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An artistic rendition of the Palace (Castle, Kala, Calah, Qalla) of the King (Rigden, Shah, Khesar) in Ancient Balkh (Bactra)….
The Great Khorasan Civilization ('Land of the Rising Sun') had numerous great city/states, each with its own King and Queen, Royal Court, and Castle….Balkh (Bactra) was the most legendary and grandest, not only a legend in 7th Century pre-Buddhist Tibet but also throughout ancient China, India, the Middle East and Greece.
The outer walls were 7 miles in circumference, the population was around 200,000 people….Above the Palace was the ancient Sun Temple of Sams-i-Bala (Sams: sun, flame, candle….Bala: elevated, raised higher, divine)….with the Zoroastrian conversion in c. 900 BC it became a Fire Temple dedicated to the Asura God of Gods Mazda….
In 5000 BC Balkh was a great Indo-European trade and agricultural center with the Lapis Road connecting it with the ancient Egyptian Dynasties, Babylon and Nimrud…..until the probable climate change of 1500 BC it was the Eastern end of the Great Khorsan Road…with the Silk Route it was the vortex connecting China to the East, Persia to the West and India to the south….
The city of Balkh like most of the great Khorsan cities was made of adobe, sacred clay from the Oxus River which flowed next to Balkh. Anahita was the Goddess of the Oxus. With probable dramatic climate change in 500 AD the rivers dried up and even changed course. Today all that remains of ancient Balkh is the exterior barrier, which still is dotted with land mines from the Soviet invasion.
Alexander the Great is said to have built 16 cities, many have not been located….He spent a year in the region of Bactria 'because it was so beautiful'…..
RIG....In Ancient Persia, the Indo-European words for King (Sanskrit: rajan...Latin: rex...Old Iranian: Rig...Gallic: rix)(Lincoln: 1981..pg 35)..means not only to regulate and direct in a manner that is right but also to shine with luster (Sk: raj). The divine right of the king was derived from the brilliance (cihr) and sovereignty (sahr) of the sky itself; therefore it was fitting that his palace should be in the 'padak' of the sun and that his 'tiara' should resemble the surrounding sky-wall and rays of the sun." ..(Campbell: 1968..pg 101)........
DEN...."In ancient Persia, 'Den' was the Old-Iranian term for wisdom. 'Den' operates as a creator within the limits of cyclic time and the motions of matter and space. 'Daena-Den' was an intermediate Creator between space and time. 'Den' reveals the Expanding (Spenta) and Good (Vohu) Mind (Mainyu) all that happens until the 'Fraskart' (The final restoration of the world)" ..(Campbell: 1968..pg 119+)
KALA in Turkic is related with the word KALICI : long lasting, permanent, stable, abiding…t also means "castle"….The English equivalent for Kala in Albanian is Fortress
Balkh (ancient Paktra or Baktra or Bactria), a UNESCO World Heritage Site candidate (2004), is an urban site of some 11 square kilometers, situated 21 kilometers west of Mazar-i Sharif and 74 kilometers south of the Amu Darya (Oxus) River, which ran close to the city during antiquity. Reputedly the birthplace of Zoroaster, Bactria was for a long time the spiritual center for the Zoroastrian religion and was said to have rivaled urban centers such as Babylon. Accounts of visitors to Balkh in ancient times include Alexander the Great, a succession of Graeco Bactrian kings, pilgrims, countles Silk Road traders and pilgrims attracted by the many Buddhist monasteries in the Balkh region during the 4th-7th centuries, Genghis Kahn (who sacked the city 1220), Marco Polo (who declared Balkh a "noble city and great" in 1271) and Timur (who destroyed the city again in 1370). Accounts from the 10th century AD onward indicate that Balkh was ringed with earthen walls, within which stood a fine citadel, mosque and other buildings necessary for Balkh to become an important trading center (a necessary stop on the Silk Road with links to India and China) and a center of education (in 980 AD the philosopher-scientist Ibn Sina was born in Balkh, as was the poet Ferdowsi). Those same earthen walls can still be seen over a length of some 10 kilometres, to the north of which lies a secondary fortified area, the Bala Hissar. Other notable sites needing protection in or near Balkh include the tiled Timurid-era Shrine of Khwãja Abu Nasr Parsa, the Samanid-style Haji Piyadi (No Gumbad) Mosque from the second half of the 9th century, and the 17th century Madrasa of Sayyid Subhan Quli Khan located in Balkh City, the Khwaja Aghacha Mosque located some three kilometers to the south, and farther south, the Buddhist monastery Takht-i Rustam and the associated stupa of Tepe Rustam, of which an earth-brick base, 40 meters in diameter, still survives. See also the Minaret of Zadyan. Looting at Balkh since 2001 has been extensive.
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2013
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