Central and South Asia
| Name | Historical region | Location | Continuously inhabited since | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghōr | Mandesh | AfgGhōr Province, Afghanistan | - 5000 BC c. 5000 BC | Remains of the oldest settlements discovered by the Lithuanian archaeologists in 2007 and 2008. |
| Balkh (as Bactra) | Bactria | AfgBalkh Province, Afghanistan | -1500 ! 1500 BC | |
| Varanasi | Iron Age India | IndUttar Pradesh, India | -1100 ! c. 1200–1100 BC | Iron Age foundation (Painted Grey Ware culture). |
| Anuradhapura | Rajarata | SriNorth Central Province, Sri Lanka | -950 ! 10th century BC | |
| Ujjain (As Avanti) | Malwa | India | -800 ! c. 800 BC | Rose to prominence in ca 700 BC as capital of Avanti during India's second wave of urbanization. Walled in ca 600 BC. |
| Samarqand | Sogdiana | Uzbekistan | -700 ! 700 BC | |
| Rajagriha (Rajgir) | Magadha | IndBihar, India | -600 ! 600 BC | |
| Herat | Aria | AfgHerat Province, Afghanistan | -550 ! c. 550 BC | The city is dominated by the remains of a citadel constructed by Alexander the Great. |
| Madurai | Pandyan kingdom | IndTamilnadu, India | -500 ! 500 BC | There are accounts of Megasthenes (c. 350 – 290 BC) a Greek ethnographer in the Hellenistic period, author of the work Indica, having visited Madurai (then, a bustling city and capital of Pandya Kingdom). |
| Vaisali | Magadha | IndBihar, India | -500 ! 500 BC | |
| Patna | Magadha | IndBihar, India | -450 ! 5th century BC | As Pataliputra was founded by Ajatashatru. |
| Peshawar | Gandhara | PakKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan | -350 ! c. 400–300 BC | Ongoing excavations in the Gor Khuttree region have given proof of the ancient foundations of the city and have established Peshawar as one of the oldest settlements in Central and South Asia. |
| Mahasthangarh, Bogra | Pundravardhana | BanBogra District, Bangladesh | - 300BC ! 4th century BC | Remains of the ancient city of Pundranagara. |
| Thanjavur | Early Chola kingdom | IndTamil Nadu, India | -300 ! 300 BC | Some scholars believe that the city has been existing since the Sangam Period |
| Bamyan | Bactria | AfgBamyan Province, Afghanistan | - 1st century AD ! 1st century AD | |
| Kathmandu-Patan, Lalitpur | Nepal | Kathmandu valley, Nepal | - 2nd Century AD ! c. 2nd Century AD | The epigraphically attested history of Kathmandu valley begins in the 2nd century. Folklore speaks of a hoarier past. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Cities By Time Of Continuous Habitation
Famous quotes containing the words central, south and/or asia:
“But when the self speaks to the self, who is speaking?—the entombed soul, the spirit driven in, in, in to the central catacomb; the self that took the veil and left the world—a coward perhaps, yet somehow beautiful, as it flits with its lantern restlessly up and down the dark corridors.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“These South savannahs may yet prove battle-fields.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“I believe that the fundamental proposition is that we must recognize that the hostilities in Europe, in Africa, and in Asia are all parts of a single world conflict. We must, consequently, recognize that our interests are menaced both in Europe and in the Far East.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)