Tugunbulak and Tashbulak

The discovery

Tugunbulak and Tashbulak are the ruins of two medieval cities on the northern slope of the Turkestan Range, near Zaamin National Park. In October 2024 the journal Nature published a study led by archaeologist Michael Frachetti of Washington University in St. Louis and Farhod Maksudov of Uzbekistan's National Center of Archaeology. It was the first time drone-mounted lidar had been used in Central Asia, mapping the sites to centimetre precision. The project was supported by the National Geographic Society.

The cities

Both cities lie at 2,000–2,200 metres, roughly the altitude of Machu Picchu. Tashbulak covers about 12 hectares, while Tugunbulak spreads over 120 hectares and, the researchers say, was one of the largest cities in the region in its day. Lidar revealed more than 300 structures at Tugunbulak, including watchtowers, defensive walls, narrow lanes, plazas and a central fortress. The cities were occupied from the 6th to the 11th century.

Theories

The team links the cities' wealth to iron smelting: the mountains are rich in iron ore and the juniper forests provided fuel for furnaces. Maksudov describes the people of Tugunbulak as nomadic pastoralists with a distinctive political and economic culture. The find suggests the mountains were not a barrier to the Silk Road but home to major centres of trade and craft.