Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, is located in the fertile Gissar valley at the height of 803 metres above the sea level in the extreme west of the country, about a one-hour drive from the border with Uzbekistan. Dushanbinka river crosses the city from north to south and Kofarnihon river crosses it from east to west. The city’s name is derived from the Tajik word for Monday".
Dushanbe was formed in 1922, when three small settlements of 5,000 people were united and it became the capital in 1924, when Tajikistan became an autonomous republic.
The city served as the headquarters for Ibrahim Bek, a Tajik leader who fought the Bolsheviks. From 1929, when the city became the capital of the Tadzhik Soviet Socialist Republic, to 1961, it was known as Stalinabad.
Today a city of about 700,000 inhabitants, Dushanbe in its centre retains the atmosphere of its original planners in the 1920s: wide, tree-lined streets with mostly low-rise apartment houses and office buildings painted white or pastel colours.

Khojand, formerly known as Leninabad, is the second largest city in Tajikistan. It is located at the mouth of the Fergana Valley