Proto-urban Site of Sarazm

The name Sarazm means 'where the land begins', fitting for a settlement whose ruins record the dawn of town life in Central Asia between the 4th and late 3rd millennium BCE. Positioned where herding uplands meet an irrigable valley, it traded with partners from the Central Asian steppes to the Iranian plateau and the Indus, its finds reaching even the Indian Ocean world. In 2010 Sarazm became Tajikistan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.