Archaeological Site of Nisa

Upon leaving Ashgabat and driving some 12 kilometers towards the Kopetdag mountains your attention will be gripped by a huge natural platform that dominates the scenery. This is Nisa, a once formidable royal fortress of the Parthian State . In the mid-3 rd century BC the south of present-day Turkmenistan and the north-east of Iran appeared to be a breading ground of the Parthian State that afterwards expanded immensely to rival the Roman Empire for supremacy in the Near East . The new state attained the highpoint of its development in the 2 nd to 1st centuries BC. It was at this period that the royal fortress was built on that platform. Elongated from north to south the platform had abrupt slopes and was pentagonal in shape with an area of 14 hectares . Built by slave labor the platform was encircled by massive mud-brick walls measuring from 8 to 9 meters in width. The walls had 5 high corner watchtowers punctuated by 43 rectangular smaller towers. All the towers were equipped with slit windows and were set every 15 meters . The fortress was well protected by the mountains with only one east side exposed to the enemies` attacks.

Large-scale excavations carried out in the late 1940-s revealed a huge complex consisting of the Royal Palace, Tower of Fire and Zoroastrian Temple in the southern part of the fortress. The monumental two-story Royal Palace contained a spacious square Throne Hall with a side of 20 meters . 24 semi-columns flanked its sturdy walls divided into two tiers. The upper tier had 12 tall-multicolored statues set in the recesses of the walls. The wooden ceiling equipped with a sky-light was supported by 4 massive columns made of fired bricks. The 12-m high Tower of Fire might have had an altar atop and was encircled by a maze of vaulted rooms, its whitewashed walls being decorated with multicolored frescoes. The Temple adjoined the Tower of Fire on the south side. It was square on the outside and contained a Round Room on the inside. The Room measuring 17 meters in diameter was encircled into a legible quadrate of surrounding narrow corridors. In the very center of it there stood a hearth burning by day and night. Its 8-m high walls were whitewashed and were flanked by semi-columns at a height of 5 meters . Like in the Throne Hall the Round Room also had clay statues set in the recesses among the upper semi-columns.

The northern part of the fortress contained a huge Treasure House and spacious store-rooms. The Treasure House was square in plan with a side of 60 meters and consisted of 12 rooms around a courtyard. It was there that the Parthian kings used to keep their fabulous treasures: gold adornments, silver utensils, silk fabrics embellished with golden threads, weapons, etc.

The Parthian kings were known for parties that required a large quantity of wine. The wine was kept in big clay vessels buried in the ground of the storerooms. The vessels were equipped with clay tablets written in black ink in the old Persian language. In excavation of the rooms about 1,500 shards of clay tablets were found. They contained the information of the wine owners and the area where the wine was brought from.

However by the early 3 rd century AD the Parthian State had gone into a decline and fell to the hands of the next Persian dynasty. The fortress of Nisa was destroyed and sacked by them. Luckily the outlines of the walls and the foundations of the structures remained as did some of the objects that were once kept in the Treasure House.

Excavations are still continuing there. Since Independence the archaeological site of Nisa has been declared the National Preserve and in the year of 2006 it is to be entered the list of the UNESCO World Heritage.