Yamchun Fort

Yamchun Fort was an ancient fort, of which only the ruins remain, located on the Pamir road section that crosses the province of Alto Badakhshan, in Tajikistan. The fort was built between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC and was part of the network of forts, strongholds, caravanserais, markets and settlements built along the Silk Road; it is in the part of the route that connects China with Afghanistan called the Wakhan Corridor.

History

In the year 139 BC the Han emperor Wudi sent his envoy Zhang Qian to explore the territory west of the Han China's sphere of influence, from where he returned with information about the area beyond the western Himalayas, and with arguments in favor of maintaining a trade route that would facilitate caravan traffic between China, India and Central Asia. This expedition was a turning point in establishing the Silk Road as an important trade route, especially regarding the silk trade between China and Persia; it also facilitated the beginning of relations between the Roman Empire and China and the rest of the territories traversed by this route, such as the Kushan Empire, in present‑day Tajikistan. Coins of the Kushan Empire with Roman effigies have even been found, suggesting a strong level of economic and diplomatic relationship between the Roman Empire and the Kushan. The summer capital of the Kushan Empire at Begram has produced a considerable amount of goods imported from the Roman Empire, in particular, several types of glassware.

The part that crosses the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountain ranges where the Yamchun fort is located was used to transport goods especially between the China-controlled area of the Han dynasty, to the east, and the Seleucid empire, to the west. This stretch of the Silk Road controlled by the Kushan Empire forms part of the northern route of the Silk Road, which connected the Han settlements of Kashgar or Yarkand with the area called Bactria north of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan, through the Wakhan corridor heading west.

The Kushan Empire benefited from this commercial passage as the caravans that crossed the area paid passage tributes to the cities and the empire, which on one hand served to supply and protect the caravans traveling the trade route and on the other to keep foreigners who crossed the Empire under control and thus protect its own territory. On many occasions even merchants were not allowed to leave the forts themselves to avoid problems with the local population.

Presence of Zoroastrianism

The local name Zamr-i-Atash-Parast means “fortress of the fire worshippers,” a reference to Zoroastrianism. Yamchum, on the other hand, is the name of a nearby stream to the fort, as well as of a village with the same name. In another earlier expedition of 1838 by the explorer Alexander Burnes, the British East India Company navy officer John Wood wrote about other temples built in the area by followers of Zoroaster. Popular superstition that persists in the Wakhan valley also holds that one must never extinguish a candle with a blow, as this would bring bad luck.

Description

Archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein wrote a detailed description of the fort in the expedition he carried out to Central Asia on behalf of the Government of India in 1928.

The fort, built about 400 meters above the valley, is divided into the citadel part with remnants of bastions and barracks, and two other flat areas presumably for containing a possible breach in the outer walls. In total there are three rings of double wall with a perimeter that reaches 950 meters on the outer part, and about 400 meters in diameter. The walls were fortified by 36 towers with stepped and inclined loopholes at a slight angle downward so that soldiers could fire toward the slope, and some were also directed toward the interior of the walls.