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most important archaeological sites in Asia

World UNESCO Site Taxila or Taxila is a city in Punjab, Pakistan.

Located in Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it is about 25 kilometers (16 mi) northwest of Islamabad–Rawalpindi Metropolitan Area and just south of Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

taxila
World UNESCO Site Taxila

In 326 BC, Alexander the Great took control of the city without a fight, as it was promptly surrendered to him by Memphis.

Old Taxila was an important city in ancient India, located on the east bank of the Indus River—the main junction of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia—founded around 1000 BCE. Some of the ruins at Taxila date back to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, followed by the Mauryan Empire, the Indo-Greek Empire, the Indo-Scythian, and the Kushan Empire.

Because of its strategic location, Taxila has changed hands many times over the centuries, with many polities vying for its control. When the great ancient trade routes connecting these regions lost importance, the city fell into disrepair and was eventually destroyed by the invading Huns in the 5th century. In British India in the mid-19th century, the ruins of ancient Taxila were rediscovered by the British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham.

World UNESCO Site Taxila
World UNESCO Site Taxila

In 1980, UNESCO designated Taxila as a World Heritage Site. According to some accounts, the ancient University of Taxila is considered one of the earliest universities in the world.

Other scholars do not consider it to be a university in the modern sense, in that the faculty who resided there did not have official membership of a particular college, and it does not appear to have had purpose-built lecture halls and residential quarters.

City In a 2010 report, the World Heritage Fund identified Taxila as one of 12 sites worldwide that were “on the verge” of irreversible loss and damage, due to inadequate management, development pressure, looting, and Armed conflict was cited as the main threat.

archaeological sites in Asia
archaeological sites in Asia

However, significant conservation efforts have since been undertaken by the Pakistani government, resulting in the site being reclassified as “well conserved” by various international publications.

Due to extensive conservation efforts and maintenance, Taxila is one of the popular tourist destinations in Punjab, attracting over one million tourists every year.

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