Istaravshan

Istaravshan is a city in Sughd Province in Tajikistan. In 2000, the Tajik government changed the name of the city from Uroteppa (; Ura-Tyube, ). The city lies in the northern foothills of the Turkistan mountain range, 78 kilometers southwest of Khujand, on the main road connecting Tajikistan's two largest cities, Khujand and Dushanbe. Bordered by Uzbekistan in the north and west, and Kyrgyzstan in the east, Istaravshan's administrative area encompasses 1,830 square kilometers and a population of 273,500 people. Most of them (76%) live in the outlying countryside. Istaravshan is one of central Asia's oldest towns of commerce and crafts. The city celebrated its 2,500th birthday in the year 2002 It was one of three proposed locations for ancient Cyropolis, which was built on the north-eastern outskirts of the Achaemenid Empire by the king Cyrus in the 6th century B.C. Climate Istaravshan has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). The average annual temperature in Istaravshan is . There is more rainfall in winter than in summer, and about of precipitation falls annually.