A tower twisted by time
In a village near Termez stands the Dzharkurgan minaret, a striking tower of baked brick built between 1108 and 1110 AD. What remains today is a 21.6-meter-tall structure, though its original height may have been over 40 meters. The architect, Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sarakhsi, designed the tower with 16 decorative semi-columns, creating a corrugated effect with bricks laid in a distinctive herringbone pattern. This design is unique in Central Asia for its period.
The tower is not perfectly upright. It has a noticeable tilt of about 2 degrees from its vertical axis. This lean is not from a faulty foundation or gradual subsidence. Scientific analysis points to a more dramatic cause: a powerful, ancient earthquake. The field of archaeoseismology uses human-made structures like this minaret to identify and understand past seismic events. The uniform nature of the tilt, without evidence of foundation failure, is consistent with the violent ground-shaking produced by a major earthquake.
Reading the seismic record
The minaret stands in a seismically active region. The collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates creates immense pressure, resulting in complex fault systems that extend for hundreds of kilometers. The lean of the Dzharkurgan minaret records a significant seismic event that likely occurred centuries ago. While the exact date is unknown, the destruction of the large mosque that once stood beside the minaret is believed to have been caused by the same earthquake.
Archaeoseismologists study the direction and angle of the tilt to learn about the historical earthquake. The damage profile suggests a powerful shockwave originating from a specific direction. By analyzing this and other regional historical records of destruction, scientists can estimate the location and magnitude of prehistoric earthquakes. The event responsible for tilting the Dzharkurgan minaret was likely a magnitude 7.0 or greater, evidence of the immense geological forces that shape this region. The minaret survived, albeit scarred, to become a recorder of deep-time geology.