Kalaly-gyr

Kalaly-gyr (also Kalalygyr or Kalaligir) is an archaeological excavation site in Khorezm in present-day Turkmenistan. It is located about 70 kilometres west of Amu Darya on the edge of the agricultural zone. It consists of 2 large city ruins. First one is rectangular in shape and measures 1100 × 700 m, ancient city of V-IV century B.C. located in 40 km to South West from Dashoguz, at elevation, near south coast of ancient riverbed of Daudan, almost close to Kunyauyaz city. The second, an ancient city of Khorezm in 10 km to west of first city, near left coast of ancient riverbed of South Daudan.

During excavations between 1953 and 1958, a large palace building from the Achaemenid period could be examined. The palace covered approximately 10,500 m² and was 75 × 89 m in size. The main building material was rammed earth. There were several courtyards, with most of the rooms in the complex being arranged around two inner courtyards. There were several porticos. The columns rested on stone bases and had at least some capitals with protomes in the shape of eagle griffins. The whole building and possibly a city belonging to it were surrounded by a strong wall, but little of it has been excavated.

It is probably the palace of a Persian governor (although the interpretation as a cult building has also been suggested). The building probably dates from the turn of the fifth to the fourth century BC. The palace was never completed. The excavator Jurij A. Rapoport suspects that the palace is connected to the establishment of a Persian satrapy of Khorezm and was abandoned when Khorezm left the Persian Empire or was lost to the Persian Empire.

The second city is triangular in shape (with a hill shape) and has an area of 1000 × 400 m. On the inner surface of the city ruins, the cultural layer is absolutely absent. This place served as a cattle barn. The inhabitants of the city lived in narrow rooms in a corridor with a domed roof. Two parallel interior corridors were found. In the other part of Kalaly-gyr, no dwellings have been identified. The multi-room building in front of the wall is a burial structure - the "house of the dead", in which the bones of the dead are stored in large clay vessels (ossuaries).