Barikot is a city in the North West Frontier province of Pakistan, located in the Swat valley region (ancient Udyana). Barikot is the present day name of the ancient "Bazira", which was besieged by Alexander the Great. Special response teams are heavily armed and armored. ... Udyāna (Sanskrit, meaning garden or orchard; Chinese pinyin: wu chang, also romanized as Woo-chang) was a Buddhist region in northern India, delimited in part by the Indus river and to the south by a region known as Soo-ho-to. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: [1], Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC — June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history, conquering most of his known world before his death; he is frequently included in a...

Ancient fortifications by the name of Barikot-Ghwandai, located on the outskirts of the town, are being excavated by an Italian Archaeological mission since 1984.

The oldest layer built of bricks and stone probably corresponds to the fortress besieged by Alexander.However, no traces of the Macedonian occupation have been found yet.

The sequent layers consist of fortifications built by the Indo-Greek kings. A stone wall in Hellenistic style was built around the city, with equidistant quadrangular bastions, all according to Attic measurements. Ruins of palatial quarters as well as areas related to the Buddhist cult have been unearthed Maximum extent of Indo-Greek territory circa 175 BCE. The Indo-Greeks (or sometimes Greco-Indians) designate a series of Greek kings, who invaded and controlled parts of northwest and northern India from 180 BCE to around 10 BCE. They are the continuation of the Greco-Bactrian dynasty of Greek... An attic is an area found above a house. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by...

During the Kushan period, Barikot experienced rapid development swith the creation of building dedicated to workmanship. Boundary of the Kushan empire, c. ...

Barikot has become a very important archaeological site, rivaling Taxila, for the study of history in northern Pakistan. The city of Taxila ()[1] was an important early Hindu[2][3] and Buddhist[4] centre of learning from the 5th century BCE[5] to the 2nd century CE[6]. UNESCO has listed 18 locations at Taxila as World Heritage Sites. ...

The nearby sanctuary of Butkara I has been very valuable in the study of the development of Greco-Buddhist art. The Butkara Stupa is an important Buddhist shrine in the area of Swat, Pakistan. ... Gandhara Buddha, 1st-2nd century CE. Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century...

References

• Report of the Italian Archaeological Mission (Pdf, Italian)