The Ikuo Hirayama International Caravanserai of Culture hosted the “Uzundara – 2023: Summer Expedition Results” exhibition and a roundtable discussion.

The exhibition featured more than 60 finds discovered during the summer expedition, as well as photographs that reflected the process of archaeological work.

This year, for a whole month, with the participation of employees of the Bactrian Detachment of the Central Asian Archaeological Expedition of the Archeology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the head of the Museum of the International Caravanserai of Culture named after Ikuo Hirayama, archaeologist K. Sheiko, in cooperation with Termez State University, excavations were carried out in the Uzundara fortress and on the territory where the walls of Great Bactria were located.

As part of the study of the fortress system of the walls of Great Bactria, surveys in the gorges of Parch, Sanchil and Harparida of the Suvsistag mountain system were productive. The design features of the minarets and walls were determined, and the period of their creation was determined from the facing of the identified buildings. The data obtained indicate that these structures were erected at the same time as the construction of the Uzundara fortress.

During the search work, it was found that individual minarets in the Suvsistag mountains have different shapes – cylindrical and square. The surveys carried out in 2023 expanded the information about the defensive system of the walls of Great Bactria.

In the Uzundara fortress, excavations were carried out on more than 250 square meters. In particular, excavations P-5 carried out on an area of 10x5 m made it possible to determine the inner and outer parts of the walls of the fortress.

Gulnoza Boboyeva, UzA