Things to see and do Finish

The Kampir-Tepe fortress lies on a terrace on the right bank of the Amu Darya River, 30 km west of the city of Termez. Built in the 3rd century BC at the crossroads of trade routes near the border areas, it is part of the settlements of the Kushan Empire. Alexander the Great passed through it when he crossed the Amud Daria. The present site was excavated in 1972 and archaeological work was carried out in the 1990s. Traces of Buddhism have been discovered there, making Kampir Tepe an essential reference. The site is magnificent.

All the mausoleums gathered around that of Saoddat, or "invincible", were built between the 11th and 17th centuries. A central alley, originally 200 m long, leads to the portal of the complex sumptuously decorated with blue ceramics with geometric motifs. On the left, a mosque; on the right, in a crypt, is the tomb of Emir Hussein. There are still about 50 metres of the original driveway. A flight of stairs leads to the roof of the mausoleum on the right, which allows you to contemplate the whole from a certain height.

The vast earthen facade and its 2.5 m thick walls have given rise to one of the most beautiful legends of Termez. In the 40 rooms distributed over two floors of this building were murdered by the troops of Genghis Khan the 40 women of the khan of Termez who gloriously resisted the invader when he attacked the children. In reality, according to archaeologists, it is simply a building built by the rich so that they can take refuge during heavy sandstorms, frequent in the region. The building was originally entirely closed by the roof. Thin windows opened on both floors and, as a result of a clever calculation, the sun's rays reached the center of the building at certain times of the day.

Today it is more of a playground for children coming out of school, but a short walk through the venerable corridors will convince you that the legend is still alive: in the corridor facing the entrance, at its left end, a votive tree proves that it is still alive. In the present state of the building, it is difficult to appreciate the complexity of its architecture, but a better idea can be obtained by comparing it with the model presented by the Termez Archaeology Museum. A part of the walls has been restored, but the interior is more like a field of ruins collapsing on itself a little more each year.

On a small height, a few hundred meters from Fayaz Tepe, this Buddhist complex in military terrain is inaccessible. From Fayaz Tepe, however, you can see the landforms of the land where caves are excavated in the hill. Kara Tepe is an archeological site of major importance since it is the only troglodyte ensemble found in Central Asia. It covered about 7 hectares, or at least 10 times more than the land occupied by its outland, Fayaz Tepe. A succession of pieces dating from different periods covering several centuries. Some sections included both outdoor constructions and underground parts. As in Fayaz Tepe, excavations have shown that an irrigation system allows the water to recover, that many niches housed Buddha's gold or ceramic sculptures, and that wills were resting on impressive colonnades. Its foundation dates from the century, archeologists believe that its apogee is around the third and fourth centuries before experiencing a fatal decline around the Ve century. Walking on the mounds and small hills surrounding Fayaz Tepe, you can only imagine what is beneath our feet.

Fayaz Tepe, a Buddhist complex from the 1st century AD, is a magical, timeless and particularly moving place. In the middle of the steppe, with Amu Daria in the background and Afghanistan within reach, one is overwhelmed by the calm and beauty of the place. A labyrinth of living rooms and places of worship, the complex welcomed pilgrims from all over the world 2,000 years ago. Its renovation was entirely completed in 2004 with the support of UNESCO: the stupa is now sheltered from bad weather by a dome. If you're lucky, the guard will let you in and take a look around what's left of the original stupa. He will describe the golden Buddhas that adorned alcoves, the feasts that were prepared in gargantuan kitchens, and the moments of rest when pilgrims and monks took a cool break under airy awnings. The small neighbouring museum does not host the results of the excavations, which are mostly divided between the Archaeological Museum of Termez and the Museum of the History of the Peoples of Uzbekistan. In the central courtyard, a reconstructed pond illustrates the ingenious rainwater harvesting system that had been put in place. In this regard, an irrigation system had also been developed to convey the waters of the Amou Daria River, which is several dozen kilometres from the site. Try to visit Fayaz Tepe in the light at the end of the day: with the steppe that unfolds infinitely all around it is of absolute simplicity and poetry.

The complex consists of the mausoleum itself, a mosque and a khanaka. The mausoleum, which dates from the 11th century and of which some original sections of the walls still remain, houses the tomb of Al-Hakim Al-Termezi, a learned astronomer and Sufi master, who was born in the 7th or 8th century. He is credited with writing 32 books and an exceptional longevity of 120 years. The tomb was built when he died in the 9th century, the decorations were made in the following centuries.

This stupa is all that remains of a Buddhist complex erected on the outskirts of Termez in the 1st century AD, at the same time as Fayaz Tepe and Kara Tepe located nearby. The original height of this brick tower, where Buddhist monks came to deposit their offerings, is not known. Today, its 16 m high dominates a vast expanse of cotton fields and deserted fields. The remains uncovered by the Soviets were transferred to Russia and, in the absence of an explanation, the tower remains somewhat mysterious.

Certainly one of the most interesting museums in the country for lovers of ancient history and archaeology, fed by the many excavations carried out in the region. In several well-defined and intelligently arranged spaces, the different historical periods are presented, from the origins of the region to the Chaybanids, passing through Buddhism and Tamerlan. Models of the various monuments sometimes give a better overview of the sites than visits to the ruins, which are rather frustrating unless accompanied by an archaeologist. The films shown in English in each room are also a very good source of information not only on the history of the region, but also on the history of past or current archaeological missions. The first nine rooms contain a total of over 50,000 archaeological finds from the region. Among the most recent remarkable pieces, note the beautiful statuette of a Greco-Bactrian woman dressed in flames. The tenth room is in fact a vault: it contains numerous coins and jewelry Turkmen, Iranian or Agfhan in gold or silver dating from the Greco-Bactrian era until the ^nineteenth century. Two small gold buttons, found on the clothes of a child's skeleton discovered at Fayaz Tepa and dated to the ^8th century B.C., have made it possible to establish that the site was inhabited well before the ^4th century B.C., as had been assumed until then.

The island of the Prophet is unfortunately inaccessible to visitors and even to archaeologists. On this island in the middle of the Amu Darya, a mausoleum was erected in the th and th centuries, where the Prophet Zul Kifl was born, whose name is quoted in the Koran.