Ancient Silk Road city of Nevkat

 ruins, archeological site, hillfort

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Founded by the Sogdians, (an Iranian speaking people), in the fifth century, in the seventh and eighth centuries it boasted a population of 100000. It had over 18 kilometres of city walls – as long as those of ancient Rome – which enclosed an area 25 square kilometres. Inside these walls were public buildings, markets, gardens and even farms.

In the North-eastern part of the city was a vast citadel, built on a massive artificial platform – which is all that remains easily visible today. Measuring some 800m across and 20m high – 30m in the extreme South-Eastern corner where it is thought the ruler’s palace was located, the mound comprises some 13 million cubic meters of earth and mud bricks, it is five times the size of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt and it, apparently, is the largest man-made mound in the world. It has been estimated that a workforce of several thousand must have been employed in its construction – which could have taken a decade, or more.

By all accounts, Nevkat was a major metropolis. Indeed, it was probably the largest of all the medieval cities in what is now Kyrgyzstan – and, according to one author, was the “most north-easterly of the central Asian ‘super cities’” and was, at one time, “one of the world’s most important trading centres”.