Ancient Merv

Location: Mary, Turkmenistan
Culture: Central Asian, Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanian, Ummayad, Abbasid, Tahrid, Samanid, Ghaznavid, Seljuk, Timurid, Mongol
Era: Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanian, Hephthalite, Umayyad, Abbasid, Tahrid, Samanid, Ghaznavid, Seljuk, Timurid, Mongol
Site Description: The cities that developed at Merv span the last 2,500 years, and together they form one of the most complex and well-preserved urban centres on the Silk Roads of Central Asia. The series of major cities were home over 2,000 years to hundreds of thousands of administrators, politicians, soldiers, scholars, tradespeople, mothers, fathers and children. At times Merv has been capital of vast empires, at times a trading, military and administrative base. Eventually its importance declined, by-passed on the east-west trade routes by the growing importance of sea trade, and then sacked by the armies of Genghis Khan.
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