About Uzbekistan

Vardanzi is an ancient and medieval town located 40 kilometres (25 mi) north-east of Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Today there is a reserve in Shafirkan Bukhara region. Narshakhi writes that Vardana was a big settlement containing the Kuhandiz Ark, a fortified inner city. From "time immemorial" the rulers of Vardana — the Vardan-khudats — resided here. Vardana was founded much earlier than Bukhara. It was built by the Samanid prince, Shapur Khusraw I (531 to 578 A.D.) and situated on the fringe of Turkestan. Remnants of the old Vardana settlement, now known as Vardanze, have survived as a large hill. Vardana, Narshakhi believed, was older than Bukhara, having been built in the 6th century A.D. At the time, Vardanzi was large and well-known city, but due to the translational motion of sand, in the 19th century it was bombarded by them and became uninhabitable.

Vardanzi was ruled by a dynasty of kings who bore the title of Vardan-khudat. The city in those days was of great strategic, industrial and commercial importance. It was a border crossing point for the nomads. The Arabs, led by Kuteib ibn Muslim in the years 708-709, conquered the Romitan possession of Vartan-haudatov.

According to legend, this town was built by a Sassanian prince who had moved to Bukhara and received land from his ruler more than two thousand years ago. Construction of a canal in the area made the Persian prince Shapur popular. The channel — Shapurkam — was named after the legendary prince.

In the middle of the 19th century this territory was part of the volost (region) of Vardanzi, but most of its territory was covered in sand in 1868. To date, the fortress of Vardanzi is a large mound with high people activity around, despite the fact that the terrain here seems lifeless.