Navekat

Navekat
Nevkat
Ruins of Navekat
Location of Navekat in Kyrgyzstan Show map of Kyrgyzstan Navekat (West and Central Asia) Show map of West and Central Asia
42°54′56.2″N 75°0′29.9″E / 42.915611°N 75.008306°E / 42.915611; 75.008306
Type	Settlement
Location	Chüy Region, Kyrgyzstan
History
Built	5–6th century
Abandoned	12th century
Site notes
Condition	In ruins

Navekat or Nevkat¹ was an ancient Silk Road city that flourished between the 6th and 12th centuries. It lies near the modern village of Krasnaya Rechka, in the Chüy Valley, present-day Kyrgyzstan, about 30 km (19 mi) east of Bishkek. It was one of the most important trading centres of the region.² Navekat was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014³ as a part of the site "Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor".

Navekat had two walls: the first around the shahristan, the traditional administrative center of this type of city; the second wall was more than 18 km (11 mi) long, with public buildings, markets, gardens and even farms inside. There was a citadel (Persian: كهندز, romanized: kuhandiz) in the northeastern part of the city built on a massive earthen platform. The volume of this platform was about 13 million cubic meters, probably the largest man-made mound in the world.

During archaeological excavations, artifacts uncovered included a golden burial mask and an 8-metre (26 ft)-long reclining Buddha statue in one of the two Buddhist temples.⁴ Other artifacts demonstrate the presence of Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Eastern Christians, and Manicheans.