AFROSYAB HILL

The ancient city of Afrosyab, founded in the late ^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 the Shahnamé. The results of the excavations are on display in the Afrosyab Museum.

The foundations show the typical pattern of Central Asian cities, generally located on farmland and near a river, with a long enclosure surrounding a densely populated residential area, and an area of official buildings, the "upper city", where the palace is located. The ramparts built on the edge of the cliff were over 5 km long. Consolidated under the Achaemenids, they were partially destroyed during the attacks of Alexander the Great, then rebuilt. Part of the Hellenistic fortifications (arrow-shaped loopholes) can still be seen today. They originally included an internal gallery on two or three levels to shelter soldiers. As for the walls of the suburban zone, they were 13 km long!

Excavations, together with the study of testimonies reported by the Greek historian Arrien, have made it possible to locate the palace of the Achaemenid satraps in the northern part of the city. It was at a banquet held in this palace that Alexander the Great murdered his companion Cleitos. Some years ago, the young son of 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 harness in the bottom of this well, at the gates of the city, had to flee the Mongols who were besieging the town.

During the Kushan period, the Sogdian city enjoyed a period of prosperity. The museum features a ^7th-century fresco discovered in Varkhouman's palace. A procession of ambassadors offers gifts to the ruler of Samarkand, perhaps on the occasion of his marriage: Bactrians perched on camels, long-haired Turks, Korean nobles with double aigrette headdresses, a Chinese princess and her attendants. These successive constructions create an incredible underground tangle, up to 10 m deep on five levels. In the ^13th century, the Mongol conquest put an end to two millennia of occupation. After the destruction of the irrigation and water supply system, the inhabitants moved to the lower part of the city, where Tamerlan's new Samarkand was founded.