Ancient Central Asia

The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today the North Caucasus; some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the . At that time they had settled in the region north of

Kangju (; Eastern Han Chinese: kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ < *khâŋ-ka (c. 140 BCE)) was the Chinese name of a kingdom in Central Asia during the first half of the first millennium CE. The name Kangju is now generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the name Sogdiana. According to contemporaneous Chinese sources, Kangju was the second most powerful state in Transoxiana, after the Yuezhi. Its people, known in Chinese as the Kāng (康), were evidently of Indo-European origins, spoke an Eastern Iranian language, and had a semi-nomadic way of life. The Sogdians may have been the same people as those of Kangju

The Dingling were an ancient people who appear in Chinese historiography in the context of the 1st century BCE.

fortress located north of Bactria in Sogdiana (near Samarkand), was captured by the forces of Alexander the Great in the early spring of 327 BC as part of his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire

329 BCE battle

ancient name for major Central Asia massif

Greco-Bactrian archaeological site

Rani Gatt (Pashto: راني ګټ, lit. the queen of stones in Pashto) is a 2500-year-old Buddhist archaeological site belonging to the Gandahara civilization located in the Buner District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Ranigat is a good example of the Buddhist past of the area. The site is located on top of a hill, accessible by climbing the stairs constructed by the Japanese. The main attractions include the Stupas, a big rock erected by the ancient people at some distance that they probably used to worship. The city or town was beautifully designed, and stones from the local mountains have been

Practice of Hinduism in Armenia

thumb|350px|Countries described in Zhang Qian's report. Visited countries are highlighted in blue. Yancai ( A-sɑC < OC (125 BCE) *ʔɨam-sɑs, a.k.a. 闔蘇 Hésū < *ĥa̱p-sa̱ĥ; compare also Latin Abzoae) was the Chinese name of an ancient nomadic state centered near the Aral Sea during the Han dynasty period (206 BC—220 AD). They are generally considered to have been an Iranian people of the Sarmatian group. After becoming vassals of the Kangju in the 1st century BC, Yancai became known as Alan (). Yancai 奄蔡 is often connected to the Aorsi of Roman records, while 阿蘭 Alan has been connected to the late

archaeological site in Kirgisistan

The Uttarakurus (; ) were an early Vedic Hindu tribe that inhabited the Uttarakuru country or Uttara Kuru Kingdom. It is also the name of a dvipa ('continent') in ancient Hindu cosmology. The name "Uttara-Kuru" means "North of Kuru (kingdom)". The Kurus were a tribe and also a kingdom during the Vedic civilization of Ancient India. The Uttara Kuru are therefore defined as a population to the north of the Kurus, which historians have concluded to be north of the Himalayas, in Central Asia.