My missions today were to visit two which name is derived from "panj" (five) and "kant" (settlements), meaning "five settlements".
I took bus # 5 from the bazzar to visit the 1sr ruin since I did not know how it look like from the street. The ancient Penjikent was the easternmost city of Sogdia. The site was founded in the 5th cent and inhabited until the 770s. I walked around these clay bricks for an hour until a young man with a dog approaching me for 5 simoni to visit the museum on site. The situation immediately triggered my panic mode as my Turikish robbery experience. I stayed calm and exited to the main road as soon as I saw two locals. I was relieved when seeing the museum and the young man unlocked the museum door which according to Lonely Planet not to miss and to seek out someone to open the museum as necessary.
I went back to hotel for a short break then visited Rudaki Museum (Republican History and Regional Study Museum) for a one -hour private English tour.Rudaki, the founder of Persian-Tajik literature called "Adam of poets", was born in Panjakent. Abu Abdullo Rudaki later became the national hero of Tajikistan. The exhibits in the museum include frescoes from the ancient Panjakent depicting a banquet, a battle, and daily life scenes; statues of Zoroastrian divinites; and features from Sarazm, a neolithic site found proof human settlement as old as 5500 years and is today a UNESCO World Heritage site.
I waited for bus # 8 for 1.5 hrs and asked a few locals to no vail so I gave up visiting the richly decorated remains of a young woman referred to as the princess of Sarazm. Oh, well, I later found one webpage saying that the bus #8 only runs in the morning, and private taxi cost 50 simoni. I just didn't want to ride taxi by myself. So be it.
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