English/Nat The break up of the Soviet Union has led to the opening up of one of the world's most extraordinary archaeological treasures. Now an international archaeological team is excavating Merv, one of the most significant capitals on the ancient Silk Route. But just as the world wakes up to its existence, Merv is in danger of being lost. Rising damp from the Karakum Canal, created by the Russians in the 1950s, is disintegrating the ancient mud brick buildings. Today there's not much more than a few disintegrating mud brick monuments. But at one time Merv was one of the major capitals on the ancient Silk Route between China and the West. It rivalled Damascus, Baghdad and even Cairo as a trading centre. Nowadays, few people live here... most trade is done outside the city. Perestroika and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1992 led to the opening up of Merv to archaeologists for the first time in 70 years. Following this period of openness, the International Merv Project was established with a team of archaeologists from around the world. The I-M-P is co-ordinated by the British Museum, University College London and the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan. Team members include Georgina Herrmann, from U-C-L, and Kakamurad Kurbansakhatov from the A-S-T. During the Soviet period Herrmann knew about Merv only from occasional publications from her Soviet counterparts. When Herrmann first saw Merv she says she was overwhelmed by its sheer size and the fact that the mud brick buildings had survived for more than a thousand years. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Merv is a very special site, among many things because of the way it developed, there are a whole series of cities not built one on top of each other as lets say Jerusalem, but side by side, so each of them is a sort of time capsule offering you the chance to look at it archaeologically right on the surface. And this of course is very exciting, so we can look at the different periods and create the history of the city through the millennia." SUPERCAPTION: Georgina Herrmann, co-director of International Merv Project During the 11th Century under the Seljuq sultans, Merv was one of the world's largest and most cosmopolitan centres. Merv was the eastern capital of the Seljuqs, a Turkic tribe whose rule ran from Central Asia westward to Anatolia and southward to Arabia. It was also a famous centre of learning, attracting mathematicians and astronomers from all over the world. The 13th Century saw the end of the Seljuks. Mongol hordes attacked Merv three times - resulting in the death of over a (m) million citizens. Merv was later revived in the 15th Century - when Timurid ruler Shah Rukh, a distant relative of Gengis Khan, built a new city a few kilometres from the ruined Seljuk capital. The Timurid city grew and prospered - but never reached the significance of the Seljuq dynasty. For a time Merv was used as a military base for the Soviet Union's offensive in Afghanistan, and so was completely out of bounds to ordinary citizens - and more importantly archaeologists. In the 1950s the Soviets diverted water from the Oxus River to create the Karakum Canal to enable cotton to be grown in the region. The Karakum Canal caused a double environmental blow. The draining of the Oxus River not only resulted in the drying up of the Aral Sea, but may have condemned Merv's monuments to death. The raised water table has led to a "greening" of the desert. Formerly dry barren land is now covered in grass. Rising damp is eating away the monuments, and large chunks have already disappeared. UPSOUND: (English) SUPERCAPTION: Georgina Herrmann, co-director of International Merv Project SOUNDBITE: (English) You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/19cf71b93e5f5af6577f4e5a44c70048 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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