Termez is a city in the southernmost part of Uzbekistan near the Hairatan border crossing of Afghanistan. It is the hottest point of Uzbekistan. It has a population of 140,404 (1 January 2005), and is the capital of Surxondaryo Region.
The date of the founding of the city of Old Termez, located a few kilometers west of the modern city, is not known. In April 2002 there was a celebration of the 2,500th anniversary of the city of Termez. The city was known to Achaemenids in the 6th century BC. In 329 BC Alexander the Great conquered Termez. Later Demetrius, the founder of Greco-Bactrian kingdom named it Demetris. As part of the Kushan Empire (1st to 3rd century BC) The city was called Ta-li-mi (in the Chinese Tu-mi, Tami. During this period, the city became an important center of Buddhism. In the 5th and 6th centuries the city was ruled by Hephthalites and Sassanids. In the 7th century the city was ruled by the native Termez shah dynasty. It was a vassal of Gokturks. In 705 the city was captured by the Arabs and it became one of the centres of Islam during the Abbadids and Samanids Empire, producing notable scholars like Imam Al-Tirmidhi. From the 9th to the 12th centuries Termez was a big city and a cultural centre and was popular for shopping and crafts. At this time the length of the fortifications of the city was 16 kilometres (10 miles) long with nine gates. During this period Termez was a part of the Ghaznavids, Seljuk and Karakhanids. In 1206 the town became part of the state Khorezmshahs. In 1220 after a two-day siege, the city was destroyed by the troops of Genghis Khan. Ibn Battuta noted the city had “fine buildings and bazaars, traversed by canals, and with many gardens.” In the second half of the 13th century Termez was restored to the east, on the right bank of Surxondaryo River, as part of the Timurid empire, then Shaybanids. By the second half of the 18th century the city was abandoned. The only inhabited villages were Salavat and Pattakesar (Pattagissar) in the vicinity of the ancient city.
In January 1893 the emirate of Bukhara gave the land of the village Pattakesar to the Russian government to build a Russian fortress and garrison and a military border fortification, where the Amu Darya river port was built. In 1928 as part of the Soviet Union, Pattakesar was renamed and took the city’s ancient name Termez. In 1929, the village became a town. During the years of Soviet rule industrial enterprises were built and a Pedagogical Institute and a theatre were opened. During the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), Termez was an important military base, a military airfield and a road-rail bridge across the Amu Darya (“Bridge of Friendship“) were built.
In 1992 the Pedagogical Institute was upgraded to Termez State University. The military airfield in Termez is used by the air forces of Germany for transiting goods to Afghanistan. In July 2009 It was decided to establish a “Termez regional railway junction” which will be one of the main places in the planned transit of non-lethal NATO supplies to Afghanistan. The transit will be through Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan bypassing Turkmenistan through the railway in 2009 Tashguzar-Boysun-Kumkurgan. In June 2015, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif announced the construction of the Gwadar-Termez Highway, which would connect Uzbekistan via a road network to the Arabian sea at Gwadar Port in Pakistan.
