Ancient Merv — the once-greatest city in the world, now silent dunes and crumbling domes
Mary (ancient Merv) sits in the middle of the Karakum Desert and was, in the 12th century, arguably the largest city in the world — capital of the Seljuk Empire, a Silk Road metropolis of 500,000 people, renowned for its libraries, observatories, and trade goods. Genghis Khan's son Tolui destroyed it in 1221, reportedly killing all but 400 of its inhabitants. The ruins — spread across 1,500 hectares — are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most extraordinary archaeological sites in Central Asia: the Sultan Sanjar mausoleum, the Erk Kala (2,500 years old), the Giaur Kala, and multiple…
Merv's history spans 4,000 years: founded as Mouru in the Avestan texts, it was an Achaemenid satrapy, a Hellenistic city (captured by Alexander), a Parthian capital, a Sasanian city, the seat of a Nestorian Christian bishopric, and then one of the great cities of the Islamic caliphates. Under the Abbasids and Samanids it was a centre of Islamic scholarship. Under the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar (died 1157) it reached its apogee as capital of an empire stretching from Anatolia to India. The Mongol destruction of 1221 was among history's most complete urban annihilations. The ruins were excavated ext…