Kalai Khum

Kalai Khum (Qal’ai Khumb, Qal’a-i-Khum, Kalai Khumb) is a small village on the river Panj and one of the first settlements on the route to Pamir Highway after Dushanbe. The unusual name of this village is translated from Persian as “Fortress on the Khumb” according to the river Obikhumboi flowing into river Panj here. Kalai-Khumb is an administrative center of the Darvaz district in Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region.

The history of Kalai-Khum began in the 15th century when the first fortress was built there. First it was an outpost at the border of Pamir, protecting the eastern side of the Temurids Empire. Later, Kalai-Khumb became the capital of the independent Darvaz Khanate that existed until the end of the 19th century. It was a part of the Bukhara Khanate for some time and during the Soviet rule it turned into a regional center of the Gorno-Badakhshan region as a part of the Tajik SSR. The last significant event in the history of Kalai-Khumb was the Afghan War during 1979-1989, when some of the  troops crossing to Afghanistan entered the country from here.