Sirkap

Pakistan · Punjab, Rawalpindi

Ancient cityIntermittent excavationUNESCO · 1980
Approximate period150 BCE — 100 CEIndo-Greek, Saka and Parthian phases; approximate date range See on the map ↓

In brief

Sirkap is one of Taxila's separately located excavated walled cities. Houses, shops and various religious buildings stand on a Hellenistic grid plan; its UNESCO listing applies as a component of the Taxila serial heritage site.

What was found?

  • 1Double-Headed Eagle Stupa

    A sacred structure with Corinthian pilasters and reliefs of birds, one of them double-headed, on its façade. It documents the convergence of different artistic traditions in the same structure.

  • 2Apsidal temple

    The remains of a large temple with a semicircular apse at the rear and a surrounding ambulatory. It helps us understand the city's monumental religious architecture.

  • 3Grid-plan streets

    A road network connecting the main street with regularly arranged side streets. It shows that houses and sacred structures were situated within a Hellenistic planning scheme.

  • 4Stone fortifications

    Walls with rubble-stone infill and towers are parts of the defensive system surrounding the city. They document that the settlement was designed as a fortified city.

  • 5Marble column fragment with an Aramaic inscription

    It was reused in a wall of the spaces associated with the Double-Headed Eagle structure. It shows that an inscribed architectural fragment could be transferred to later buildings.

What does it point to?

Sirkap points to planned urban life with its regular streets and strong fortifications. The combination of local sacred structures with architectural elements of classical Mediterranean origin shows that cultural interaction extended to building craftsmanship.

What did it teach us?

  1. It showed that the Hellenistic grid plan was applied in a South Asian city.
  2. It documented the use of classical architectural elements in local sacred structures.
  3. It revealed that inscribed fragments of older buildings were reused in new walls.

Images

Double-Headed Eagle Stupa at Sirkap 04
Furqanlw · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sirkap02 overview
CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Gandhara; Hellenistic and South Asian traditions
First modern dig
1912
Team / historical
Mortimer Wheeler; tarihî kazı kampanyası
Coordinates
33.7534°, 72.8299°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. whc.unesco.org
  3. Pakistan Arkeoloji ve Müzeler Dairesi

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