Termez

Termez is situated on the right bank of the famous Amudarya River, at a height of 302 meters above sea level. Termez is one of the ancient towns in the world which is more than 2500 years old. It is the southernmost town of Uzbekistan and lies in the zone of sharply continental climate where summer is hot and long, winter is warm and short-term. The average temperature in Termez is +16 +18 oC in July and – 2, 8 – 3, 6 oC in January.

Like the other Central Asian cities, Termez has also rich historical background.

The great Bactrian civilization, established several thousands years ago on the two banks of the Amudarya river, during the bronze age, became later a connecting link of different cultures, mixed civilizations of the East and the West – ancient oriental, Iranian, Hellenistic. And Termez was located in the centre of Bactrian state. Being situated on the main caravan crossroad of the Great Silk Road, Old Termez became one of the prospered Bactrian cities during many centuries.

The real prosperity of people in old Termez started during the rule of Demetrius, a Greco-Bactrian king (200-185 centuries BC). This town became an important intermediate center between two kingdoms – Gankharoy (northwestern India) and Sogdiana (Samarkand). At this very time this town was called Demetrius.

During ancient Kushan empire, established in the I century AD, Termez was known under name of Termita. The territory of Kushans stretched from the north of Surkhandarya to modern Pakistan. In the course of famous Kanishka’s rule (first half of the II century AD), Termez gained one more function – ideological, being the main center of Buddhism in Central Asia for many centuries. And Buddhism spread from here to the north, Sogdiana and through the Pamir and Alay mountains to eastern Turkestan and to China and Tibet.

Tar-Mat means “a town on the bank”, another translation meaning “iron town”.

The first settlement of Termez existed until it was destroyed as a result of Chingizkhan’s invasion, but Termez again reborn as a trade town more to the east from its old location, in the valley of Surkhandarya. By the second half of the XVIII century, the town was totally destroyed in the result of feudal wars, only two village could survive outside Termez. In one of these villages, called Pattakesar, in the end of the XIX c, Russian frontier point was built and further development of Termez takes place more in the south, near the Amudarya River.

Formation of new Termez concurred with the intensity of Russian and English relations and for the purpose of its own security, Russia located in Termez a big number of military subdivisions. Construction of railway system, telegraph service, electricity made Temez develop and turned it to the military and strategic point on the Amudarya River.