Toprak-kala fortress (Earth city)

"Hall of deers" got its name, because of its clay reliefs with figures of grazing deer, made life-sized. Judging by the surviving remnants of paints, deer were brown, the background – blue. There were trees, overgrown with vines, branches with pomegranate fruit. 

Smaller rooms – perhaps they were living – were decorated by multicolored wall paintings. One of those rooms was called “Harpist’s hall” – after finding here the picture of a young woman with a harp. The other room ("The hall of hearts ladies"), probably incoming to the harem complex of buildings, was decorated by pictures of women on light background, covered by red hearts. 

"Near the fortress, surrounded by cultivated fields and vineyards at the time, there was a country residence and hunting park behind the square fence. Unfortunately, most of material finds of Toprak-kala did not survive the modern times. In the midst of S.P.Tolstov’s exploration, The Second World War broke out, and the expedition was closed, having no time to preserve all artifacts. Many unearthed the most valuable finds – sculptures and frescos – were suffered from rains and temperature difference, because most of them were made from the same material as majestic buildings – from the usual clay. 

In contrast to Egyptian pyramids and palaces of Babylon, the castles of ancient Khorezm were built without stone, because there was no limestone and facet in the neighborhood, and the wood of tugai tangle did not fit for making logs and boards. But the Khorezmians, evidently, had unique building secrets, which let raise very stable buildings from mud bricks and clay. Packing, collected in the desert was strengthening streak in brickwork, and bank sand, absorbing rainwater, provided the dryness inside building. Toprak-kala was made from millions big brick blocks, sized 40х40х12 sm. All wheels of state were brought into making and delivery to the place of building. Archeologists, having studied original “trademarks” on each batch of bricks, had concluded in that time Khorezm state included no less 15 provinces with a population about 30-50 thousand people in each. 

The calculation helped to understand why a gigantic castle, stayed almost 2000 years, was left by its residents only in 200 years after the building. Originally, it was considered, that the area could be depopulate because, the turn of Amudarya river bed left irrigation canals without water, the biggest one was in 70 km from the river banks. But now, scientists think that Toprak-kala was left only because of political reasons. In 305, the founder of a new dynasty Afrig put the residence to Kas on the territory of modern city Biruni.