Kampir Tepe

Discovery and research

Archaeologist Edvard Rtveladze discovered Kampir Tepe in 1972 while surveying the Amu Darya bank. Excavations began in 1977 under Galina Pugachenkova; most early finds dated from the reign of the Kushan king Kanishka in the 2nd century AD, revealing one of the most complete Kushan-era settlements known.

From 2000 the Tokharistan Archaeological Expedition led by Rtveladze, working with French, Indian and Japanese scholars, began a large-scale study of the Hellenistic layers. The Telegraph called Kampir Tepe “the Pompeii of Central Asia”.

Three periods

Researchers identify three phases. The first fort was built in the 4th century BC, at the time of Alexander the Great’s campaign in Central Asia. In 235–200 BC, under the Graeco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I, it was rebuilt with new 4-metre-thick walls and square mud-brick towers. A third phase followed at the end of the 2nd century BC. The walls visible today were mostly raised by the Kushans in the 1st–2nd centuries AD on the Hellenistic plan.

The town lasted about 400 years before the Amu Darya shifted its course and the inhabitants left.

The Alexandria debate

In 2019 Rtveladze announced that there was enough evidence to identify Kampir Tepe with Ptolemy’s Alexandria on the Oxus, citing the dating, cartographic data, gate designs matching examples in Greece and Turkey, and a newly found coin showing Apollo. The question remains open, however, since excavators of Ai-Khanoum in Afghanistan claim the same identity for their site.