Qal’aliqir

Qalʼaliqir – (also Kalaly-gyr; also Ayritam; Turkmen: Galalygyr) – a lost ancient city in present-day Turkmenistan, which was the second capital of ancient Khwarezm in the 5th–4th centuries BC. According to the Khwarezm expedition research, Qalʼaliqir, whose area is close to 70 hectares, is the largest ancient site in Khwarezm.

Location

The settlements Qalʼaliqir 1 and Qalʼaliqir 2 are located 40–50 kilometres southwest of the administrative centre of Turkmenistan’s Toshoguz province, the city of Toshhovuz, in the ancient Sarakamish delta of the Amu Darya.

Description

Investigated in 1939 by S. Tolstov. Re‑investigated in 1950 by the Khwarezm archaeology‑ethnography expedition. Survey work carried out in 1953 and 1958 under the leadership of Y. A. Rappoport. Qalʼaliqir consists of two large city ruins. Qalʼaliqir 1 is rectangular in shape, measuring 1100 × 700 m. Qalʼaliqir 2 is triangular (according to the hill shape), measuring 1000 × 400 m. Within the interior of the city ruins there is no cultural layer at all. This place served as a livestock‑keeping enclosure (see Var). The city’s inhabitants lived in narrow corridor‑like rooms with vaulted roofs built into the defensive wall. Two parallel internal corridor‑like residential rooms were found at Qalʼaliqir. No residential structures were identified in the other part of Qalʼaliqir. A multi‑room building in front of the northern wall is a burial structure – a “house of the dead” – in which large clay vessels (ossuaries) held the bones of the dead. The Avesta mentions corridor‑like dwellings and square‑shaped pits similar to those in Qalʼaliqir.

Qalʼaliqir 1

One of the city forts is Qalʼaliqir 1, a right‑angled fort measuring 1000 × 700 m, whose walls are reinforced with towers. The fort has four gates and is protected by complex labyrinths and walls. The life of the inhabitants of the Qalʼaliqir 1 settlement was concentrated in long vaulted corridor‑like rooms hidden within the thick walls of the dwelling. Near the western wall of the fort, on its interior side, there was a magnificent palace building. The construction of the wall and the palace building was never completed and was abandoned. The foundations of the walls are over 1 m high, built of brick blocks, on top of which ordinary antique‑size clay bricks were laid. The palace building is square (80 × 80 m) and has two inner courtyards and two outer courtyards at its edges. Along the perimeter of the courtyards there are about 30 different rooms. The palace halls have flat ceilings reinforced with columns, whose bases are partially preserved. According to researchers, the construction of the Qalʼaliqir 1 fort began at the end of the 5th century BC or the beginning of the 4th century BC during the rule of the Ahamonid dynasty in Khwarezm.

Researchers noted the perfection of the Qalʼaliqir palace's 1st architecture, which gave the first impetus to the developed Khorezm architecture.

Qalʼaliqir 2

Another fortress, Qalʼaliqir 2 fortress, was located 10 km west of the 1st fortress, on the left bank of the ancient Daudan River in southern Daudan. This monument is almost a regular equilateral triangle, attached to a rectangular entrance complex from the north. In this area, fortress walls up to 5 meters high have been preserved. The most monumental structure inside the fortress is a round worship hall built on a two‑meter artificial platform, with a diameter of 24 meters. The temple walls had arrow‑shaped openings and were connected from the north to a large oval minaret. This religious center was completely destroyed and then abandoned.