the opposite direction, looking out towards the Oxus far below, is another large flat area with stone walls around it and some Graeco-esque columns. The columns are a modern addition, constructed for President Rahmon’s visit so he’d have something to look at, without using much imagination. That aside, this structure is important: it is the only extant example of a Zoroastrian water temple in Central Asia.

The light was fading now, and we knew we needed as much daylight as possible to get down safely to the car and back to the guesthouse. This meant we had to leave the upper part of the citadel for another day.