Tours To Uzbekistan


Settlement Kanka is open for everybody

Published: 03 may 2012

From April 2012 everybody will be able to visit a huge historical place in Tashkent region – settlement Kanka.
It was not possible before. But in the middle of April, the grand opening of the largest historical site in Tashkent region - settlement Kanka was held.
Many scientists identify Kanka as Antioch Zayaksartskaya because it fits the testimony of ancient historians, that after the collapse of the empire of Alexander of Macedon, the ruler of this part of the Empire - The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom - Antiochus sent his military commander Demodam in the campaign against the Saks living in Syr Darya areas, where he founded the city and laid the sanctuary of Apollo. The unquestionable proofs of this, according to scientists’ opinion, are the lower layers of the settlement relating to the III century BC. They also appropriate, both in time and size of the fortress, built by Demodam.
Kanka was the first capital of the state Kangyuy referred to the Chinese sources of the II century BC. Tashkent oasis at that time was the core of the state Kangyuy. Its capital was the city in the valley Akhangaran (70 km. from modern Tashkent), which is now the site of the ancient settlement Kanka, spread on 160 hectares. In the Chinese chronicles it was called Yuni and Shi. In the III century AD. this city became the capital of an independent state. With the lapse of time, the center of Tashkent oasis moved from Kanka to the north, the territory of modern Tashkent, to the town of Ming Urik. In the Middle Ages the settlement Kanka was known as Kharashket. According to the medieval historian Abu- l-Kasim ibn Khaukalma,  Harashket was the second largest city in the area after Binket in Shash.
Extensive archaeological works and the systematic study of Kanka were held in Chach-Ilak expedition under the leadership of Buryakov, the academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan. As a result, it was found that the settlement Kanka  is the oldest and largest center of Tashkent oasis, which existed from the III century BC. to the XII century AD.