Bactria

species of mammal

Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian civilization in Central Asia, located in the area south of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) and north of the Hindu Kush mountains, within modern-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Bactria was strategically located south of Sogdia and west of the Pamir Mountains. These mountain ranges acted as "walls" protecting Bactria from three sides, with the Pamir mountains to the north and the Hindu Kush to the south forming a junction, and the Karakoram range towards the east.

Roxana (died BC, , ; Old Iranian: *Raṷxšnā- "shining, radiant, brilliant", ) sometimes known as Roxanne, Roxanna and Roxane, was a Bactrian or Sogdian princess who married Alexander the Great after he invaded Persia and defeated Darius, ruler of the Achaemenid Empire.

Oxus Civilization archaeological culture

The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns, were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and India in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Kidarites belonged to a complex group of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna, and in Europe as the Chionites (from the Iranian names Xwn/Xyon), and may even be considered as identical to the Chionites. The 5th century Byzantine historian Priscus called them Kidarite Huns, or "Huns who are Kidarites". Chinese annals referred to them as the Ta Yüeh-chih, or Lesser Yüeh-chih. The Huna/Xionite tribes are often linked, albeit controversially, t

thumb|300px|Asia in 400 AD, showing the Xionites ("Chionites") and their neighbors. Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae (Middle Persian: Xiyōn or Hiyōn; Avestan: X́iiaona-; Sogdian xwn; Pahlavi Xyōn) were a nomadic people in the Central Asian regions of Transoxiana and Bactria.

archaeological site

thumb|300px|Tang dynasty map of its Western territories, showing Tokharistan (吐火罗) in the area of [[Bactria, at the extreme west of Chinese-controlled territories.]]

British classical scholar and historian of classical antiquity (1869–1957)

upright|thumb|Chinese characters for Ta-Hsia or Daxia

goddess in the ancient area corresponding to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Northwest India

ancient Afghan fortress

Ethnological origin of the Huns

private collection of ancient documents

territory of the Achaemenid Empire

subspecies of mammal

The Tochari (; , from the Ancient Greek exonym ), also called the Tukharas () or Tukhars (from the Sanskrit exonym [stem form] and the Classical Persian exonym or [singular]), were an ancient people of Bactria, a historical region in Central Asia roughly corresponding to northern Afghanistan and parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.