Paxtachi District

Setting and nature

Paxtachi (Pakhtachi) is the westernmost district of Samarkand Region. It borders the Khatyrchi, Navoi and Navbahor districts of Navoi Region to the north and west, Narpay to the east and Nurobod to the south. The Ziyovuddin and Zirabuloq hills, the last western spurs of the Zarafshan Range (the Ziyovuddin hills top out at 866 m), split it in two: to the north lies the irrigated plain on the Zarafshan's left bank, to the south the waterless Karnab steppe, long grazed by karakul sheep.

The Zarafshan crosses the north of the district, but its bed is cut so deep that fields are watered from the Narpay canal, and in the steppe water has to be pumped uphill. The climate is sharply continental, with summer highs of 42–45 °C and just 230–250 mm of rain a year. The riverside tugai woods shelter pheasant, wild boar and fox.

History

The ruins of Dabusiya near Ziyovuddin are among the most important urban sites in the Zarafshan valley. Local sources date the town's origins to the 3rd century BCE; in the early Middle Ages it was one of the great cities of Sogdiana, a stop on the caravan road between Samarkand and Bukhara. During the Sogdian uprising of 728–729 the Arabs held on to only Samarkand and Dabusiya. Still visible are the massive moated citadel mound, the walled town, the mausoleum of Abu Hurayra, probably 17th-century, and remains of the Ziyovuddin governor's fort from the late 19th century. Since 2023 Dabusiya has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage property 'Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor'. The town also produced Abu Zayd al-Dabusi (d. 1039), a celebrated Hanafi jurist credited with founding the study of juristic disagreement.

The district was first carved out of Narpay on 9 February 1935 as Paxtakor, merged back in 1963 and re-created as Paxtachi on 12 April 1973. Its centre, Ziyovuddin, grew up around a railway station built in 1894, and a water tower from the same year still stands.

Economy

Paxtachi means 'cotton grower', and cotton, grain, vegetables and melons are still the main crops alongside livestock. Twelve mahallas specialise in greenhouses; in Yobu alone 831 households tend 90 ha under glass and film, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, lemons and strawberries. The subsoil holds kaolin, basalt, marble, limestone, gypsum, quartz sand and granite. Half of the mahallas line the M-37 international highway, where 100 roadside shops and service points are planned.

Getting there

Ziyovuddin is about 130 km from Samarkand, close to two hours' drive along the M-37. The Samarkand–Navoi railway stops at Ziyovuddin station, and Navoi International Airport is 40 km away. Dabusiya is an easy taxi ride from Ziyovuddin, and the citadel mound offers sweeping views over the Zarafshan valley.