On a terrace above the banks of the Zerafshan River, 1.5km southeast of today's Penjikent, are the ruins of a major Sogdian town, which was briefly (5th to 8th centuries) one of the most cosmopolitan cities on the Silk Road. The palace here was originally decorated with ornate hunting scenes and pillars carved in the shape of dancing girls. Today the site is just a sunbaked hillside with excavated sunbaked wall-stub ruins. But you can clearly identify the foundations of numerous former buildings in what was the main shakhristan (town centre), and seek out hints of an outlying rabad (suburb) and necropolis.
Get to the site on marshrutka 5. Ask the driver for Stary Penjikent; from where you're dropped make an obvious four-minute dog-leg walk to the site's southern edge. Here a traditionally styled one-room museum chronicles the excavations and has painted copies of the best frescoes. The originals, along with most sculptures, pottery and manuscripts were long ago carted off to Tashkent and St Petersburg. A site map outside helps plan an exploration of the ruins, or just wander at random amongst the unfenced muddy ridges. On a clear day the mountain panoramas are splendid and from this raised position it's easy to plot a course back to town descending between the main ruins and the distinct raised citadel site further west. You should emerge on Beruni just 15 minutes stroll from the bazaar.
