Balkh — Balkh Map Poster & Print

ແຜນທີ່

Balkh Map Poster & Print

Balkh sits on the flat plain of northern Afghanistan, about twenty kilometres west of Mazar-i-Sharif, where irrigation channels fed by the Balkh River spread across open farmland. From above, the modern town is laid out as a circle. Its streets run out like spokes from a central green, and ring roads cross them, which makes it one of the most geometric small town plans in the region.

Just beside the modern circle are the remains of something much older. Balkh was ancient Bactra, and for centuries writers called it the Mother of Cities. Its eroded mud-brick walls still trace a huge irregular loop on the ground. On a map they show up as a wide, faint outline next to the neat rings of the newer town, and the contrast between the two is easy to read.

A Balkh map poster puts both layouts on one sheet: the tidy radial town and the worn ramparts of Bactra around it. The town is also traditionally named as the birthplace of the poet Rumi, and its fluted-dome shrine of Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa is one of the best-known buildings in northern Afghanistan. In black and white, the plan reads almost like a diagram.