Balkh
Balkh is a town in the Balkh Province of Afghanistan, about 20 km (12 mi) northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km (46 mi) south of the Amu Darya river and the Uzbekistan border. Its population was estimated to be 138,594 in 2021-22 by the Afghan National Statistic and Information Authority. Listed as the current 8th most populous city in the country, 2024 estimates set the population of Balkh at 114,883.
Balkh
بلخ | |
|---|---|
Ruins of the Green Mosque (Dari: مَسجدِ سَبز, romanized: Masjid-i Sabz) Pashto شین جومات romanized: |sheen Jumat}} named for its green-tiled Gonbad (Dari: گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 | |
Balkh Location in Afghanistan Balkh Balkh (Bactria) Balkh Balkh (West and Central Asia) | |
| Coordinates: 36°45′29″N 66°53′53″E | |
| Country | Afghanistan |
| Province | Balkh Province |
| District | Balkh District |
| Population (2021) | |
| • City | 138,594 |
| Time zone | + 4.30 |
| Climate | BSk |
Balkh was historically an ancient place of religions, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and one of the wealthiest and largest cities of Greater Khorasan, since the latter's earliest history. The city was known to Persians as Zariaspa and to the Ancient Greeks as Bactra, giving its name to Bactria (Greeks called the city also Zariaspa). It was mostly known as the center and capital of Bactria or Tokharistan. Marco Polo described Balkh as a "noble and great city". Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated some 12 km (7.5 mi) from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 365 m (1,198 ft).
French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala ("elevated candle") as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple.