Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Termez
Summary
Termez (Termiz/Термиз; ترمذ Termez, Tirmiz; ترمذ Tirmidh; Термез; Ancient Greek: Tàrmita, Thàrmis, Θέρμις) is the capital of Surxondaryo Region in southern Uzbekistan. Administratively, it is a district-level city. Its population is 182,800 (2021). It is notable as the site of Alexander the Great's city Alexandria on the Oxus, as a center of early Buddhism, as a site of , and as a base of Soviet Union military operations in Afghanistan, accessible via the nearby Hairatan border crossing.
Some link the name of the city to the Greek word Θέρμος (thermos), meaning "hot", and date the toponym to the rule of Alexander the Great. Others suggest that it came from Sanskrit तर्मतो (taramato), meaning "on the river bank".
One of Central Asia's oldest towns, Old Termez, located a few kilometers west of the modern city along the Amu Darya river, was established sometime before the 3rd century BC. The city may have been known to the Achaemenids (the 10th century Shahnameh purports its existence during the mythological Zoroastrian Kayanian dynasty).
In 329 BC Alexander the Great conquered the surrounding region, known as Sogdia. Most recent scholarship argues that Termez is the site of Alexandria on the Oxus, though some identify this site with Ai-Khanoum. After a period of Seleucid rule, Termez became part of the breakaway Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The Ionian Greek language persisted in the area through the Tocharian period, being phased out of administrative use during the time of the Kushan Empire, in favor of the Bactrian language.
It was during this period that Termez, named Ta-li-mi (迭里迷) in Chinese sources, became an important center of Mahāsāṃghika Buddhism. Termez was incorporated into the Sassanid Persian Empire in the 3rd century AD, and elements of Zoroastrian-Buddhist religious syncretism appear in the archaeological record, with Buddhist monasteries containing fire altars, and a graffiti inscription referencing "Buddha-Mazda."
During the 7th century Termez played host to the Buddhist monk and traveler Xuanzang, who reported:
There are about ten Sangharamas with about one thousand monks.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.