Bagram

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Bagram

Bagram, Bagram or Begram (ancient Alexandria of the Caucasus
Alexandria of the Caucasus

Alexandria of the Caucasus...
, medieval Kapisa) was an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir

Panjshir Valley

The Panjshir Valley, also spelled Panjsher Valley is a valley in north-central Afghanistan, 150 km north of Kabul, near the Hindu Kush mountain range....
valleys, near today's city of Charikar

Charikar

Charikar is the main town of the Kohdaman Valley and the capital of Parwan province in northern Afghanistan. The city lies on the road 69 km from Kabul to the northern provinces....
, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
. Bagram is located about 60 kilometers north of Kabul

Kabul

Kabul is the Capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of approximately three million. It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 foot above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River....
. Today Bagram is a village.

Its location made it a key passage from India along the Silk Road

Silk Road

The Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe....
leading westwards through the mountains towards Bamiyan.

Alexandria was laid out in the Greek "hippodamian plan" and had brick walls reinforced with towers at the angles.

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Encyclopedia

Panjshir Valley

Charikar

Charikar is the main town of the Kohdaman Valley and the capital of Parwan province in northern Afghanistan. The city lies on the road 69 km from Kabul to the northern provinces....
, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Kabul

Silk Road

History

It is unknown when the site was originally settled. In the mid 500s BC, Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great , , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was a Persian people Shah . He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, an empire, perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history....
of the Persian Achaemenid Dynasty

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire was amongst the first Persian Empires that ruled over significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Ancient Iranian peoples Median Empire....
destroyed the city, which was soon rebuilt by his successor Darius

Darius

Darius is a common Persians male name. Three monarch of the ancient Achaemenid Empire of Iran were named Darius:*Darius the Great of Persia or Darius the Great....
.

In the 320s BC, Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
captured the city and established a fortified colony named Alexandria of the Caucasus

Alexandria of the Caucasus

Alexandria of the Caucasus...
. After his death in 323 BC, the city passed to his general Seleucus

Seleucus

Seleucus was the name of several Macedonn kings of the Seleucid dynasty ruling in the area of Syria:* Seleucus I Nicator * Seleucus II Callinicus ...
, who traded it to the Mauryan Dynasty of India in 305 BC. After the Mauryans were overthrown by the Sunga Dynasty in 185 BC, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BCE....
invaded and conquered northwestern India with an army led by Demetrius I of Bactria

Demetrius I of Bactria

Demetrius I or was a Buddhist Greco-Bactrian king . He was the son of Euthydemus I and succeeded him around 200 BC, after which he conquered extensive areas in what now is eastern Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan thus creating an Indo-Greek kingdom far from Hellenistic Greece....
. Alexandria became a capital of the Eucratidian Indo-Greek Kingdom

Indo-Greek Kingdom

The Indo-Greek Kingdom covered various parts of the northwest and northern Indian subcontinent during the last two centuries BC, and was ruled by more than 30 Hellenistic civilization kings, often in conflict with each other....
after they were driven out of Bactria

Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
by the Yuezhi

Yuezhi

The Yuezhi or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people.They are believed by most scholars to have been an Indo-European people, and may have been the same as or closely related to the Tocharians of Classical sources....
in 140 BC.

Bagram (Kapisa) became the summer capital of the Kushan Empire

Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire of Ancient India originally formed in Bactria on either side of the middle course of the Oxus River or Syr Darya in what is now northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan....
in the 1st century, their other capital being in Mathura

Mathura

Mathura is a holy city in the Indian States and territories of India of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately 50 km north of Agra, and 150 km south of Delhi; about twenty kilometers from holy Vrindavana....
in central India.

The emperor Kanishka

Kanishka

Kanishka was a king of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia, ruling an empire extending from Bactria to large parts of India in the 2nd century of the common era, famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements....
started many new buildings there. The central palace building yielded a very rich treasure, dated from the time of emperor Kanishka

Kanishka

Kanishka was a king of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia, ruling an empire extending from Bactria to large parts of India in the 2nd century of the common era, famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements....
in the 2nd century: ivory-plated stools of Indian origin, lacquered boxes from Han China, Greco-Roman glasses from Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
and Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, Hellenistic statues in the Pompean style, stuc moldings, and silverware

Silverware

Silverware, also called silver or silver plate, is a term for a number of household items:* Silver , candlesticks, dishware, flatware or cutlery usually made of sterling silver, a silver-plated base metal or stainless steel...
of Mediterranean origin (probably Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
).

The "Begram treasure" as it has been called, is indicative of intense commercial exchanges between all the cultural centers of the Classical time, with the Kushan empire at the junction of the land and sea trade between the east and west. However, the works of art found in Begram are either quite purely Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese or Indian, with only little indications of the cultural syncretism found in Greco-Buddhist art

Greco-Buddhist art

Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE....
.

The city was apparently abandoned after the campaigns of the Sassanian emperor Shapur I

Shapur I

Shapur I was the second Sassanid King of the Sassanid Empire. The dates of his reign are commonly given as 241 - 272, but it is likely that he also reigned as co-regent prior to his father's death in 241....
, in 241.

Today

As many other historical sites in Afghanistan, Bagram has been looted for old artifacts during the years following the overthrow of the Taliban. Today, Bagram hosts the strategic Bagram Airfield from which most US air activity in Afghanistan takes place. There is also a Provincial Reconstruction Team

Provincial reconstruction team

A Provincial Reconstruction Team is a unit introduced by the United States government, consisting of military officers, diplomats, and reconstruction subject matter experts, working to support reconstruction efforts in unstable states....
which is led by the US.

Bagram is a district of Parwan Province.

Bagram

History

Today

External links