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Kalpak Travel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Landmark Middle East archaeological

Merv

2500 BCE – 1221 CE · 3,721 years

Central Asian Silk Road oasis in Turkmenistan, once one of the world's largest cities before its destruction by the Mongols in 1221

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Wikipedia

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Merv on Wikipedia.

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Who held this ground

Borders from dated snapshots, up to a century apart; precision varies.

Reconstruction

  1. Before it was built (3000 BCE)
  2. Namazga (2000 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  3. Iranian pastoralists (1500 BCE–700 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  4. Achaemenid Empire (500 BCE–400 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  5. Empire of Alexander (323 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  6. Seleucid Kingdom (300 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  7. Bactria (200 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  8. Kushan Empire (100 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  9. No border recorded here in this snapshot (1 BCE–400 CE)
  10. Sasanian Empire (500 CE–600 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  11. Umayyad Caliphate (700 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  12. Abbasid Caliphate (800 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  13. Samanid Empire (900 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  14. Ghaznavid Emirate (1000 CE–1100 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  15. Ghurid Sultanate (1200 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  16. Ilkhanate (1279 CE–1300 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  17. Timurid Empire (1400 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  18. Timurid Emirates (1492 CE–1500 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  19. Safavid Empire (1530 CE–1715 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  20. Afghanistan (1783 CE–1800 CE) Border precision: Defined
  21. Turan (1815 CE) Border precision: Defined
  22. Bokhara Khanate (1880 CE) Border precision: Moderate
  23. central Asian khanates (1900 CE) Border precision: Defined
  24. Russian Empire (1914 CE) Border precision: Defined
  25. Russian SFSR (1920 CE) Border precision: Defined
  26. USSR (1930 CE–1960 CE) Border precision: Defined
  27. Turkmenistan (1994 CE–2026 CE) Border precision: Defined
Border precision
  • Defined
  • Moderate
  • Approximate

Elsewhere in Middle East at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Landmark · Middle East

Petra

300 BCE – still standing

Polity · Middle East

Meroe

Attested 500 BCE – 400 CE

Trade route · Middle East

Nile River Trade

3000 BCE – 30 BCE

Conflict · Middle East

Conquests of Cyrus the Great

559 BCE – 530 BCE

Landmark · Middle East

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

600 BCE – 320 BCE

Polity · Middle East

Persia

Attested 400 CE – 1914 CE

Trade route · Middle East

Mesopotamian Trade Network

3000 BCE – 500 BCE

Conflict · Middle East

The Crusades

1096 CE – 1291 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 2500 BCE and 1221 CE.

2500 BCE Umma–Lagash Border War 2500 BCE Kerma 2500 BCE Great Sphinx of Giza 2334 BCE Akkadian Empire Conquests 2300 BCE Babylon

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Great Wall of China Landmark · East Asia 700 BCE – still standing Tibet Polity · South Asia 1000 CE – 1960 CE Harappan Maritime Trade (Indus–Mesopotamia) Trade route · South Asia 2600 BCE – 1900 BCE Sargon of Akkad Figure · Mesopotamia 2334 BCE – 2279 BCE Greco-Persian Wars Conflict · Europe 499 BCE – 449 BCE Colosseum Landmark · Europe 80 CE – still standing
Image credits 6 pictures from Wikimedia Commons