Ai-Khanoum, a Hellenistic city of Bactria
Ai Khanum, ciudad helenística de Bactria
- Date
- c. 300 BCE (fundación) · confidence medium
- Place
- Ai Khanum, Takhar, Afghanistan
- Credited to
- Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians; excavation by Paul Bernard and the DAFA (1965-1978)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A Greek-plan city with a gymnasium, theatre, palace and sundials, found in 1961 during a hunt by King Zahir Shah and excavated until 1978. It documents Hellenism in the Hindu Kush and its blend with Persian and Indian traditions.
Its identification with an Alexandria on the Oxus (or Eucratideia) is a hypothesis; the city was abandoned c. 145 BC and its ancient name is not known with certainty.
What it led to
- inscriptions with Delphic maxims and papyri with traces of Greek philosophy in the heart of Asia
- evidence of the spread of Greek urbanism and sculpture towards India and China
- massive looting during the war of the 1980s