AFROSYAB HILL

The ancient city of Afrosyab, whose foundation dates back to the end of the 220 th century BC, is based on a plateau of ha, north of Samarkand. Baptized Maracanda by the Greeks, this ancient city took the name of the mythical king of Touran described by the poet Firdaussi in the Shahnamé. Since the th century, generations of archaeologists have studied the traces of the different civilizations that lived there, from the ancient iron age to the Mongolian conquest. The Franco-Uzbek archaeological mission, led by Professor Paul Bernard from 1989, then by Franz Grenet and Mukhammadjon Issamiddinov, worked mainly on the very rich prémongole period. You can see the result of their excavations in the museum at the entrance to the territory, which bears the name of the hill. The foundations of the city present a typical pattern of the ancient Asian cities, usually located on agricultural land and near a river, with a long enclosure surrounding a very large area, encompassing a very dense residential area and a zone of official buildings, «the high city» where the palace is located. The ramparts built on the edge of the cliff were more than 5 km long. Consolidated under the Achéménides, they were partially destroyed around the doors during attacks by Alexander the Great, and rebuilt with square bricks. Even today, one can see a part of the Hellenistic fortifications, an impressive ramparts to the killers in the form of arrows. The walls were built in the original barracks and originally included an internal gallery on two or three levels of soldiers. As for the rampart area, it was 13 km! Excavations, together with the study of testimonies reported by the Greek historian Arrien, found the palace of the achéménides satraps in the northern part of the city. It was at a banquet in this palace that Alexander the Great murdered his companion Cleitos. A few years ago, the young son of archaeologist Mukhamadjon Issamiddinov, who often accompanied his father on the excavation site, discovered a golden silver plaque that was part of the ornament of a buried harness in loess. In-depth excavations have uncovered more than two hundred of these ornamental pieces and a document that permits precise dating. In 1220, the rider who hid his harness too visible in the bottom of this well, at the gates of the city, was forced to flee the Mongols who besieged the city. Perhaps he was hoping to put him in the shelter after the war, but he certainly did not imagine sending a message over the centuries. During the kouchan period and the development of the Silk Road, the city sogdienne enjoyed real development. In the museum you can admire a th century fresco discovered in the palace of Varkhouman. A procession of ambassadors offering present to the Sovereign of Samarkand, perhaps on the occasion of his marriage: Bactrian pleasure on camels, Tûrks with long hair, double pappus Koreans, and a Chinese princess with her next. When Arab conquerors captured the city in the th century, the palace was destroyed, as was the Fire temple, the fabled «temple of idols» of Samarkand, whose archaeologists found traces under the mosque built in the th century. These successive constructions on the same foundations create an incredible underground enchevêtrement, which sometimes reaches 10 m deep with five different levels of construction, sometimes more. In the th century, the Mongolian conquest ended almost two millennia of city existence on this hill of loess and, after the destruction of the irrigation system and the arrival of water, the inhabitants climbed towards the bottom of the town where the new Samarkand de Timur was founded.