The second fortified city of Taxila, Sirkap, has long been subject to archeological and art historical inquiry. It was named after a character in a folk legend, ‘Raja Rasalu and seven demons’, who lived and ruled here. Sirkap includes the extreme western end of the Hathial Spur and is situated on the bank of the Tamra stream, at a distance of almost two kilometers from Taxila Museum. It has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1980.
The excavations at Sirkap were carried out only in part, covering about one eighth of the city. Mr. H. Hargreaves excavated the remains during 1912 - 1930 under the direction of Sir John Marshall. In 1944 – 1945, second excavation was carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. As a result of these excavations, seven successive strata of remains can be identified, extending below from the surface to a depth of between 18 and 23 feet, representing three to four centuries of occupation.
After the abandonment of Bhir Mound, Sirkap became the main city of Taxila in the 2nd century BCE. The ancient city was well planned, fortified and surrounded by a city wall with the length of approximately five kilometers or 6000 yards. Due to its characteristic gridiron planning, it has been associated with Hellenistic cities. The main street, running in the middle of Sirkap, was surrounded by architectural structures such as houses, shops for citizens and worship places and shrines like Apsidal Temple, Sun Temple, Double-Headed Eagle Stupa and King’s palace. Aramaic inscriptions of Ashoka and other artefacts such as coins, jewelry, toilet trays, and household objects discovered from Sirkap, all indicate cultural contacts and exchanges with the western Asian and Mediterranean regions. Textual accounts also indicate this: for example, according to the 3rd century CE Acts of Thomas, the Christian apostle Saint Thomas, came to Sirkap in 40 CE and found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophores. Furthermore, the fictional journey of Apollonius of Tyana to Taxila in the 1st century CE, as imagined by Philostratus in the 3rd century CE, also mentions cross-cultural interaction and goes on to describe the ancient city as follows: ‘Taxila, as they tell us, is about as big as Nineveh and fortified well in the manner of Greek cities.’.
