The "Airtam" ancient settlement (2nd c. BCE)

Ayrtam is an ancient monument of Bactria, ten kilometres from the Old Termez site, on the steep bank of the Amu Darya.

It was found by accident: a fisherman cast his nets and instead of a catch pulled up a stone fragment carved with girls playing music. That is how a whole settlement came to light.

Ayrtam's history begins in the second century BC, when a small fort-acropolis appeared at one of the Amu Darya crossings, walled on three sides. Later, under the Kushan kingdom, when Buddhism reached Central Asia, Ayrtam became a religious centre. Excavation produced the remains of dwellings and cult buildings; there was a Buddhist complex here too — a temple with a sanctuary and a stupa, of which only the mud-brick base survives. Fragments of a Buddha statue, sculpted figures and coins were also found.

The sanctuary entrance was ornamented with the Ayrtam reliefs — sculpted friezes of musicians playing various instruments. They are counted among the finest stone sculpture of the Kushan period. Other friezes show women bearing offerings; historians take these images to have had a cult meaning.

Service buildings stood around the complex, among them brick and pottery kilns.

At the end of the third century Ayrtam declined, emptied and was never restored. It is today one of the oldest monuments of Buddhist culture in Uzbekistan.