Merw - Gyaur Kala

The Seleucids added a second walled city (IV c. BC), known today as Gyaur Kala, but which experts belief to be Antiokhia-Margiana. The 360 ha area town planning reflects a Hellenistic grid pattern.

In the middle are the now indistinctive ruins of a mosque. In the south east corner is a mound which covered the remains of a Buddhist stupa and monastery. Important finds included the ’Merw vase’ and the clay head of a statue of Buddha, now both in the National Museum in Ashgabat.