Shahr-i Buzurg

Shahr-i Buzurg ("great town") is an archaeological site in the lower Chu valley, in the Chu District of the Irad Special Economic Zone, about 15 kilometers west-north-west of Nurzhan, beside the village of Shaar-Döbö. It contains the remains of a walled town of the Sogdian and Kara-Khanid periods, occupied from about the 6th to the 12th century. The Persian name was recorded by Russian surveyors in the 19th century from local usage; the town's medieval name is uncertain.^[1] The site has a citadel mound (diz), a rectangular inner town (shahristan) with mudbrick ramparts and traces of an outer suburb. Excavations have found fragments of painted wall plaster, Sogdian inscriptions on pottery and cast bronze coins of the Turgesh khaganate with Sogdian legends.^[1]

References

1. ^ Talas State University Press (2017). Sogdians of the Talas and Chu: Archaeology and Language. Talas.