Tajikistan

Tajikistan is a land locked country in Asia that is roughly the size of Illinois. The main language is Tajik, which is very close to Persian, a remnant of the ancient Persian empire that ruled the region in the 6th century BCE until Alexander the Great conquered it in the 4th century BCE.  It was conquered by the Tibetan empire for a short time in the 600s and then by Arabs in the 700s, who converted the region to Islam. In later centuries, Tajikstan was under the control of the Mongol Empire, the Chagatai Khanate, then the Timurid dynasty, then later fell under the rule of Uzbeks and Afghans until it was claimed by Russia in the late 1800s. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, it was part of the USSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Tajikistan became independent in 1992.

The capital city is Dushanbe, and the population is about 8,600,000. Over 90% of the country is mountainous. The main contributor to GDP is migrant workers sending wages home (usually from Russia), though there is also a lot of aluminum production and cotton farming.

Photo credit: Uncornered Market

FUN FACT: The unibrow is considered very beautiful on women, and those who are not born with one often use a herbal mixture to artificially create the semblance of one.

Photo credit: Destination 360