Chilburj – fortress of the dynasties

Chilburj is a Parthian fortress in the southeast of Turkmenistan in the Mary province. The remains of the fortress are located 40 km northwest of ancient Merv. In the 1950s, South Turkmen Archaeological Complex Expedition (YuTAKE) archaeologically examined the fortress and the cursory research leaves many mysteries on the fortress. However, the results of researches on the fortress gives us enough information about its functionality and history. Initially this was a military fortress therefore its yard was not built up; just in the centre a trace of some construction survived where the fire was kept on. The fortress was founded in the II-III centuries. (Late Parthian time). Chilburj was a flourishing town with the dense buildings in the V-VII centuries. Its development was cut off by the Arabian invasion. In the middle Ages, it was used halting place for caravans and there was a small mosque nearby. Chilburj existed as a caravanserai up to the Mongol invasion whereupon it was abandoned completely.

The layout of the facility is roughly rectangular (260/230 × 200 m). The defensive wall of the fortress is still 13 to 15 m high and is made of adobe bricks. It is equipped with 39 towers all around. There are two fortified gates; one is in the north wall, the other in the south. The central street crossed the town through these gates. The towers protrude 5.4 m from the wall. The walls and towers rest in the lower part on a sloping, 7.7 m high platform, which consists of 0.9 m thick, layers of clay. The platform is about 2.2 m lower under the towers. The courtyard level inside the fortress is higher than the ground level of the surrounding area. Inside the wall, there is an inner 1.9 m wide battlement with loopholes in the sections between the towers. In the towers, there are rooms (about 1.94 × 2.0 m in size) that were vaulted. There are loopholes here too.

The fortress is dated to the II-III centuries A.D. and was probably inhabited until the IV-V centuries. Three Parthian coins were also found to support this dating, although the latter only became known as surface finds. Therefore, they may have been lost here by chance and are therefore not conclusive for the dating of the fortress.

The site is the important monument deals with Part, Arabic and Turkic periods at the same time. Like many other settlements, Chilburj lived its own fate but it still stands on the ground to tell many secrets about the history.