are there any greek monuments in pakistan?
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: History of the South Asian subcontinent
Forum Discription: The Indian sub-continent and South Central Asia
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=21313
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Topic: are there any greek monuments in pakistan?
Posted By: dubai
Subject: are there any greek monuments in pakistan?
Date Posted: 19-Aug-2007 at 21:05
| i was just wondering even though greeks didn't stay a long time in present day pakistan. did they leave any kinds of monuments behind and do they still exist? |
Replies:
Posted By: Omar al Hashim
Date Posted: 19-Aug-2007 at 23:25
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What do you mean by monuments? There is plenty of archaeological evidence.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 20-Aug-2007 at 01:40
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Lots. Mostly around Taxila. And forget about there being much excravations there now. That place is a big army base. ------------- |
Posted By: Kamikaze 738
Date Posted: 20-Aug-2007 at 01:48
| Pakistan has loads of archaeological sites that were built by the Greeks. The Greeks also built alot of statues depicting Buddha and their own gods and heros that were found in Pakistan. |
Posted By: MarcoPolo
Date Posted: 20-Aug-2007 at 18:05
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quite to the contrary, there are many greek (and subsequent hellenic kingdoms that ruled after)sites scattered all throughout Pakistan such as the aforementioned Taxila. I will have to disagree with you Sparten, because there are many places outside of the army areas that you can go to see Greek monuments in Taxilla where excavations are still going on. There's the ancient Greek city of Sirkap. You can also take a stroll through the 'Greek' courter and see many of the monuments and Greek style busts of local personalities from the era built by the immigrant Greeks who ended up settling there. The tradition lives on, as as you pass through Taxilla on the Grand Trunk Road, you'll notice the sudden appearance of road side vendors selling countless different ornaments (I personally like the Lion's) on either side of the road which do tell that the artistic tradition still live on in the local inhabitants. Lets hope that the World Heritage recognition and newly available funds help increase awareness and reveals new discoveries of this once great city of learning. Further East, near the city of Jhelum in the locale of Jalalpur Sharif, there is a tomb, in a much dilipatated state unfortunately, but holds the remains of ''Bucephalus'' which was Alexander the Greats beloved childhood horse. Other areas with considerable artifacts can be found in Gujranwala and Sialkot where new discoveries are being made everyday. Greeks are famous for introducing and pioneering currency in the Pakistan region, on my last visit to Sialkot about 3 years ago, I got my hands on an awesome collection of ancient Greek coins.
At Bhimbore near the port city of Karachi, there are several archeological artificats which link that site with Alexanders grand departure from Asia, when half his army departed by sea, and the remainder through the perilous deserts of Balochistan.
But I agree, more investment and awareness needs to be undertaken to fully unearth the incredible legacy of Greek/Hellenic influence in Pakistan. Unfortunately, Pakistan's budget limits the amount of funds available to the Archealogy department which is such a shame. Like I said, World Heritage recognition and more local/public interest will help improve the situation and allow Pakistan to discover important facets of its unique history. :)
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 21-Aug-2007 at 02:27
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MarcoPolo, a few years ago a statue (of a hoplite type character)mysetriously appeared outside an army base in Taxila. Apparently it had been discovered during digging work. So a lot of history is hidden under the bases. ------------- |
Posted By: MarcoPolo
Date Posted: 21-Aug-2007 at 15:48
Im sure many do, but a hoplite statue.. wow thats exciting! anywhere where I can read up on that??? :))
P.S. as a side note note: I remember an uncle of mine, who was doing some backward digging work.. he lives near Charsadda. As many of you know, village life, is well very simple and people, particularly the older generation are still quite uneducated, fortunately, thats all changing in Pakistan with the increasing education and awareness. anyhow, he began digging with some workers, and came across this massive statue (Buddhist style, but in the classical Greek form of sculpture design). Anyhow, to make a long story short, (this may offend some of you!!) he got the 'head' off and had it placed in his living room, this thing must have been a good 5 ft tall by 3.5 ft wide. I remember my bro and i getting angry with him, for not calling the archeology department, and for cutting the head off in the first place! not to mention trying to sell it! anyhow, with the recent restrictions and intense scrutiny at ports and airports in Pakistan. He wasnt able (Fortunately) to 'export' it.. THat was about 7yrs ago.. I mean if he dug a mere 5-10 ft and found that, imagine what else lies below Pakistan's rich soil! More vigil/awareness is definately needed to further protect this important cultural legacy of not just Pakistan but the world at large. I mean, just go to any bazaar, and their full of artifacts smuggled from Afghanistan. this cant be right.
Good news, is that I heard the Government of Greece has donated some money for archeological research and that the UNESCO has expanded its projects in Pakistan and will hopefully fund more programs in the country. :)
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Posted By: balochii
Date Posted: 18-Dec-2010 at 11:39
| as a child i remember when i went to balochistan, just outside Quetta, there were some greek relics found, unfortunatly most things in pakistan get smuggled or stolen. There is so much history on pakistani land because of so many empires that have lived through there |
Posted By: opuslola
Date Posted: 18-Dec-2010 at 22:41
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Onw must well understand, that the early archaeoligsts were "expected" to find "GREEK" sites in these areas!
After all, all of them really believed in the dynasty and and the resultinga dynastic conquering that the "consensual" history "required!", thus remains were found to "make it so!" I always loved the above command from the later day version of Star Trek, where a Commander made the order by saying "Make it so!" Of course the above is merely my opinion! ------------- http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/history/ |
Posted By: balochii
Date Posted: 19-Dec-2010 at 00:05
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^ wait this thread is pretty stupid, because pakistan has tons and tons of greeks monuments/architecture, also greeks in pakistan stayed for a very long time after Alexander died, they even married with the local population, the history of this area under the greeks is not studied well at all, people are not interested for some reason, greeks actually had a huge influence in the region at the time, even the national language of pakistan (territory) became greek at the time. The ideas of Greek religion, buddhism and hinduism combined to form unique religions and cultures
Just read about the indo greek kingdoms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Greeks - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Greeks
Just look at their territory, it included all of pakistan of today
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