Alexandria on the Caucasus

Alexandria on the Caucasus (Alexandria ad Caucasum ) is a city founding of Alexander the Great in the Hindu Kush ( The Hindu Kush was in ancient times known as Caucasus). The location of the ancient city is disputed, are being proposed in the research either Charikar or Begram.

According to Quintus Curtius Rufus Alexander moved there in 7000 Macedonians, 3,000 dealers and thousands of locals. Diodorus reported that the city was the gateway to India.

Alexandria on the Caucasus seems to be one of the main towns of the Indo- Greeks to have been, and is mentioned in the questions of King Milinda of King Menander and in the Mahavamsa as a Greek city. In the Alexander novels, she appears as the Queen of Hills.

In ancient sources as early as the 5th century BC, a major city with the name of Kapisa, which is also referred to as the capital of a kingdom of this region appears. Cyrus II is said to have destroyed this city according to later sources. About the relationship between the two locations is unclear. It has been suggested that it was a double city at Alexandria on the Caucasus and Kapisa, or it is assumed that it is the same city that appears in ancient sources with two names. The problem here is that ancient writers locate both places at various places. However, this can also be explained by the fact that it was at Alexandria on the Caucasus and Kapisa a double city, which lay on both banks of a river, each bank has been assigned to a different region.

Kapisa had an elephant deity as the main deity, often as Zeus was represented in the Indo- Greek period. It appears on coins of Eukratides I., where it is explicitly referred to as the deity of Kapisa. Among the Kuschanaherrschern the town was a summer residence. Later, she was part of the Sassanid Empire.

After the invasion of the Hephthalites, the city was again the capital of the small kingdom of Nezak. Kapisa is described more in the seventh century AD by the Chinese traveler Xuanzang. He calls Kapisi, capital of Kapisa. He lingered a summer in the city and witnessed the survival of a cult of a Elephant Deity. Probably Kapisa under the Indo- Greeks, Kushans and Sassanids was an important mint.