Istaravshan is a city in Sughd Province in Tajikistan. In 2000, the Tajik government changed the name of the city from earlier Uroteppa.
The city lies in the northern foothills of the Turkistan mountain range, 78 kilometers southwest of Khujand, on the main road connecting Tajikistan's two largest cities, Khujand and Dushanbe. Bordered by Uzbekistan in the north and west, and Kyrgyzstan in the east, the territorial area of Istaravshan stretches 1,830 square kilometers, and with an administrative population of 273,500 people, the majority of its citizens live in the outlying countryside.
Istaravshan is a city-museum, one of central Asia's oldest towns of commerce and crafts. 2002 saw the 2.500 anniversary of the city celebrated by Istaravshan. The city is one of three proposed locations of ancient Cyropolis built on the north-eastern outskirts of the Achaemenid Empire by the king Cyrus in the 6th century B.C.