Barikot

Barikot is a city located in the south end of the Swat valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. It is about 20km away from Mingora. It is the entrance town to Swat valley with a population of 25,000 approximately. The Italian Archaeological Mission, founded by Giuseppe Tucci has been excavating ruins of the ancient town of Bazira under Barikot since 1984.The expeditions in the 1980s and 90s discovered an Indo-Greek town from around the time of King Menander I in the 2nd century BC. Beginning in 2011, an excavation in the south west corner of the site discovered several older settlements. One pre-Indo-Greek level was dated to the mid 3rd century BC or in the middle of the Mauryan era. An earlier town was probably destroyed after it was conquered by Alexander the Great during the 4th century BC. Near Bazira a village of the Gandhara grave culture from the 7th to 8th century BC has also been discovered. The oldest layer under Barikot was a village which has been dated to 1000-1100 BC.The 2nd century BC town covered an area of about 12ha at its peak. It was surrounded by a defensive wall with massive rectangular bastions. The excavations have discovered a number of artifacts which document the daily life of the residents, including coins, pottery and weapons. Several large artifcats including, a large green-schist statue of Siddhartha Buddha riding his horse Kanthaka and a carving of a stupa with two lions, document the Buddhist history of Bazira. Another statue depicting an unknown deity sitting on a throne, with long, curled hair, holding a wine goblet and a severed goat head in his hands may represent Dionysus, the Greek god of wine or another local deity.