Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal
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How it came to be
Khuttal was a medieval kingdom in the Pamir piedmont between the Vakhsh and Panj, two tributaries of the Amu Darya, from the 7th to the 16th century. It corresponds roughly to the Khatlon region of southern Tajikistan. It produced salt, gold, silver and a local breed of horse, and was closely tied into the trade networks of the Silk Roads.
During the Umayyad conquest of Transoxiana the pre-Islamic principality of Khuttal acted at times as an ally of the Arabs and at times as an enemy. The Abbasids established direct control only in 750/751. Under Samanid and Ghaznavid overlordship it kept its own line of rulers, and after the Mongol Chagatai Khanate broke up in the mid-14th century it again became an autonomous principality. When the Shaybanids took over in the 16th century, the name Khuttal fell out of use and was replaced by Kulob.
The World Heritage property, inscribed in 2025, has 11 component parts. At the 7th to 8th century Buddhist monastery of Ajina Tepa, excavations in the 1960s found a reclining Buddha 12 to 13 metres long in fragments; it was restored and is now shown in the National Museum of Antiquities in Dushanbe. The town site of Shahristoni Hulbuk was excavated in 2017–2020. Caravanserais and production sites are also included.
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