BY: ATAL MIAKHELL
In 1961, King Mohammad Zahir Shah of Afghanistan announced to
the world that he had stumbled up on the lost city of Ai Khanoum, also known as Alexandria on the Oxus, while hunting. Many historians believe Ai Khanoum, which means "Lady Moon" in Uzbek, was founded by Hephaestion, the senior commander of the Companions and closest friend of Alexander the Great, during the campaigns in Bactria and Sogdia in 329 BCE to 327 BCE. Ai Khanoum is considered one of the most important Cities of the ancient world because of its strategic location and its influence on central-eastern diversity, society and culture.
Alexandria on the Oxus is Located
in the province of Kunduz, Afghanistan. The city was built right where the Oxus
River, stretching east to west, was intersected by the river Kokcha, streaming
all the way down south through Pakistan and India. The reason for settling here
was that the rivers provided them with clean water and protected them against
invaders. This location not only possessed very rich soil for agriculture, but
the nearby Hindu Kush Mountains were also abundant in many minerals, gold and rare
and rubies such as lapis lazuli, found nowhere else in the world. Ai Khanoum
was also located along the central meeting point between east, west, north and south
on the historic trade route known as the Silk Road.
Excavations of the ancient city
started in 1964 with help from Russia and the French Archaeological
Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA) under the supervision of its director archaeologist
Paul Bernard. The dig unearthed two mile long ramparts circling the city and a
citadel with powerful towers on top of a 60 meter high hill in the middle of
the city. Among the greatest finds were a classical theater with a diameter of 84
meters containing 35 rows that could comfortably seat 4000 to 6000 people, a gymnasium
resembling the most typical Greek-like monuments, with engraved pillars
dedicated to Greek gods and heroes such as Hermes and Heracles, and a huge ‘one
of a kind’ Greco-Bactrian palace built by fusing Greek and Persian architecture.
The archeologists also discovered a Macedonian style mosaic of the sun,
acanthus leaves and various animals such as dolphins and crabs. There were
findings of many temples in and outside the city dedicated to worshipping different
gods, but the largest temple was found within
the city, which at one point, contained a unique large statue of Zeus modelled
in a Zoroastrian style with massive walls inclosing the god instead of being
circled by columns as evident in Greek structures.
