Parchan Dushanbe

Crowning the fountain-filled thoroughfare outside the National Library, this national monument was built to commemorate Tajikistan's independence. Cast atop a slender white-marble pillar, it features a gilded version of the national emblem of Tajikistan which includes ears of wheat, cotton bolls, a book and rays of sun above snow-covered mountains. Easier to work out at ground level is that it makes a suitably triumphant foil to the statue of Ismoil Somoni at the other end of the vista.