Ths is a real ragtag nomination - with sites from different periods and different styles - loosely connected by the relatively vague concept of Silk Road. However, some of them are quite spectacular - so they deserve a good mark. Previous reviewers covered the sites near Bukhara. If you want to tick the site off, they are the most accessible - any taxi driver in Bukhara will take you there for some tens of thousands of UZS.

So I focus on the less visited Tajik section. Penjikent (or Panjakent) is easily accessible now from Samarkand. Most EU citizens do not need a visa to enter the country, and the Jarteppa border is served by marshrutkas (50 000 UZS per person cca one hour from the city centre). The border procedures are fast and straightforward, the only difficulty is, that you have to walk from the Uzbek side to the Tajik border post. After the formalities shared taxis wait on the Tajik side of the border. A whole car - maximum 4 persons - costs  80 TJS, but is you want to stop at Sarazm WHS, you are supposed to pay cca 160.

Penjikent is a sleepy provincial Tajik town with minimal amenities - there is the farmers market in the center, where you can buy fresh produce, eat a kebab, and there are some basic hotels (we were staying in Hotel Sugd, I can recommend it). The WHS is somewhat away from the modern town on the mountain top. There is a small museum and a relatively vast archeological site. The museum is worth a visit - the best are the (replicas of the) astonishingly colorful frescoes. (There are some originals too, but the best ones are in St Petersburg.)  The site is really vast, and you have to climb the hill to reach it. Do not be disappointed by the first sight, in you move a bit more inside, there are nicely reconstructed parts of the palace, that offer some hint how big, important, vibrant city it was before the Moslem conquest.

In your descent back to the town center, do not miss the Rudaki Museum.  The classicist building stands on the main avenue, not far from the bazaar. As in almost all the museums in Tajikistan, you have to put down your shoes, and enter the building in socks. The museum is a strange - but revealing - evidence of the country's history. In the first rooms there are impressive finds from Sarazm and Penjikent - with more beautiful replica frescoes, and some more original ones. The variety of faiths, the artistic value of the objects, and the spectacular mixture of different - Indian, Chinese, Greek - cultural influences stun the visitor. It offers a real proof of the OUV too - here you can understand the essence of the SIlk Road, where cultures and faiths were travelling with the caravans. Then, after the obligatory Ismail Somoni room - who is considered the founder of the Tajik nation, though he would have been really surprised if he were informed about it - the museum finds itself in a time loop, and makes a huge jump - directly to the Great Patriotic War, from where we are directly driven to the bright future where the great leader Emomali Rahmon leads the nation.

The Bashoro Mausoleum can be visited on the way to Dushanbe - a small detour from the main road.  It's a rather mediocre typical Central Asian building. The best experience there is the old man, who gives a long explanation in Russian about the site - and the peculiarity of the Persian culture.