Takṣaśilā
| Urdu: ٹيکسلا | |
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| Alternate name |
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|---|---|
| Location |
Rawalpindi district, Punjab  Pakistan
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| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 1000 BCE |
| Abandoned | 5th century CE |
| Site notes | |
| Archaeologists |
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| Official name | Taxila |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iii, vi |
| Designated | 1980 (4th session) |
| Reference no. | 139 |
| Region | Southern Asia |
Taxila or Takshashila was an ancient city in what is now northwestern Pakistan. It is an important archaeological site and in 1980, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its ruins lie near modern Taxila, in Punjab, Pakistan, about 35 km (22 mi) northwest of Rawalpindi.
Taxila was situated at the pivotal junction of South Asia and Central Asia. Its origin as a city goes back to c. 1000 BCE. Some ruins at Taxila date to the time of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE, followed successively by Mauryan, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, and Kushan periods. Owing to its strategic location, Taxila has changed hands many times over the centuries, with many empires vying for its control. When the great ancient trade routes connecting these regions ceased to be important, the city sank into insignificance and was finally destroyed by the nomadic Hunas in the 5th century. The archaeologist Alexander Cunningham rediscovered the ruins of Taxila in the mid-19th century.
Taxila was a centre of learning and is considered by some to have been one of the earliest universities in the world. Others do not consider it a university in the modern sense, in that the teachers living there may not have had official membership of particular colleges, and there did not seem to have existed purpose-built lecture halls and residential quarters in Taxila, in contrast to the later Nalanda university in eastern India.
In 2006 Taxila was ranked as the top tourist destination in Pakistan by The Guardian newspaper. In a 2010 report, Global Heritage Fund identified Taxila as one of 12 worldwide sites most "On the Verge" of irreparable loss and damage, citing insufficient management, development pressure, looting, and war and conflict as primary threats.
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