Ancient Panjakent
About
Ancient Panjakent. The archaeological site of the ruins of old Penjikent - a walled inter-city which stood 2500-years ago - was once a Sogdian trading city on the Silk Road. Today, only ruins are left owing to the fact that the main construction material was clay-bricks. Often referred to as The Pompeii of Central Asia, it is well worth a visit. Duplicates of old Sogdian art are exposed in the nearby museum. The director will also take you on a tour, which will open your eyes to many interesting details which will normally escape the laymen's eye. Ancient Panjakent was divided into a shakhrestan (residental quarter) covering an area of about 13 hectares, an ark (citadel) with a palace, covering an area of 1 ha, a rabat (suburb pulular district) and a necropolis. The site is huge. Located on the top of a hill, it offers amazings views over the entire valley. The living quarters and fortress were separated by a narrow wadi with a bridge connecting the two parts of the city. Two temples in the shakhrestan formed the center of the urban area. The two temples contained statues and mural paintings. During the 5th and 6th centuries, no building in Panjakent was as magnificient as the two temples and even the houses of the wealthiest residents seemed rather humble compared to the two temples. The buildings were made of mud bricks and paksha. The residential houses ranged from single room buildings to large estates, reflecting the social status of their inhabitants. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the hoses of the rich dominated the architecture of the city. At the beginning of the 8th century, the spaces between the houses were converted into passageways and often covered with vaults. The houses of the rich became two-story buildings with vaults over the room on the first floor. All residential houses were covered with wall paintings and woodcarvings. The larger houses consisted of halls with four columns and benches along the walls. They were the most important part of the houses and served religious purposes. More than a third of the hoses had such reception halls. It is here where the archaologists discovered many exceptional mural paintings. These paintings date from the 5th to to the 8th century and are considered the most important works of early medieval art in Central Asia before the arrival of Islam. Most houses had a dark vaulted room for storage and a spiral staircase leading to the living quarters in the second floor. The houses of the well-to-do population usually had a room with a fire altar and a ceremonial hall decorated with wall paintings and wood carvings. In the main hall, there was a niche up to 4 m widr opposite the entrance with giant images of tutelary gods and small pictures of the praying members of the household. The center of the hall was marked by four wooden columns which supported complex wooden structures with a dome on a square foundation on the top. The hall was decorated with woodcarvings in high relief and even with small statues of caryatids and atlantes. The most common motif of the reliefs in the ceiling were arched niches with figures of the gods, including the sun-god in his chariot. The wall paintings on the other three walls were much smaller than the gods facing the main entrance. They formed two or three friezes depicting royal feasts, hunting scenes, the heroic deeds of Rostam, local heroes, amazons or persons from the Indian epic Mahabarata. The layout of the Sogdian central hall is unique. The decorations show that the Sogdian artist were familiar with the artistic and literary traditions of different cultures, as Persia, Greece and even India. The majority of the population observed some local variation of Zoroastrianism, which is proved by the wide distribution of ossuary funerals and fire-altars. There is, however, some evidence of the presence of Christianity and Buddhism and eventually even of the cult of Shiva. Zoroastrianism was combined with cults of additional gods and goddesses. ...
