• Distance: Approximately 70 km
• Duration: Seven days
• Start and end point: Karatag to Karatag
• Difficulty: Mild

Although Shirkent National Park isn’t far from Dushanbe, very few people visit this region of the Fann Mountains, making it a real hidden gem and one of my favourite places to hike anywhere in Tajikistan.

This circular route is a moderate difficulty camping trek that starts at the Katarag gorge before leading up to the once-inhabited Parmin plateau and onto the Shirkent gorge. For two days you can follow the Shirkent Barrier, a colossal massif of heavily eroded sandstone before crossing the Khazor-Khona pass, the trek’s high point at 3,160m. From here you meet the Pariyon River and follow it to the stunning Pariyon Lake before returning to Karatag.