Taxila, also known historically as Takshashila, is a city in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Founded in the 7th century BCE, the city was conquered by Alexander the Great in 326 BCE without a battle because Taxila had a very weak army hence it was immediately surrendered to the Greek Macedons by the locals.
Khwarazm or Chorasmia is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by the Karakum Desert, and on the west by the Ustyurt Plateau. It was the center of the Iranian Khwarezmian civilization, and a series of kingdoms such as the Afrighid dynasty and the Anushtegin dynasty, whose capitals were Kath, Gurganj and—from the 16th century on—Khiva. Today Khwarazm belongs partly to Uzbekistan and partly to Turkmenistan.
Khiva is a district-level city of approximately 93,000 people in Khorazm Region, Uzbekistan. According to archaeological data, the city was established around 1500 years ago. It is the former capital of Khwarezmia, the Khanate of Khiva, and the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic. Itchan Kala in Khiva was the first site in Uzbekistan to be inscribed on the World Heritage List (1991). The astronomer, historian and polymath, Al-Biruni was born in either Khiva or the nearby city of Kath.
Itchan Kala is the walled inner town of the city of Khiva, Uzbekistan. Since 1990, it has been protected as a World Heritage Site.
Konye-Urgench, also known as Old Urgench or Urganj, is a city of about 30,000 inhabitants in north Turkmenistan, just south from its border with Uzbekistan. It is the site of the ancient town of Gurgānj, which contains the ruins of the capital of Khwarazm. Its inhabitants deserted the town in the early eighteenth century in order to develop a new settlement, and Konye-Urgench has remained undisturbed ever since. In 2005, the ruins of Old Urgench were inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites.
Otrar or Utrar, also called Farab, is a Central Asian ghost town that was a city located along the Silk Road in Kazakhstan. Otrar was an important town in the history of Central Asia, situated on the borders of settled and agricultural civilizations. It was the center of a great oasis and political district, commanding a key point connecting Kazakhstan with China, Europe, Near and Middle East, Siberia and Ural.
Pushkalavati or Pushkaravati, and later Shaikhan Dheri, was the capital of the ancient region of Gāndhāra, situated in present day's Pakistan. Its ruins are located on the outskirts of the modern city of Charsadda, in Charsadda District, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 28 kilometres northeast of Peshawar. Its ruins are located on the banks of Swat River, near its junction with Kabul River, with the earliest archaeological remains from 1400 to 800 BCE in Bala Hisar mound. Pushkalavati became an Achaemenid regional capital around 600 BCE, and it remained an important city through to the 2nd century CE.
The Saepta Julia was a building in the Campus Martius of Rome, where citizens gathered to cast votes. The building was conceived by Julius Caesar and dedicated by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 26 BCE. The building replaced an older structure, called the Ovile, built as a place for the comitia tributa to gather to cast votes. The Saepta Julia can be seen on the Forma Urbis Romae, a map of the city of Rome as it existed in the early 3rd century CE. Part of the original wall of the Saepta Julia can still be seen right next to the Pantheon.
Mejorada is a village located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2017 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 2,809 inhabitants.
The Amman Citadel is an archeological site at the center of downtown Amman, the capital of Jordan. The L-shaped hill is one of the seven hills (jebal) that originally made up Amman.
Koi Krylgan Kala is an archaeological site located outside the village of Taza-Kel'timinar in the Ellikqal'a District in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. In ancient times, it was sited along a canal in the Oxus delta region.
Wangath Temple complex is a group of Hindu temple monuments in Wangath, close to Naranag, in the Ganderbal district of the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Wangath is a village located around 48 miles (77 km) northeast of Srinagar. The current structure was built by Lalitaditya Muktapida of the Karkota dynasty in the 8th century CE.
The Fortifications of Derbent (Darband) are one of the fortified defense lines, some of which date to the times as early as those built by the Persian Sasanian Empire to protect the eastern passage of the Caucasus Mountains against the attacks of the nomadic peoples of the Pontic–Caspian steppe. With the first parts built in the 6th century during the reign of Persian emperor Khosrow I and maintained by various later Arab, Turkish and Persian regimes, the fortifications comprise three distinct elements: the citadel of Naryn-Kala at Derbent, the twin long walls connecting it with the Caspian Sea in the east, and the "mountain wall" of Dagh-Bary, running from Derbent to the Caucasus foothills in the west. The immense wall, with a height of up to twenty meters and a thickness of about 10 feet, stretched for forty kilometers between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, thirty north-looking towers stretched for forty kilometers between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, effectively blocking the passage across the Caucasus. The fortification complex was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
Ancient Indian architecture ranges from the Indian Bronze Age to around 800 CE. By this endpoint Buddhism in India had greatly declined, and Hinduism was predominant, and religious and secular building styles had taken on forms, with great regional variation, which they largely retain even after some forceful changes brought about by the arrival of first Islam, and then Europeans.
Toprak-Kala, in modern Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, was an ancient palace city and the capital of in Chorasmia in the 2nd/3rd century CE, where wall paintings, coins and archives were discovered. Its history covers a period from the 1st to the 5th century CE. It is part of the "Fifty fortresses oasis" in modern-day Uzbekistan.
Akchakhan-Kala, or Akcha-khan Kala, also named after the locality Kazakly-Yatkan/ Kazakl'i-Yatkan, in modern Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, was an ancient fortress in Chorasmia built in the 4th/ 3rd century BCE and occupied until it was despoiled in the 2nd century CE. It is part of the "Fifty fortresses oasis" in modern-day Uzbekistan. The abandonment of Akchakhan-Kala was apparently followed by the establishment of the new capital of Toprak-Kala, 14 km to the northeast.
Kafir-kala is an ancient fortress 12 kilometers south of the city center of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, protecting the southern border of the Samarkand oasis. It consists in a central citadel built in mud-bricks and measuring 75 × 75 meters at its base has six towers and is surrounded by a moat, still visible today. Living quarters were located outside the citadel.
Kampir Tepe is an archaeological site located within the Surxondaryo Region of Uzbekistan, near the village Shoʻrob, northwest of the city of Termez. It is thought to be the lost city of Alexandria on the Oxus described by Ptolemy, though the Amu Darya river has now changed its course. The Telegraph newspaper describes Kampir Tepe as “the Pompeii of Central Asia.”
The Desert castles of ancient Khorezm, traditionally known as Elliq Qala, are a collection of desert fortresses in Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. They are included on UNESCO’s Tentative List for World Heritage Site status as the Desert Castles of Ancient Khorezm.
Naryn-Kala is an ancient pre-Arab citadel, part of the Derbent fortress, connected to the Caspian Sea by double walls designed to block the so-called Caspian gates to the Persian state. It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
