Shahristoni is an old word for the inner town of a medieval city, and Hulbuk was a large one. In the ninth to eleventh centuries, when the Samanid dynasty ruled much of Central Asia from Bukhara, Hulbuk was the capital of Khuttal, a rich district in the south-east of what is now Tajikistan, and its rulers built a palace complex with courtyards, halls and fortified walls. Excavators have found fine carved alabaster panels, painted ceramics, glazed bowls and bits of mosaic, which show how sophisticated the court was, a Persian-speaking world that produced scholars, poets and astronomers. The city was destroyed in the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century and never rebuilt.
The site lies in the Khatlon region, near the town of Vose, with about twenty thousand people, in a hot, dry landscape of low hills, irrigated fields and cotton, along the valley of the Yakhsu river, not far from the Panj river and the border with Afghanistan. Part of the palace has been restored, with new walls and a museum on the spot, and visitors can walk through reconstructed rooms. Outside, the remains of the old city show up as mounds and terraces in the grass.
Getting here is a journey in itself. From Dushanbe, the capital, roads go south and east via Kulob, a town with a long history and a mausoleum of the Sufi scholar Mir Sayid Ali Hamadani, and the roads are a mixed bag, with good asphalt, potholes, mountain passes and stretches of gravel. Fuel is available in Kulob and Vose, but quality can be poor, and distances between stations can be long, so carry a spare can. Traffic is light apart from lorries and the occasional donkey cart.
Summers are very hot, with temperatures above forty degrees, so spring, from April to June, and autumn are best. Winters are cold and snowy in the hills. Bring your passport, because police checkpoints are common and polite, and make sure your visa and registration are in order.
The local food is plov, rice cooked with meat and carrots, flat bread baked in clay ovens, melons in late summer and apricots and dried fruit. A guide helps, because signs are in Tajik and Russian.