Amul fortress

Amul is one of the centres of Khorasan on the route of the Great Silk Road - the most important trade artery of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Leftovers settlement of Amul - administrative and cultural centre of the Lebap region and the Chardzhou oasis – located on the outskirts of the modern regional centre of Turkmenistan - the city of Turkmenabat.

From the south-west, at a distance of 10-15 km, sand dunes approach it, restrained by a green strip of irrigated land, in the north-east 12 km Amu Darya flows.

The emergence of Amul, like the other four ancient and medieval cities of the Middle Amu Darya - Kalifa (Kelifa), Zemma-Kerkukha (Kerki), Navidakha (ruins of the keshk of Zukhra-Takhir near Burdalyk) and Firabra-Bityk (Farapa), it was determined location in places of convenient crossings across Oks-Jeyhun-Amu Daryu. Despite political and economic changes in Central Asia, four of the five named cities, besides Navidah, still exist.

The origin of the name "Amul" has not been established. In historical sources, there are also other options: Amuya, Amuye or simply Amu, as well as Amul-Jaykhuna, Amul-Zemma, Amul coastal, Amul of the desert, to be distinguished from another city of the same name in Iranian Tabaristan. Late XV century in the sources it is supplanted by the name Chardjuy - “four channel", or Chaharjub.

Messages about the medieval Amul-Chardzhuy found in al-Belazuri (IX century), al-Istakhri (X century), al-Maqdisi (X century), Ibn Haukal (X century), Yakut (XIII century), Muhammad Kazim (XVIII century) and other authors of the history.

Currently, Amul is fortress (shahristan), the walls of which form almost regular quadrangle up to 9 hectares. They are rest on a multi-meter pakhsov massif, towering 21-24 m above the surrounding area. The material covering the site and the upper walls date back to the 19th century. In the north-western corner of the shakhristan there is a massive arch (citadel). This is the highest point of the settlement of Amul-Chardzhou, which reaches 33 m state-of-the-art surface area around the entire fortress. Ark represents the wrong trapezoid. The entire perimeter of the former walls of the citadel had five towers.

Until 1924, a dilapidated adobe wall with several towers along the perimeter and three gate openings, the contours that were recorded by UTACE employees, surrounded Old Chardzhou.

It is currently difficult to determine the size of the territory that was once an urban-type development in Amul-Chardzhou, including its suburbs.

After the Mongol invasion, the city temporarily was in an abandoned state. In the XIV century, judging on archaeological materials, in the restored Amule's life continues in shahristan and outside city, construction awakens in rabad.

In the next century, Amul, like many of the Amudarya settlements, was part of the state Timurids and played an important military-strategic and economic importance.