Balkh

Balkh is now a small town in the Province of Balkh, Afghanistan, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 46 miles (74 km) south of the Amu Darya, the Oxus River of antiquity, of which a tributary formerly flowed past Balkh. The ancient city, the oldest in Afghanistan, is associated with the Vedic name Bhakri, which as Bactra gave its name to Bactria, and was known as Zainaspa. Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated some 12 km from the right bank of the seasonally-flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 1,200 ft (366 m).

External links

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911
• Daud Saba's brief description, 1998
• Tajik poets and others, many connected with Balkh.
• Report on scavenging treasurer seekers at Balkh, January 20, 2002