[4] 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, Istaravshan's administrative area encompasses 1,830 square kilometers and a population of 273,500 people.

[2] Istaravshan is one of central Asia's oldest towns of commerce and crafts.

It was one of three proposed locations for ancient Cyropolis, which was built on the north-eastern outskirts of the Achaemenid Empire by the king Cyrus in the 6th century B.C.

There is more rainfall in winter than in summer, and about 400 millimetres (16 in) of precipitation falls annually.