Zartepa

Fourteen kilometres from Old Termez stands the site of Zartepa, one of the ancient towns of these parts, more than two thousand years old.

It covers sixteen hectares and is square in plan. Massive walls nine metres thick enclosed the town, with corridors three metres wide running inside them. The walls have survived reasonably well, so the boundaries of the site are clearly visible. Massive watchtowers with guard rooms rose over the gates on the east and west. A central road cut through the town, with houses on either side.

In the north-eastern part stood a fortress fourteen metres high and 120 metres square, surrounded by a ditch. There was a palace too: its ceremonial part comprised two halls with iwans of four and twelve columns. Only the stone bases of the columns, of Kushan date, remain. Clay figurines covered in red paint and gilding were found inside the rooms.

Zartepa was a substantial centre of trade, craft and religion. Buddhist sanctuaries have been found here; a chapel set directly on the city wall consisted of several rooms, both cultic and domestic. Marble steps led into one of them, and two stone stands with bronze bowls flanked the entrance. In a ceiling burnt in a fire, fragments of a gilded clay Buddha were found.

Two hundred and fifty metres to the east lie the ruins of the Kuev-Kurgan sanctuary. A stupa on a two-metre platform was found there, holding a cache of five hundred gold coins, ornaments and relics.

The town was destroyed and rebuilt more than once, but after the Arab conquest it declined for good.