Bazar Dara
Bazar Dara (Bāzār Darra, Basar Dara, Tágh Nák, or Tokanak) was a small mining community at the junction of the Bazar Dara and Yarkand Rivers south of the Kunlun Mountains in Tajikistan which border on the Taklamakan Desert.
'Dara' means 'cliff' in the Uyghur language. Bazar Dara can, therefore, be translated, 'Cliff Bazaar' or 'Cliff Market,' an apt description of this ancient settlement. It is 139 km west of Shahidulla, and 25 km west of modern Mazar (Chinese: Mazha 麻扎), which name simply indicates the shrine of a Muslim holy man.
"The name of this kingdom is written Deruo [or Dere] 得若 in the Tangshu (ch. CCXXI, a, p. 9b) and Yiruo 億若 in the Weilüe. . . ." Translated and adapted from Édouard Chavannes: "Les pays d’Occident d’après le Heou Han chou." T’oung pao 8, (1907), p. 175, n. 2.
Filippo de Filippi, who visited Bazar Dara, described a fort, the ruins of a market for horses and cattle, an extensive bazaar and a long line of ruins of mine shafts and houses along the cliff faces abandoned by goldminers after bandit raids approximately a century before his expedition in 1914.
Bazar Darra was of both strategic and economic importance. It was located at the junction of the route via the Shimshal Valley to Hunza or south over the Mustagh Pass to Skardu, or west to Shahidulla, and was the centre for a number of goldmines. It also joined the main winter route which led directly north along the frozen Yarkand River to Yecheng via Kokyar, and from there, the route went northwest via Kokyar to Yarkand (Yarkant County) and Kashgar, or northeast to Pishan Town and Hotan,Coordinates: 38°01′30″N 73°18′36″E / 38.025°N 73.31°E
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