About Uzbekistan
In the Zaamin district in the depths of the picturesque canyon Chortagna, in the headwaters of the Yettikachi river lie the ruins of the ancient fortress Muk (Myk, Mug). The ruins of the fortress are at an altitude of about 2000m and consist of four objects called Myk I, I I, III and IV.
Ruins occupy the top of a natural rocky cliff at an altitude of 80 meters above the valley level. The structure is artificially tied to the terrain and was a powerful stronghold of its era, controlling the entire surrounding area.
This once legendary fortress (VI-XI centuries) was part of the Ustrushan kingdom and was a very important mining and metallurgical region of its time, as evidenced by numerous mines, slag outlets around the fortress. For more than 500 years of its existence, the fortress has been repeatedly destroyed, plundered and burnt.
Written sources from the 10th c. indicate that in Ustrushana iron was worked in Mink province and in the city of Mirasmand. Their location is still debatable and remains a pertinent issue due to their outstanding role in the history of Central Asia and to their involvement in the global events that unfolded in the Near and Middle East at the time of the emergence and spread of Islam. Archaeological investigations in the mountains of Western Ustrushana revealed an entire system of ironworks and specialized settlements. The largest one, Myk (Mug), is a unique complex which consists of two castles and an industrial settlement. The chronology of the materials from the site, and their comparison with the data from written sources of the 9th-10th cc., allow identifying Myk mining-and-metallurgical zone with the province of Mink, and the successive castles of Myk with the Afshin's fortress.
According to historical data, the fortress Muk I stood until the beginning of the VIII century. The traces of the fire in the castle testify its violent destruction related, one way or another, with the Arab campaigns to Central Asia. After destruction Muk I was never inhabited again, its ceilings collapsed and the walls remained unrepaired.
By the middle of the XI century hard times came for Central Asia, aggravated by outbreaks of internecine wars among the numerous Karakhanid rulers. These events affected the distant fortress Myk as well. The found artifacts: utensils thrown on the floor of the village of Muk III, colossal conflagration in the fortress, abandoned expensive utensils, tools and human bones visually reflect the scale and character of the disaster that once happened here.
The destruction of the settlement occurred in the first half of the eleventh century, in the second half the life revived, but in much lesser extent that it used to be. Another difficult period of the Muk fortress was dated by 1141, when the hordes of Karakitay invading Maveranahr defeated Sultan Sandjar's army, and the fortress was located in the rear of the conquerors. By the middle of XII the fortress was completely empty.
Having existed for five centuries, the fortress became a silent witness of bloody battles, the rise and fall of local states. Being subjected to complete devastation, destruction and fires, it somehow survived and still oversees the territories to the present day.