Afrasiyab: ancient Samarkand and the Ambassadors’ Painting

Afrasiyab is a plateau of loess, about 220 hectares, cut by gullies and covered with grassy mounds. Under those mounds lie the remains of every Samarkand before the Mongol conquest. The city was fortified in the first millennium BC; in 329 BC Alexander the Great took it and wintered here, and Greek writers called it Maracanda. Later it became the capital of Sogdiana, the land of the Sogdians, an Iranian people of merchants who ran much of the Silk Road trade between China, India and Persia.

Arab armies took Samarkand in the early 8th century, and under the Samanids and Karakhanids it was one of the great cities of the Islamic world, famous for its paper, glazed pottery and markets. In 1220 Genghis Khan’s army captured and destroyed it. When the city revived, it grew to the south, around the area of today’s Registan, and Afrasiyab was left as a field of ruins. The name comes from a legendary king of Turan in the Persian epic, the Shahnameh.

In 1965, during road works, archaeologists uncovered the walls of a reception hall in a palace of the 7th century. Its walls were covered with paintings that have become one of the most important images of the Silk Road world. They are usually dated to the 660s and linked to King Varkhuman, ruler of Samarkand, whose name appears in an inscription.

The paintings show processions of envoys bringing gifts: delegations from China, from the Korean kingdoms, from the steppe Turks and from neighbouring princedoms, as well as a Chinese princess in a boat and a procession with elephants and camels. The colours, faded but still visible, include deep blue from lapis lazuli. They are a unique record of the diplomacy, clothing and ceremonies of the time.

The museum, built in 1970 for the city’s anniversary, was designed around the paintings, which hang in a central hall in their original arrangement.

Besides the murals, the museum displays finds from all periods of Afrasiyab: Sogdian ossuaries (boxes for the bones of the dead, used in Zoroastrian burial), terracotta figurines, coins, weapons, glass and the colourful glazed bowls with calligraphic inscriptions for which Samanid Samarkand was famous. A large model shows the layout of the ancient city and its walls. Labels are in Uzbek, Russian and English, but a guide adds much to the visit.

Paths lead from the museum across the plateau to excavated areas, including sections of the walls and the citadel. Much of what you see is earth mounds, so the site rewards imagination more than the eye; it is worth climbing to a high point for the view over the ruins to modern Samarkand and the domes of Bibi-Khanym. There is no shade, so avoid the middle of the day in summer.

The museum is on the Tashkent road on the eastern side of Afrasiyab, about 10 minutes by taxi from the Registan or 15–20 minutes on foot from the Hazrat Khizr mosque and Siab Bazaar. A ticket is required; photography rules may differ for the mural hall. Combine it with Ulugbek’s observatory, a few minutes further along the same road, and with the Tomb of Daniel at the foot of the hill. If you visit the Silk Road sites of Penjikent across the border in Tajikistan, Afrasiyab provides the perfect introduction to the Sogdian world.