AFROSYAB HILL

The ancient city of Afrosyab, whose foundation dates back to the end of the 8th century BC, lies on a 220-hectare plateau north of Samarkand. Called Maracanda by the Greeks, this ancient city took the name of the mythical king of Touran described by the poet Firdussi in Shahname. Since the 19th century, generations of archaeologists have studied the traces of the different civilizations that lived there. You can see the results of their excavations in the Afrosyab museum. The foundations of the city show a typical pattern of ancient Central Asian cities, generally located on agricultural land and near a river, with a long enclosure surrounding a very dense residential area and an area of official buildings, the 'upper city' where the palace is located. The ramparts built at the edge of the cliff were more than 5 km long. Consolidated under the Achaemenids, they were partially destroyed around the gates during the attacks of Alexander the Great and then rebuilt. Even today, part of the Hellenistic fortifications can still be seen, impressive ramparts with arrow-shaped loopholes. These walls were fortified barracks and originally included an internal gallery on two or three levels that housed the soldiers. As for the rampart housing the suburban area, it measured 13 km! The excavations, together with the study of the testimonies reported by the Greek historian Arrien, made it possible to locate the palace of the Achaemenid satraps in the northern part of the city. It was during a banquet given in this palace that Alexander the Great murdered his companion Cleitos. A few years ago, the young son of the archaeologist Mukhamadjon Issamiddinov, who often accompanied his father to the excavation site, discovered a gilded silver plate that was part of the ornament of a harness buried in the loess. In 1220, the horseman who hid his overly conspicuous harness in the bottom of this well, at the gates of the city, had to flee from the Mongols who were besieging the city. Perhaps he hoped to bring him to safety to find him after the war, but he surely never imagined sending a message through the centuries. During the Kushan period and the development of the Silk Road, the Sogdian city flourished. In the museum you can admire a fresco from the 7th century discovered in Varkhumman Palace. A procession of ambassadors offering gifts to the ruler of Samarkand, perhaps on the occasion of his marriage: Bactrians perched on camels, long-haired Türks, Korean nobles with double egret hairstyles, and a Chinese princess accompanied by her retinue. When the Arab conquerors seized the city in the 8th century, the palace was destroyed, as well as the Zoroastrian temple, the legendary "temple of idols" of Samarkand, traces of which archaeologists found under the mosque built in the 8th century. These successive constructions on the same foundations create an incredible subterranean tangle, sometimes reaching a depth of 10 m with five different levels of construction, sometimes more. In the 13th century, the Mongol conquest put an end to almost two millennia of urban existence on this loess hill and, after the destruction of the irrigation and water supply system, the inhabitants moved to the lower part of the city where the new Samarkand of Tamerlan was founded.