Sunday 9 December 2012

Sogdian frescoes from Penjikent

On Flickr one can find the most beautiful pictures about all kind of subjects.
While surfing the Flickr website I stumbled upon these pictures from Tajikistan from Retlaw Snellac.

the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road.
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road
the silk road


The pictures I enlarged are the ones from Penjikent.

























This is what he wrote about it: On a high valley terrace on the banks of the Zeravshan River, 6km from the modern town of Penjikent, are the ruins of ancient Penjikent, a major Sogdian town founded in the 5th century and abandoned in the 8th century with the arrival of the Arabs. The ancient city has not been built upon since. The foundations of houses, a citadel with a couple of Zoroastrian temples, and the city bazaar are visible in the excavated ruins, but the best of the frescoes (some of them 15m long), sculptures, pottery and manuscripts have been carted off to Tashkent and St Petersburg. There is also a small museum chronicling the excavations; copies of frescoes are also there.



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