Guide to
Historic Taxila |
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Taxila
of the Achaemenids Hathial To Bhir Achaemenian Remains As we walk back from the university site to Hathial Mound, we cross the open un excavated agriculture ground, and then see the newly excavated structural walls built in limestone boulders of a type different from the older Aryan walls of kanjur stone. This was the beginning of Achaemenian construction on Hathial Mound. From this top as we look on the western bank of the Tamra-Nala, we notice a wide open ground, on the side of which stands the present Taxila Museum and further shed is the site of Bhir (derived from the Muslim word Pir , a saint ) Mound . Excavation have been conducted here by Sir John Marshall, Sir Mortimer wheeler, and twice by the Department of Archaeology, Government of Pakistan. The excavations of Sir John Marshall present a better picture of the house plan, city streets and lanes, drainage system, sanitary arrangement, water supply and shopping centres, making a complex of residential houses, professional quarters-cum-shops, administrative building and a market plaza. Only towards the west one see a temple complex. Of the four structural periods of Marshall, only the lowest belong to the Achaemenian. How ever, the whole construction at this time speaks of a haphazard extension of the city from Hathial to Bhir and hence does not show a planned city. And yet the street alignment all west. The alignment of the streets speaks of the vehicular traffic that must have connected the Bhir site with the northern route. Plates
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