The name Tajikistan means "land of the Tajiks".

Over ninety percent of the country is mountainous. Ismoili Somoni is the highest point (7,495 m) in Tajikistan.

Lake Karakul is in the Pamir mountain range, 3915 m above sea level.

Iskanderkul Lake is named after Alexander the Great.

The Fergana Valley is shared by the countries of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Sarazm, near Penjikent, was a Bronze Age settlement.

In ancient times the northern part of Tajikistan belonged to the state of Soghdiana.

Penjikent was an important Sogdian city that flourished between the fifth and eighth centuries.

The Silk Road, a major trade route between China and Europe, passed through Tajikistan.

The ancient city of Khodjand was an important point on the Silk Road.

Ismoili Somoni was a famous ruler of the Tajik people at the beginning of the tenth century.

Akhmed Al Fergani, the astronomer from medieval times, was born in the Fergana Valley.

From ancient times the Fergana Valley was known for its legendary horses.

Karabair and Lokai horses are reared in Tajikistan.

In the sixteenth century Bobur from Fergana, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur, invaded India, beginning the great Moghul Empire.

In 1924 Tajikistan was created as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within Uzbekistan.

Tajikistan was separated from Uzbekistan in 1929 and became a Soviet Socialist Republic. (Members of the former USSR were Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Estonia - from WW2, Latvia - from WW2, Lithuania - from WW2 and Moldova - from WW2).

At the end of 1991 the USSR was dissolved and Tajikistan became independent.

In 1992 civil war broke out in Tajikistan and lasted until 1997.

Russian soldiers are reported to have seen the yeti or Abominable Snowman in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. The legend of the yeti persists today.

In July 2018 four tourists on bicycles were attacked and killed.