Type: Archaeological Site - Settlement
Province: Punjab
District: Rawalpindi
Period: Historic
Relative Chronology: 2nd- 1st Century BCE
Description: Soon after the conquest of the Punjab by the Bactrian Greeks in 190 B.C. the city headquarters of Taxila was shifted from Bhir Mound to Sirkap and remained there through Greek, Scythian, Parthian and Khushan rule down to the time of Vima Kadphises about 80 A.C. The town was protected by a stone wall of which the core was composed of random rubble in mud and the facing of coursed rubble. The stone used for the masonry is hard lime-stone from the adjoining hills with pieces of Kanjur here and there. It is about 5.5 km long and embraces several broken ridges and a flat-topped hill on the south, on which was probably the Akrropotlis of the town. The walls are 4.5 to 6.5 m thick and strengthened on the outside by solid rectangular bastions at irregular intervals and polygonal ones at the corners. The excavations cover a large area, some 610x244m, perhaps the largest single-site area in the past. Extending from the north wall through the heart of the city these excavations comprise a long stretch of the High Street with a large number of buildings on either side separated one from the other by straight, regular side-streets. The apsidal Temple stands on a raised platform in the middle of a spacious, elevated rectangular courtyard (69x 41 m) on the east side of the High Street. Access was provided by two flights of steps on the street from. To right and left of the entrance of the temple are the foundations of two small stupas amid the fallen masonry of which were found a large number of stucco heads and other decorative objects which had once adorned the stupas and which belong almost certainly to about the middle of the first century CE. The temple consists of a spacious nave with a porch in front and a circular apse (8.8 m in dia.) behind, the whole surrounded by an ambulatory massage, to which access was gained from the front porch. A valuable hoard of gold and silver objects was found beneath the floor of a small room abutting on to the back wall of the temple compound. The shrine of the Double-headed-Eagle, in bock F, further south, on the east of the High Street probably belonged to Jaina faith. On its front facade all the pilasters are of the Corinthian order. Perched above each of the central and outer niches is a bird, apparently an eagle, one of which is double-headed. Built into one of the walls of the priests quarters belonging to this shrine was found part of an octagonal pillar of white marble with an Aramaic inscription engraved upon it.
Latitude: 33.757266328
Longitude: 72.829427303
Ownership: Federal Government
Legal Status: Protected by The Antiquity Act 1975 (As amended in 1992)
Title of Publication: Archaeological Sites and Historical Monuments Protected Under the Antiquities Act, 1975
Published In: Federal Department of Archaeology & Museums, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad
Year of Publication: 1987
Bibliography/Reference: Khan, Ahmad Nabi
