The core of this great bazaar, reputedly the largest in Central Asia, is an unusually elegant, purpose-built hall (1964) with arched entrance portals and a pink-and-lime-green neoclassical facade. If not the largest it's certainly one of the best-stocked markets in Central Asia, especially on Thursday (panchshanbe in Tajik) when people and produce flood into the main hall.

　　A pair of gilded statues, one male and one female, welcome merchants and buyers into the hall around which a whole street market has evolved under colourful awnings. Outside the western entrance, below these statues, a stand sells handmade and machine versions of the ubiquitous black Tajiki hat (10–80TJS).