Archaeology · Boysun District

Uzundara Fortress

A Hellenistic fortress (3rd–2nd centuries BC) on Mount Susiztog in Boysun District, with stone walls and the remains of 13 towers.

Antiquity2 h1 min read

Photo: Relisa Granovskaya · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

History

Edvard Rtveladze discovered Uzundara in 1991. Since 2013 it has been studied jointly by the Bactrian team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences under N. D. Dvurechenskaya and the Tokharistan Expedition of Uzbekistan’s Institute of Art Studies under Rtveladze, yielding coins, pottery and weapons. The fort was part of a defensive line protecting the farming oases of ancient Bactria from nomads. Its stone-and-clay walls run for about a kilometre and stand up to 4 m high, with at least 13 rectangular towers enclosing some 2 ha. Built in the early 3rd century BC, it served for about 150 years until a nomad attack in the reign of Eucratides.