Varakhsha

Varakhsha
Ruins of Varakhsha
Varakhsha is located in West and Central Asia
Varakhsha
Shown within West and Central Asia
Varakhsha is located in Uzbekistan
Varakhsha
Varakhsha (Uzbekistan)
Alternative nameVarakhsha
LocationUzbekistan
Coordinates39°51′49″N 64°04′23″E / 39.86361°N 64.07306°E / 39.86361; 64.07306
TypeSettlement
Site notes
ConditionRuined

Varakhsha, also Varasha or Varahsha, was an ancient city in the Bukhara oasis in Sogdia, founded in the 1st century BCE.[1] It is located 39 kilometers to the northwest of Bukhara. Varakhsha was the capital of the Sogdian dynasty of the kings of Bukhara, the Bukhar Khudahs.[1][2] It ultimately never recovered from the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. After British archaeologists began investigating the site in the 1820s, it became "the very first Sogdian archaeological site mentioned in European literature."[3]

  1. ^ a b Azarpay, Guitty; Belenickij, Aleksandr M.; Maršak, Boris Il'ič; Dresden, Mark J. Sogdian Painting: The Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art. University of California Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-520-03765-6.
  2. ^ Starr, S. Frederick (2 June 2015). Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. pp. 118–119. ISBN 978-0-691-16585-1.
  3. ^ Naymark, Aleksandr (2003). "Returning to Varakhsha". The Silk Road. 1 (2): 10 – via EdSpace.