Paikend

Paikend was a Sogdian city ​​in what is now Uzbekistan . The first excavations took place here in 1940. Systematic excavations began in 1981. The ruins of the city cover an area of ​​about 300 × 500 m. In the east is the so-called citadel , on which parts of palace complexes and a temple could be exposed. In the center of the city there is another hill, under which there was a workshop or pharmacy. A fire temple is mentioned in various medieval sources for Paikend, who was therefore known nationwide. It may be identified with the remains of the temple on the citadel. The city was surrounded by a wall with towers. The residential development has only been partially examined, but the streets seem to have been laid out in a checkerboard pattern. Residential buildings on the wall were built directly onto it, with no road in between. Paikend flourished in the first millennium AD, but lost its importance with the Islamic conquest of the Sogden.

literature

• Grogory Semyenow: The Arrangement of Buildings in the Quarsters of a Sogdian city , In: Joe Cribb, Georgina Herrmann: After Alexander, Central Asia before Islam , Oxford 2007, pp. 213-223 ISBN 978-019-726384-6
• Grigory L. Seminov: Studies on the Sogdian culture on the Silk Road , Wiesbaden 1996 ISBN 3-447-03723-7 , Chapter 3: The sanctuary in Paikend online version on Google .

Web links

• Description, photos, location (English)

Coordinates: 39 ° 35 ′ 13.4 ″  N , 64 ° 0 ′ 42 ″  E