ALEXANDRIA ESCHATE

Of the many cities founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria Eschatê was probably the one that created the most problems. From the very beginning, there were troubles; and this must have surprised Alexander, because the march to the river Jaxartes, in the early summer of 329, had been easy. The last resistance to his rule had vanished after his friend Ptolemy had captured the Persian leader, Bessus.

Now, he wanted to build a city on the bank of the river that was the boundary between Sogdia and the Hunger Steppe, which the Sacae inhabited. It was to replace an older city, which is called Kyreschata in the Greek sources, and must render Persian Kuruškatha ('town of Cyrus'). It was to be an important site because on the one hand, it was to be the empire's northernmost military base and a defense against the Sacan tribesmen, and on the other hand, it could be a base for a return to the West across the plains of Ukraine. The city also controlled the route to the lush Fergana Valley, where a road across the Pamir Range led to China. Probably, the Macedonians also wanted some rest after a war that had lasted five years.

Alexander was unaware of the subtle balance that in Sogdia existed between the nomads and the town dwellers. In southern Bactria, there were some well-established cities; in Sogdia, towns like Maracanda (Samarkand) and Nautaca coexisted with the nomads; but beyond the Jaxartes, nomads did not appreciate urban life. The Ma Saka (or Massagetes, as the Greeks called them) and Apa Saka (Abian Scythians) felt threatened and sent ambassadors; but the Sogdians near the new town chose not to negotiate and killed some Macedonian soldiers.

Alexander immediately retaliated and destroyed seven settlements in the neighborhood. The populations were deported and put to work, building the new city with a wall of 6 km length. Together with invalid Macedonians and Greek mercenaries, they were to be the new inhabitants of Alexandria. The remains of its walls and a couple of Hellenistic sherds have been found near modern Khodzent, but not much else has been excavated.

After defeating the Saka and a guerilla war, in which Alexander defeated Spitamenes, the rest returned to Sogdia. However, it was the rest of a graveyard, and new insurrections were to follow soon. Still, the city continued to exist and maintained close ties to the Seleucid Empire and its local successors, the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, and the Parthian Empire.

The city also was part of the Silk Road, which connected China with the Mediterranean. This also meant that the eastern frontier was open to invaders, and it appears that in the second century, Yuezhi nomads invaded Sogdia from Xinjiang. They took over the region, but it seems that the city retained some of its Greek characters, if we are to believe the Roman author Curtius Rufus. The seventh-century Chinese traveler Xuan Zang still mentions the city as an important center.

Merv (Turkmen: Merw, later Alexandria and subsequently Antiochia in Margiana; Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) was a major Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of culture and politics at a site of major strategic value.

Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium BC until the 18th century AD. It changed hands repeatedly throughout its history. Under the Achaemenid Empire, it was the center of the satrapy of Margiana. It was subsequently ruled by the Arabs, Turks, and the Safavid Persians. During the 12th and 13th centuries, it became one of the largest cities in the world, having a population of as many as 500,000. In 1221 the city opened its gates to an invading Mongol horde; the resulting destruction of the city proved devastating. Historical accounts contend that the entire population (including refugees) of a million people were killed.

Though rebuilt after the Mongol destruction, the city never regained its full former prosperity. Between 1788 and 1789 the city was razed for the last time, and its population deported. By the 1800s the city was completely deserted.

UNESCO has listed the site of ancient Merv as a World Heritage Site.

The Fedchenko Glacier (Russian: Ледник Федченко) is large in the Yazgulem Range, Pamir Mountains, of north-central Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan. The glacier is long and narrow, currently extending for 77 kilometers and covering over 700 square kilometers.

It is the longest glacier in the world outside of the polar regions.

The maximum thickness of the glacier is 1,000 meters (3,300 ft), and the volume of the Fedchenko and its dozens of tributaries is estimated at 144 cubic kilometers (35 cu mi)—about a third the volume of Lake Erie.

The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia, at the junction of the Himalayas with the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush, Suleman, and Hindu Raj ranges. Tajikistan is home to some of the highest mountains in the world, including the Pamir and Alay ranges. 93% of Tajikistan is mountainous with altitudes ranging from 300 m (980 ft) to almost 7,500 m (24,600 ft), and nearly 50% of Tajikistan's territory is above 3,000 m (9,800 ft).

• Khargush Pass, Tajikistan [4,344m]
• Nayzatash Pass, Tajikistan [4.127m]
• Ak-Baital Pass, Tajikistan [4,655m]
• Kyzyl-Art Pass, Kyrgyzstan [4,282m]
• Taldok Pass, Kyrgyzstan [3,615m]

• Greece
• Turkey
• Georgia
• Russia
• Kazakhstan
• Uzbekistan
• Tajikistan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Kazakhstan