The ancient settlement of "Paykend" «Pompeii of the Asian continent» (4th c. BCE - 12th c. CE)

The Paikend settlement lies sixty kilometres south-west of Bukhara, in the lower reaches of the Zarafshan, and spans the fourth century BC to the twelfth AD.

It began, probably in the fourth to second centuries BC, as scattered villages that gradually formed a city with forts and defences, covering twenty hectares. A square citadel with the ruler's palace and administrative buildings stood at the centre; residential quarters — the shahristan — adjoined it, and city walls enclosed the whole. To the north lay a necropolis with Zoroastrian burial structures.

Paikend was a frontier garrison and a trading centre in western Sogdia, one of the important points on the Silk Road: through it ran the links between Bactria, India and Nakhshab — today's Karshi — and Khorezm and the northern cities. Its height came in the sixth to eighth centuries. The city is called a merchant republic: the traders who lived here grew rich not only on transit but on exporting their own ceramics and bronze.

With the Arab arrival in the eighth century Paikend became a notable Islamic religious centre — the remains of a large mosque and a minaret have been found. As in any trading city, several caravanserais of the eighth to twelfth centuries stood here, with rooms for merchants and large enclosed yards for pack animals.

Life ended in the twelfth century, when the Zarafshan changed course: the water no longer reached the city and the inhabitants left. The sands of the Kyzylkum gradually covered Paikend — and by covering it, preserved it. In the 1980s archaeologists found the site all but sealed.

In 2003 a museum, the History of the Paikend Settlement, opened beside the ruins: vessels, ceramics, jewellery, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, and coins of the second to eleventh centuries.