Water is the oldest story in Central Asia, and the Zeravshan valley has told it for thousands of years. The river, whose name means gold-bearing, runs down from the glaciers of the Pamir-Alay in Tajikistan and into the desert of Uzbekistan, and every village along it lives by canals and underground channels. The word koriz, or kariz, is the local name for a qanat, a gently sloping tunnel that carries groundwater from the foothills to the fields, and the name Toksankoriz, as I read it, points to a system of many such channels.
Panjakent, about eleven kilometres away, is the main town, a city of about thirty-five thousand people on the Zeravshan. Just outside it lie the ruins of ancient Panjakent, a Sogdian town of the fifth to eighth centuries, whose houses and temples were decorated with wall paintings of epics and gods, now in museums in Dushanbe and St Petersburg. The Sogdians were the great merchants of the Silk Road, who spoke an Iranian language and carried silk, silver and ideas from China to Persia. Nearby, the site of Sarazm, a town more than five thousand years old, is one of the oldest in Central Asia.
The mountains behind the town are the Fann range, a high, rugged group of peaks with turquoise lakes and glaciers, and the roads that climb into them are rough but beautiful. The main highway, running east towards Dushanbe, climbs over high passes and through long tunnels, with a surface that is improved in some stretches and damaged in others. Landslides, snow and ice can close sections, especially in spring and winter. The best period for travel is from late May to September.
Border formalities between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been changing in recent years, so check the current rules for crossing with a vehicle before you plan a route. Panjakent has fuel, shops and guesthouses, and the bazaar sells apricots, walnuts and flatbread. A cup of green tea and a plate of plov are the usual welcome.