Tours for photographers in Tajikistan.

“A lot of legends, a lot of people, have come before me. But this is my time”

Usain Bolt.

Photo tours on lake Iskanderkul.

The famous conqueror of antiquity on his way to India captured Sogdiana with its capital Marakanda (present-day Samarkand), but the freedom-loving Zeravshan highlanders haunted the conquerors with their attacks.
Alexander, deciding to punish them, penetrated to the place of the present lake from the west, destroyed the city that existed here and ordered his soldiers to dam the river flowing here. The water rose, flooded the city and formed a lake.
The inhabitants of the valley below the lake continued to fiercely resist the newcomers, and Alexander decided to deal with them. He ordered to dismantle the upper part of the dam, and huge streams of water destroyed the villages of the highlanders.
The legend about the war horse of Alexander the Great - Bucephalus. This mighty white horse drowned in the lake and, according to the beliefs of local residents, on moonlit summer nights it goes out to graze on fat pastures near the mouths of the Khazor-sword and Sary-tag.
Every inhabitant of any village on Iskanderdarya knows the legend about the Makiyevat cave. In those days when - Alexander the Great dealt with their distant ancestors, one of the Sogdian leaders with a small detachment took refuge in an inaccessible cave in the Makshevata gorge.
Besieged by Alexander's warriors, this detachment died of hunger along with its leader. In the cave there are many human skulls and one skeleton, which the mullahs declared a saint a long time ago - “Khoja-Iskhok”.
Numerous pilgrims came here from the Kuhistan and Pamir mountains to perform a religious feat - a difficult and dangerous climb to the cave along the steep cliffs. Many of them were thwarted and perished, but their very death was considered pleasing to Allah.
The Makshevat mullahs, taking advantage of the religious fanaticism of the pilgrims, received a considerable income. Now the famous Khoja-Iskhok cave is visited only by tourists and researchers. The cave is located in a rocky wall three kilometers from the village of Durmon, which lies above Makshevat.
The skeleton of Khoja-Iskhok is located a few meters from the entrance to the cave. The skull of Khoja-Iskhok is very well preserved, on one side of the head there is a piece of skin with reddish hair Scientists who examined the skulls from the Makshevat cave deny that they belonged to the soldiers of the Sogdian detachment: the preservation of the skulls and their features do not allow them to be attributed to such a deep antiquity as the time of Alexander's campaigns.
So, who was the one who is now called Khoja-Iskhok?

Authority:
Books: "Fan Mountains", authors A.S. Mukhin, V.F. Gusev. "Nature of Tajikistan" publishing house "Mysl", 1982. Pavel Luknitsky. "Travels in the Pamirs", Young Guard, 1955. "Pamir", publishing house "Planeta" 1987, edited by Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences M.S. Asimova. "Stone miracle of Tajikistan", V.P. Novikov, R.B.Baratov, publishing house "Irfon", 1988.
Websites:www.fany.ru: www.aru-kem.ru: www.skitalets.ru