For today's Geo Quiz, we were hunting for a river that originates in Tajikistan. The answer is the Zeravshan River.

It flows past a little known site in modern-day Tajikistan called Sarazm. A local farmer discovered the ancient settlement by accident in the 1970's. The World's Mary Kay Magistad recently took a tour with a local guide.

Sarazm, Tajikistan

MKM: "I'm now walking in a 5,000-year-old house, in a 5,000-year-old town. I've just rounded the corner, and I'm in the home, stepping over the hearthplace."

(Man's voice, in English) "The settlement of Sarazm was built more than 5,500 years ago by a group of migrants from Russia, who had chosen this place."

MKM: That's my guide, a craggy Tajik history professor named Hamrokul Mirzoev: "This was a very good place, and the land is very fertile here. They can grow two or three crops here, if they use the land wisely and they irrigate."

MKM: The elders around us are now growing tobacco. Kids on donkeys ride past, with barely a glance at excavation pits that reveal a glimpse of how life was once lived here. The settlement covered about 250 acres - the biggest at that time in Central Asia. And yet, it was forgotten - until 1976, when a local farmer named Ashurali Tailonov saw something glint in the sun.

Tailonov lives just a short walk from the excavation site. He's now 88 years old, with a long, white wispy beard, clouded eyes and a semi-toothless grin. He sits on a wooden platform covered with colorful blankets, under the shade of apricot trees. And he's delighted to tell us his story.

Tailonov recounts how he was coming home from morning prayers one day, and saw something shining on a pile of sand near a construction site. He came closer and saw it was an axe like none he'd seen before. He alerted a famous Russian archaeologist who was working a few miles away.

"I have found three bronze hammers here. I have found a statue of a woman. And I have found 13 daggers made of bronze. And one of them was engraved by an Indian master. A very beautiful girl was portrayed there. I have found, and gave to the archaeologists."

daggers

Tailinov pauses for a moment, and sighs. He reflects on how this area has seen civilizations rise and fall - like the great Silk Road traders, the Sogdians, who lived here for 1500 years. But war and conquest wiped them out, and who remembers them now, he says:

"The world blows here from all parts of the world, from Afghanistan, from the east and the west. And the winds of war also have come here, and destroyed and damaged everything."

Tailinov has other, more personal concerns. (Guide, in English) "He's complaining about his oldness, and also complaining that the leaders of the country don't value his service. And he was wounded in his hand and leg, with metal during the war."

That's - World War II. Tailinov says he and his two brothers fought for the Soviets in the Ukraine - BUT only he came back alive. He says the state has given cars to other war heroes. And he was not only wounded in the war, *he* discovered the country's most ancient settlement - and still, no car. It's just not right, he says. But it seems to make him feel better having someone to listen. Eventually, we get up to leave. Tailinov spreads his hands, closes his eyes and chants a prayer for our safe travels.

The history teacher, Mirzoev spreads his hands in a blessing. We start to walk away, through the apricot and mulberry groves, back to the tobacco fields where ancient Sarazm once thrived. Just before we're out of sight, we hear a call from the courtyard, "See if you can talk to someone about that car."

For The World, I'm Mary Kay Magistad, Sarazm, Tajikistan.