Upholding a tradition dating back 2000 years, blacksmiths at this mini-bazaar whet the edges of top-quality knives using traditional tools, including leather bellows. Buy a knife (from US$10) and the handmade scabbard is free; some sport antler handles and other blades are fitted into expertly crafted wood. The smithies occupy a dozen low-rise workshops in an arcade opposite the gateway of the main bazaar.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
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Nearby Tajikistan attractions
0.06 MILES
The vast and colourful central bazaar is a town unto itself. A three-storey, triple arched building indicates the main hub but stalls selling everything…
0.44 MILES
Tucked behind the site of a giant new mosque, the 1910 Hauz-i-Sangin Mosque has fine ceiling paintings and a dry octagonal hauz (pool) flanked by…
0.58 MILES
The 15th-century Abdullatif Sultan Medressa is also known as the Kök Gumbaz (Blue Dome) after its turquoise Timurid dome. Closed in Soviet times, the…
0.63 MILES
Shaded by ancient chinar (plane) trees, a pair of small but ornately stucco-fronted 17th-century tombs are set beside a fine old mosque with tapering…
0.65 MILES
The old town is an intriguing maze of mudbrick lanes with water channels running along the centre of the thoroughfare. Houses are tantalisingly hidden…
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Half-hidden behind Soviet apartment blocks at Lenin 100-102, the modern Hazrat-i-Shah Mosque is tucked behind a poets' garden full of scented roses…
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In the northeast of the city, rising above low-level housing, this grassy, flat-topped hill once boasted a fine citadel. Stormed by Alexander the Great in…