Alexandria Arachosia

Alexandria in Arachosia (Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια Ἀραχωσίας), also known as Alexandropolis (Ἀλεξανδρόπολις), was a city in ancient times that is now called Kandahar in Afghanistan. It was one of more than twenty cities founded or renamed by Alexander the Great. It was founded around 330 BC, on the foundations of an earlier Achaemenid fortress. Arachosia is the Greek name of an ancient province of the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian empires. The province of Arachosia was centered around the Argandab valley in Kandahar. It did not reach the Hindu Kush, but it apparently extended east as far as the Indus River, although its exact extents are not yet clear.

The ancient region of Arachosia can be geographically defined as the territory within the drainage basins of the Helmand, Arghandab, Tarnak, and Arghestan rivers: in the north, it incorporated the area surrounding Ghazni; to the south, it was bordered by the Registan desert in the region of Gedrosia; in the west lay the border with Drangiana; and its eastern frontier probably lay at the Bolan Pass in Pakistan. Arachosia (Old Persian Harauvatiš) had been one of the most important regions of Afghanistan since the Bronze Age, when Helmand culture (c. 3300 – c. 2500 BC) was centred on the site of Mundigak. The area surrounding modern Kandahar rose in prominence during the early first millennium BC: the terminus post quem for a settlement on the site is c. 1000 BC, but analysis of pottery favours a later date of c. 700 BC. It is possible that immigrants to the region may have caused the decline of Mundigak and Kandahar's ascension—the latter's massive fortifications, with inner and outer defences and ramparts 14 metres (46 ft) wide, precede all other known cities in the Iranian or South Asian regions, but may be related to Central Asian Iron Age structures. In the mid-sixth century BC, Arachosia fell under the control of the nascent Persian Achaemenid Empire; under their rule, the settlement at Kandahar was expanded and rebuilt so that it was divided into quarters by inner walls, while a large citadel was also constructed by hand. The site was probably the Achaemenid regional capital of Harauvatiš, as fragments of accoun

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).