Old Termez

comprises a complex of settlement sites and monuments dating back to different periods, situated in 12 km to the south-west from modern Termez. The formation of the city on a natural height (kala) on the right bank of the Amudarya river dates back to the middle of the 1st millenium B.C. The city, mostly likely, had a rectangular layout, with s supposed area of 12.5 hectars. Subsequently, the southern city wall which ran along the river, was washed off by water. During the Greco-Bactrian period the city environs were springing up. They supposedly included country-houses and administrative buildings: a fortress-customs house (Maly Genghiztepa), a port-hotel (Genghiztepa).
Sources dating back to the Kushan period (1st-3rd cc. A.D.) mention the city as Termita. The city of the Kushan period inherited the Greco-Bactrian Layout and developed further. There appeared a suburb with an area of about 30 hectares, surrounded by a wall.
With the beginning of our era, Buddhism became very prominent in North Bactria. A number of ritual Buddhist monuments rose around Tarmita: a large complex of caves in the north-west Karatepa, a temple with a monastery called Fayaztepa in the north, in the east, near the walls of the inner city-Bezymiannaya tepa (nameless tepa) - on the surface of which fragments of Buddhist sculpturs were found, and farther to the east - a stupa known today as "Zurmala tower", etc.
Appart from Buddhist monuments, large secular buildings were erected in the locality. The Kurgan fortress (?) was built to the north-east to the citadel. The northern part of the locality was surrounded with a bank, enclosing an area of about 263 hectares. L.I. Albaum made an interesting supposition, namely, that the bank was used as an aqueduct, but it has not been universally recognized (Albaum, 1985).

In the 4th-5th centuries the northern environs of Tarmita were deserted. The temple and the monastery complex of Fayaztepa ceased to exist, the number of functioning complexes in Karatepa decreased considerably, and Kurgan became neglected. Deteriorating monuments were used as burial places.
Meanwhile, the city itself continued to grow in the post-Kushan period. To the suburb that had fortified with an independent wall, which continued to function in the Early Middle Ages.
The city of the 7th century was mentioned by a Chinese pilgrim Suan Tsan who wrote about the city walls of 20 li (about 5 km). By the time he visited Tarmita, the city (environs?) had 12 monasteries and a Stupa with about 1000 monks.
The city was like that till Arabs came there. Tarmita became a stronghold during the conquest of Maverannahr.