Archaeology · Oqqoʻrgʻon District
Shahrukhiya (Banakat)
A city razed by the Mongols and rebuilt by Timur
Archaeology · Oqqoʻrgʻon District
Kanka Ancient City
A vast ruined city near the confluence of the Akhangaran and Syr Darya, inhabited from the 3rd century BC to the 13th century and known in medieval times as Kharashkat.
History
Kanka lies some 70–80 km south-west of Tashkent near the village of Eltamgali in Oqqoʻrgʻon District, on the left bank of the Karasu, an old channel of the Akhangaran. It is one of the oldest urban centres of the Tashkent oasis, occupied from the 3rd century BC until the 13th century. Most scholars regard it as the first capital of Chach in the Kangju period and identify it with Yuni of the Chinese chronicles and Kharashkat of the medieval geographers; Ibn Hawqal described Kharashkat as the second city of Chach after Binkath. Some see it as Antioch on the Jaxartes, founded in the 3rd century BC by the Seleucid general Demodamas, though this remains disputed.
What survives
Three rings of defensive walls enclose more than 160 hectares. Kanka’s peculiarity is its three shahristans set one inside another. In the north-east rises a citadel up to 35–40 m high, where a ruler’s palace with a household fire temple has been excavated. The shahristans have yielded a 6th–7th-century temple, craft workshops, a caravanserai and bazaar squares. Since 1974 the site has been a key research base of the Institute of Archaeology.
Kanka has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List since 2008. In September 2023 international experts reported that part of the site had been occupied and seriously damaged.
