A report on Tajikistan, Sogdia, Silk Road and Achaemenid Empire

Approximate extent of Sogdia, between the Oxus and the Jaxartes.

Woven silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, China, dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE

Sogdian soldier circa 338 BCE, tomb of Artaxerxes III.

Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE. British Museum.

The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest territorial extent under the rule of Darius I (522 BC–486 BC)

Sogdians on an Achaemenid Persian relief from the Apadana of Persepolis, offering tributary gifts to the Persian king Darius I, 5th century BC

Achaemenid Persian Empire at its greatest extent, showing the Royal Road.

Head of a Saka warrior, as a defeated enemy of the Yuezhi, from Khalchayan, northern Bactria, 1st century BCE.

Soldier with a centaur in the Sampul tapestry, wool wall hanging, 3rd–2nd century BCE, Xinjiang Museum, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.

19th-century painting of lake Zorkul and a local Tajik inhabitant

A Yuezhi (left) fighting a Sogdian behind a shield (right), Noin-Ula carpet, 1st century BC/AD.

A ceramic horse head and neck (broken from the body), from the Chinese Eastern Han dynasty (1st–2nd century CE)

Map of the expansion process of Achaemenid territories

Local coinage of Samarkand, Sogdia, with the Hepthalite tamgha Hephthalite_tamgha.jpg on the reverse.

Bronze coin of Constantius II (337–361), found in Karghalik, Xinjiang, China

Cyrus the Great is said, in the Bible, to have liberated the Hebrew captives in Babylon to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem, earning him an honored place in Judaism.

Relief of a hunter, Varahsha, Sogdia, 5th-7th century CE.

The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism: Mahayana Buddhism first entered the Chinese Empire (Han dynasty) during the Kushan Era. The overland and maritime "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism".

The tomb of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire. At Pasargadae, Iran.

Spetsnaz soldiers during the civil war, 1992

The Sogdian merchant An Jia with a Turkic Chieftain in his yurt. 579 AD.

Central Asia during Roman times, with the first Silk Road

The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest extent, c. 500 BC

Ambassadors from various countries (China, Korea, Iranian and Hephthalite principalities...), paying hommage to king Varkhuman and possibly Western Turk Khagan Shekui, under the massive presence of Turkic officers and courtiers. Afrasiab murals, Samarkand, 648-651 AD.

A Westerner on a camel, Northern Wei dynasty (386–534)

The Persian queen Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great, sister-wife of Cambyses II, Darius the Great's wife, and mother of Xerxes the Great

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon has ruled the country since 1994.

Coin of Turgar, the last Ikhshid of Sogdia. Excavated in Penjikent, 8th century CE, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.

Map showing Byzantium along with the other major silk road powers during China's Southern dynasties period of fragmentation.

Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars

Chinese silk in Sogdia: Tang Dynasty emissaries at the court of the Ikhshid of Sogdia Varkhuman in Samarkand, carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons, circa 655 CE, Afrasiab murals, Samarkand.

Coin of Constans II (r. 641–648), who is named in Chinese sources as the first of several Byzantine emperors to send embassies to the Chinese Tang dynasty

Greek hoplite and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient kylix, 5th century BC

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

A lion motif on Sogdian polychrome silk, 8th century AD, most likely from Bukhara.

A Chinese sancai statue of a Sogdian man with a wineskin, Tang dynasty (618–907)

Achaemenid king fighting hoplites, seal and seal holder, Cimmerian Bosporus.

Sogdian Huteng dancer, Xiuding temple pagoda, Anyang, Hunan, China, Tang dynasty, 7th century.

The empires and city-states of the Horn of Africa, such as the Axumites were important trading partners in the ancient Silk Road.

Achaemenid gold ornaments, Brooklyn Museum

Tajikistan map of Köppen climate classification

Two Buddhist monks on a mural of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves near Turpan, Xinjiang, China, 9th century AD. Albert von Le Coq (1913) assumed the blue-eyed, red-haired monk was a Tocharian, modern scholarship however identified similar Caucasian figures of [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|the same cave temple]] (No. 9) as ethnic Sogdians, who were a minority in Turpan during the Tang Dynasty in 7th–8th century and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century).

After the Tang defeated the Gokturks, they reopened the Silk Road to the west.

Persian Empire timeline including important events and territorial evolution – 550–323 BC

Sogdians having a toast, with females wearing Chinese headdresses. Anyang funerary bed, 550–577 AD.

Marco Polo's caravan on the Silk Road, 1380

Relief showing Darius I offering lettuces to the Egyptian deity Amun-Ra Kamutef, Temple of Hibis

A Tang Dynasty Chinese ceramic statuette of a Sogdian merchant riding on a Bactrian camel

Map of Eurasia and Africa showing trade networks, c. 870

The 24 countries subject to the Achaemenid Empire at the time of Darius, on the Egyptian statue of Darius I.

A proportional representation of Tajikistan exports, 2019

Details of a replication of the Ambassadors' Painting from Afrasiyab, Samarkand, showing men on a camel, 7th century AD

The Round city of Baghdad between 767 and 912 was the most important urban node along the Silk Road.

The Battle of Issus, between Alexander the Great on horseback to the left, and Darius III in the chariot to the right, represented in a Pompeii mosaic dated 1st century BC – Naples National Archaeological Museum

Sogdians in a religious procession, a 5th–6th-century tomb mural discovered at Tung-wan City.

A lion motif on Sogdian polychrome silk, 8th century, most likely from Bukhara

Alexander's first victory over Darius, the Persian king depicted in medieval European style in the 15th century romance The History of Alexander's Battles

The TadAZ aluminium smelting plant, in Tursunzoda, is the largest aluminium manufacturing plant in Central Asia, and Tajikistan's chief industrial asset.

Yuan Dynasty era Celadon vase from Mogadishu.

Frataraka dynasty ruler Vadfradad I (Autophradates I). 3rd century BC. Istakhr (Persepolis) mint.

Real GPD per capita development of Tajikistan

A Sogdian gilded silver dish with the image of a tiger, with clear influence from Persian Sasanian art and silverwares, 7th to 8th centuries AD

Map of Marco Polo's travels in 1271–1295

Dārēv I (Darios I) used for the first time the title of mlk (King). 2nd century BC.

Tajikistan: trends in its Human Development Index indicator 1970–2010

Silk road figure head, probably Sogdian, Chinese Sui Dynasty (581–618), Musée Cernuschi, Paris

Port cities on the maritime silk route featured on the voyages of Zheng He.

Winged sphinx from the Palace of Darius in Susa, Louvre

A minted coin of Khunak, king of Bukhara, early 8th century, showing the crowned king on the obverse, and a Zoroastrian fire altar on the reverse

Plan of the Silk Road with its maritime branch

Pranidhi scene, temple 9 (Cave 20) of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Turfan, Xinjiang, China, 9th century AD, with kneeling figures praying in front of the Buddha who Albert von Le Coq assumed were Persian people (German: "Perser"), noting their Caucasian features and green eyes, and comparing the hat of the man on the left (in the green coat) to headgear worn by Sasanian Persian princes. However, modern scholarship has identified [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|praṇidhi scenes of the same temple]] (No. 9) as depicting Sogdians, who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century).

Volume of annual tribute per district, in the Achaemenid Empire, according to Herodotus.

Central Asian foreigner worshipping Maitreya, Cave 188

Achaemenid tax collector, calculating on an Abax or Abacus, according to the Darius Vase (340–320 BC).

The tomb of Wirkak, a Sogdian official in China. Built in Xi'an in 580 AD, during the Northern Zhou dynasty. Xi'an City Museum.

Letter from the Satrap of Bactria to the governor of Khulmi, concerning camel keepers, 353 BC

A Tang Dynasty sancai statuette of Sogdian merchants riding on a Bactrian camel, 723 AD, Xi'an.

Relief of throne-bearing soldiers in their native clothing at the tomb of Xerxes I, demonstrating the satrapies under his rule.

Epitaph in Sogdian by the sons of Wirkak, a Sogdian merchant and official who died in China in 580 CE.

The Nestorian Stele, created in 781, describes the introduction of Nestorian Christianity to China

Achaemenid king killing a Greek hoplite. c. 500 BC–475 BC, at the time of Xerxes I. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tajikistan is a popular destination amongst mountaineers. 1982 expedition to Tartu Ülikool 350.

Sogdians, depicted on the Anyang funerary bed, a Sogdian sarcophagus in China during the Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577 AD). Guimet Museum.

Fragment of a wall painting depicting Buddha from a stupa in Miran along the Silk Road (200AD - 400AD)

Persian soldiers (left) fighting against Scythians. Cylinder seal impression.

Ambassador to the Tang dynasty, coming from Kumedh (胡密丹), Tajikistan. Wanghuitu (王会图) circa 650 CE.

Shiva (with trisula), attended by Sogdian devotees. Penjikent, 7th–8th century AD. Hermitage Museum.

A blue-eyed Central Asian monk teaching an East-Asian monk, Bezeklik, Turfan, eastern Tarim Basin, China, 9th century; the monk on the right is possibly Tocharian, although more likely Sogdian.

Color reconstruction of Achaemenid infantry on the Alexander Sarcophagus (end of 4th century BC).

Contract written in Sogdian for the purchase of a slave in 639 CE, Astana Tomb No. 135.

Bilingual edict (Greek and Aramaic) by Indian Buddhist King Ashoka, 3rd century BCE; see Edicts of Ashoka, from Kandahar. This edict advocates the adoption of "godliness" using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma. Kabul Museum.

Seal of Darius the Great hunting in a chariot, reading "I am Darius, the Great King" in Old Persian (𐎠𐎭𐎶𐏐𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁𐎴 𐏋, "adam Dārayavaʰuš xšāyaθiya"), as well as in Elamite and Babylonian. The word "great" only appears in Babylonian. British Museum.

Sogdian musicians and attendants on the tomb of Wirkak, 580 AD.

A statue depicting Buddha giving a sermon, from Sarnath, 3000 km southwest of Urumqi, Xinjiang, 8th century

Achaemenid calvalryman in the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia, Altıkulaç Sarcophagus, early 4th century BC.

Dragon-King Mabi saving traders, Cave 14, Kizil Caves

Iconographical evolution of the Wind God. Left: Greek Wind God from Hadda, 2nd century. Middle: Wind God from Kizil, Tarim Basin, 7th century. Right: Japanese Wind God Fujin, 17th century.

Armoured cavalry: Achaemenid Dynast of Hellespontine Phrygia attacking a Greek psiloi, Altıkulaç Sarcophagus, early 4th century BC.

Two-headed dragon capturing traders, Cave 17

Reconstitution of Persian landing ships at the Battle of Marathon.

Sab leading the way for the 500 traders, Kizil Cave 17.

Greek ships against Achaemenid ships at the Battle of Salamis.

Iconic relief of lion and bull fighting, Apadana of Persepolis

Two-Storeyed Caravanserai, Baku, Azerbaijan

Achaemenid golden bowl with lioness imagery of Mazandaran

Bridge in Ani, capital of medieval Armenia

A section of the Old Persian part of the trilingual Behistun inscription. Other versions are in Babylonian and Elamite.

Medieval fortress of Amul, Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan

A copy of the Behistun inscription in Aramaic on a papyrus. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the empire.

Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel, sancai ceramic glaze, Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907)

The ruins of a Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) Chinese watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, Gansu province

A late Zhou or early Han Chinese bronze mirror inlaid with glass, perhaps incorporated Greco-Roman artistic patterns

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven wonders of the ancient world, was built by Greek architects for the local Persian satrap of Caria, Mausolus (Scale model)

A Chinese Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 9 CE) bronze rhinoceros with gold and silver inlay

Han dynasty Granary west of Dunhuang on the Silk Road.

Reconstruction of the Palace of Darius at Susa. The palace served as a model for Persepolis.

Green Roman glass cup unearthed from an Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) tomb, Guangxi, southern China

Lion on a decorative panel from Darius I the Great's palace, Louvre

Apadana Hall, Persian and Median soldiers at Persepolis

Lateral view of tomb of Cambyses II, Pasargadae, Iran

Plaque with horned lion-griffins. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sogdia (Sogdian: soɣd) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

- Sogdia

Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great.

- Sogdia

The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid Empire, Sasanian Empire, Hephthalite Empire, Samanid Empire and the Mongol Empire.

- Tajikistan

They played an important part as middlemen in the trade route of the Silk Road.

- Sogdia

Even though the Library of Congress's 1997 Country Study of Tajikistan found it difficult to definitively state the origins of the word "Tajik" because the term is "embroiled in twentieth-century political disputes about whether Turkic or Iranian peoples were the original inhabitants of Central Asia," most scholars concluded that contemporary Tajiks are the descendants of ancient Eastern Iranian inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular, the Sogdians and the Bactrians, and possibly other groups, with an admixture of Western Iranian Persians and non-Iranian peoples.

- Tajikistan

For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China, which at sea was conducted mostly through India and on land was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians.

- Silk Road

Northern Tajikistan (the cities of Khujand and Panjakent) was part of Sogdia, a collection of city-states which was overrun by Scythians and Yuezhi nomadic tribes around 150 BC. The Silk Road passed through the region and following the expedition of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian during the reign of Wudi (141BC–87 BC) commercial relations between Han Empire and Sogdiana flourished.

- Tajikistan

475 BCE), the Royal Road of the Persian Empire ran some 2857 km from the city of Susa on the Karun (250 km east of the Tigris) to the port of Smyrna (modern İzmir in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea.

- Silk Road

The Greeks remained in Central Asia for the next three centuries, first through the administration of the Seleucid Empire, and then with the establishment of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250–125 BCE) in Bactria (modern Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan) and the later Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BCE – 10 CE) in modern Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan.

- Silk Road

By the 5th century BC, the Kings of Persia were either ruling over or had subordinated territories encompassing not just all of the Persian Plateau and all of the territories formerly held by the Assyrian Empire (Mesopotamia, the Levant, Cyprus and Egypt), but beyond this all of Anatolia and Armenia, as well as the Southern Caucasus and parts of the North Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Paeonia, Thrace and Macedonia to the north and west, most of the Black Sea coastal regions, parts of Central Asia as far as the Aral Sea, the Oxus and Jaxartes to the north and north-east, the Hindu Kush and the western Indus basin (corresponding to modern Afghanistan and Pakistan) to the far east, parts of northern Arabia to the south, and parts of eastern Libya (Cyrenaica) to the south-west, and parts of Oman, China, and the UAE.

- Achaemenid Empire

This route was greatly rehabilitated and formalized during the Abbasid Caliphate, during which it developed into a major component of the famed Silk Road.

- Achaemenid Empire

The empire's great armies were, like the empire itself, very diverse, having: Persians, Macedonians, European Thracians, Paeonians, Medes, Achaean Greeks, Cissians, Hyrcanians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Bactrians, Sacae, Arians, Parthians, Caucasian Albanians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, Gandarians, Dadicae, Caspians, Sarangae, Pactyes, Utians, Mycians, Phoenicians, Judeans, Egyptians, Cyprians, Cilicians, Pamphylians, Lycians, Dorians of Asia, Carians, Ionians, Aegean islanders, Aeolians, Greeks from Pontus, Paricanians, Arabians, Ethiopians of Africa, Ethiopians of Baluchistan, Libyans, Paphlagonians, Ligyes, Matieni, Mariandyni, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Armenians, Lydians, Mysians, Asian Thracians, Lasonii, Milyae, Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones, Mossynoeci, Mares, Colchians, Alarodians, Saspirians, Red Sea islanders, Sagartians, Indians, Eordi, Bottiaei, Chalcidians, Brygians, Pierians, Perrhaebi, Enienes, Dolopes, and Magnesians.

- Achaemenid Empire

5 related topics with Alpha

Uzbekistan

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Doubly landlocked country located in Central Asia.

Female statuette wearing the kaunakes. Chlorite and limestone, Bactria, beginning of the second millennium BC

Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus. Mosaic in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Triumphant crowd at Registan, Sher-Dor Madrasah. The Emir of Bukhara viewing the severed heads of Russian soldiers on poles. Painting by Vasily Vereshchagin (1872).

Russian troops taking Samarkand in 1868, by Nikolay Karazin.

Two Sart men and two Sart boys in Samarkand, c. 1910

Map of Uzbekistan, including the former Aral Sea.

Uzbekistan map of Köppen climate classification

Cotton picking near Kyzyl-Kala, Karakalpakstan.

Map of flooded areas as a result of the collapse of the Sardoba Reservoir

Comparison of the Aral Sea between 1989 and 2014

The Legislative Chamber of Uzbekistan (Lower House).

Islam Karimov, the first President of Uzbekistan, during a visit to the Pentagon in 2002

President Islam Karimov with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Samarkand in November 2015

Leaders present at the SCO summit in Ufa, Russia in 2015

A proportional representation of Uzbekistan exports, 2019

Newlywed couples visit Tamerlane's statues to receive wedding blessings.

A page in Uzbek language written in Nastaʿlīq script printed in Tashkent 1911

Uzbek troops during a cooperative operation exercise

It is surrounded by five landlocked countries: Kazakhstan to the north; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistan to the south; and Turkmenistan to the south-west.

The first recorded settlers in what is now Uzbekistan were Eastern Iranian nomads, known as Scythians, who founded kingdoms in Khwarazm (8th–6th centuries BC), Bactria (8th–6th centuries BC), Sogdia (8th–6th centuries BC), Fergana (3rd century BC – sixth century AD), and Margiana (3rd century BC – sixth century AD).

The area was incorporated into the Iranian Achaemenid Empire and, after a period of Macedonian rule, was ruled by the Iranian Parthian Empire and later by the Sasanian Empire, until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century.

During this period, cities such as Samarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara began to grow rich from the Silk Road, and became a center of the Islamic Golden Age, with figures such as Muhammad al-Bukhari, Al-Tirmidhi, al Khwarizmi, al-Biruni, Avicenna and Omar Khayyam.

Alexander riding Bucephalus on a Roman mosaic

Alexander the Great

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King of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.

Alexander III riding Bucephalus on a Roman mosaic

Map of The Kingdom of Macedon in 336 BC, birthplace of Alexander

Roman medallion depicting Olympias, Alexander's mother

Archaeological Site of Pella, Greece, Alexander's birthplace

Philip II of Macedon, Alexander's father

Battle plan from the Battle of Chaeronea

Pausanius assassinates Philip II, Alexander's father, during his procession into the theatre

The emblema of the Stag Hunt Mosaic, c. 300 BC, from Pella; the figure on the right is possibly Alexander the Great due to the date of the mosaic along with the depicted upsweep of his centrally-parted hair (anastole); the figure on the left wielding a double-edged axe (associated with Hephaistos) is perhaps Hephaestion, one of Alexander's loyal companions.

The Macedonian phalanx at the "Battle of the Carts" against the Thracians in 335 BC

Gérard Audran after Charles LeBrun, 'Alexander Entering Babylon,' original print first published 1675, engraving, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC.

Alexander Cuts the Gordian Knot (1767) by Jean-Simon Berthélemy

Name of Alexander the Great in Egyptian hieroglyphs (written from right to left), c. 332 BC, Egypt. Louvre Museum.

Site of the Persian Gate in modern-day Iran; the road was built in the 1990s.

Administrative document from Bactria dated to the seventh year of Alexander's reign (324 BC), bearing the first known use of the "Alexandros" form of his name, Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents

The Killing of Cleitus, by André Castaigne (1898–1899)

Silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great found in Byblos (ca 330-300 bc.) (BnF 1998–859; 17,33g; Byblos, Price 3426b)

The Phalanx Attacking the Centre in the Battle of the Hydaspes by André Castaigne (1898–1899)

Alexander's invasion of the Indian subcontinent

Asia in 323 BC, the Nanda Empire and the Gangaridai of the Indian subcontinent, in relation to Alexander's Empire and neighbours

Alexander (left) and Hephaestion (right): Both were connected by a tight friendship

Alexander at the Tomb of Cyrus the Great, by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1796)

A Babylonian astronomical diary (c. 323–322 BC) recording the death of Alexander (British Museum, London)

19th-century depiction of Alexander's funeral procession, based on the description by Diodorus Siculus

Detail of Alexander on the Alexander Sarcophagus

Kingdoms of the Diadochi in 301 BC: the Ptolemaic Kingdom (dark blue), the Seleucid Empire (yellow), Kingdom of Pergamon (orange), and Kingdom of Macedon (green). Also shown are the Roman Republic (light blue), the Carthaginian Republic (purple), and the Kingdom of Epirus (red).

A coin of Alexander the Great struck by Balakros or his successor Menes, both former somatophylakes (bodyguards) of Alexander, when they held the position of satrap of Cilicia in the lifetime of Alexander, circa 333-327 BC. The obverse shows Heracles, ancestor of the Macedonian royal line and the reverse shows a seated Zeus Aëtophoros.

Alexander (left), wearing a kausia and fighting an Asiatic lion with his friend Craterus (detail); late 4th century BC mosaic, Pella Museum

A Roman copy of an original 3rd century BC Greek bust depicting Alexander the Great, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

A mural in Pompeii, depicting the marriage of Alexander to Barsine (Stateira) in 324 BC; the couple are apparently dressed as Ares and Aphrodite.

The Hellenistic world view: world map of Eratosthenes (276–194 BC), using information from the campaigns of Alexander and his successors

Dedication of Alexander the Great to Athena Polias at Priene, now housed in the British Museum

Alexander's empire was the largest state of its time, covering approximately 5.2 million square km.

The Buddha, in Greco-Buddhist style, 1st to 2nd century AD, Gandhara, northern Pakistan. Tokyo National Museum.

This medallion was produced in Imperial Rome, demonstrating the influence of Alexander's memory. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Alexander in a 14th-century Armenian manuscript

Alexander in a 14th-century Byzantine manuscript

Alexander conquering the air. Jean Wauquelin, Les faits et conquêtes d'Alexandre le Grand, 1448–1449

Folio from the Shahnameh showing Alexander praying at the Kaaba, mid-16th century

Detail of a 16th-century Islamic painting depicting Alexander being lowered in a glass submersible

A Hellenistic bust of a young Alexander the Great, possibly from Ptolemaic Egypt, 2nd-1st century BC, now in the British Museum

A fresco depicting a hunt scene at the tomb of Philip II, Alexander's father, at the Archaeological Site of Aigai, the only known depiction of Alexander made during his lifetime, 330s BC

In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Persian Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted for 10 years.

Alexander founded a series of new cities, all called Alexandria, including modern Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Alexandria Eschate ("The Furthest") in modern Tajikistan.

Thus, in Bactria and Sogdiana, Alexander successfully used his javelin throwers and archers to prevent outflanking movements, while massing his cavalry at the center.

On the Silk Road trade routes, Hellenistic culture hybridized with Iranian and Buddhist cultures.

Samarkand

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City in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia.

Ancient city walls of Samarkand, 4th century BCE

Turkic officers during a audience with king Varkhuman of Samarkand. 648-651 CE, Afrasiyab murals, Samarkand.

Coin of Sogdian ruler Turgar, last Ikhshid of Samarkand, Penjikent, 8th century CE, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.

Shah-i Zinda memorial complex, 11th -15th centuries

Ruins of Afrasiab - ancient Samarkand destroyed by Genghis Khan.

Ulugbek's madrasa in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Bazaar in Samarkand, illustration by Léon Benett for a Jules Verne novel

Samarkand, by Richard-Karl Karlovitch Zommer

Triumph by Vasily Vereshchagin, depicting the Sher-Dor Madrasa in Registan.

Greeting in two languages: Uzbek (Latin) and Tajik (Cyrillic) at the entrance to one of the mahallahs (Bo'zi) of Samarkand

Downtown with Bibi-Khanym Mosque in 1990s

Provinces of the Church of the East in 10th century

Building the Great Mosque of Samarkand. Illustration by Bihzad for the Zafar-Nameh. Text copied in Herat in 1467–68 and illuminated c. the late 1480s. John Work Garret Collection, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Fols. 359v-36or.

Orthodox Cathedral of St. Alexiy Moscowskiy

Orthodox Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin

Orthodox Church of St. George the Victorious

Orthodox Church of St. George Pobedonosets

Gure Amir (Shrine of Timur and Timurids)

Many yellow taxis on the streets of Samarkand

Taxi and tram on Rudaki Street in Samarkand

Taxi and bus on Mirzo Ulughbek Avenue in Samarkand

Afrasiyab (Talgo 250) high-speed train in Samarkand railway station

Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between China and Europe, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities of Central Asia.

By the time of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, it was the capital of the Sogdian satrapy.

The Tajikistan border is about 35 km from Samarkand; the Tajik capital Dushanbe is 210 km away from Samarkand.

Bactria

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Ancient region in Central Asia.

Bactria between the Hindu Kush (south), Pamirs (east), south branch of Tianshan (north).
Ferghana Valley to the north; western Tarim Basin to the east.

Xerxes I tomb, Bactrian soldier circa 470 BCE.

Pre-Seleucid Athenian owl imitation from Bactria, possibly from the time of Sophytes.

Gold stater of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides

Map of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom at its maximum extent, circa 180 BCE.

The founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom Demetrius I (205–171 BCE), wearing the scalp of an elephant, symbol of his conquest of the Indus valley.

The treasure of the royal burial Tillia tepe is attributed to 1st century BCE Sakas in Bactria.

Zhang Qian taking leave from emperor Han Wudi, for his expedition to Central Asia from 138 to 126 BCE, Mogao Caves mural, 618–712 CE.

Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.

Kushan worshipper with Pharro, Bactria, 3rd century CE.

Painted clay and alabaster head of a Zoroastrian priest wearing a distinctive Bactrian-style headdress, Takhti-Sangin, Tajikistan, Greco-Bactrian kingdom, 3rd-2nd century BC.

More broadly, Bactria was the area which was located north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Tian Shan, covering modern-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well, with the Amu Darya flowing west through the centre.

One of the early centres of Zoroastrianism and capital of the legendary Kayanian kings of Iran, Bactria is mentioned in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great as one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire; it was a special satrapy and was ruled by a crown prince or an intended heir.

Alexander conquered Sogdiana.

Following these reports, the Chinese emperor Wu Di was informed of the level of sophistication of the urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia, and became interested in developing commercial relationship with them: These contacts immediately led to the dispatch of multiple embassies from the Chinese, which helped to develop trade along the Silk Roads.

Fergana Valley

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Probable Greek soldier in the Sampul tapestry, woollen wall hanging, 3rd-2nd century BC, Sampul, Urumqi Xinjiang Museum.

Ancient cities of Bactria. Fergana, to the top right, formed a periphery to these less powerful cities and states.

Babur, the Turco-Mongol founder of the Mughal dynasty, was a native of Andijan in the Fergana Valley.

Soviet negotiations with basmachi, Fergana, 1921

Confluence of Naryn and Kara Darya seen from space (false color). Many irrigated agricultural fields can be seen.

The Syr Darya river bridge at Khujand, Tajikistan, in the far west of the Fergana Valley.

The Fergana Valley (Фергана өрөөнү; Фарғона водийси/Farg'ona vodiysi; водии Фарғона, Vodii Farg'ona) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan.

As early as 500 BC, the western sections of the Fergana Valley formed part of the Sogdiana region, which was ruled from further west and owed fealty to the Achaemenid Empire at the time of Darius the Great.

The area of Fergana was thus the theater of the first major interaction between an urbanized culture speaking Indo-European languages and the Chinese civilization, which led to the opening up the Silk Road from the 1st century BC onwards.