Zurmala Tower is one of the monuments of Buddhism of ancient Termez. In ancient times, a whole Buddhist village was located in this part of the city, but already in the Middle Ages this part of the territory became farmland. Only a huge stupa, devoid of having lost all its facings, has survived to this day. Now it looks like a shapeless block, but scientists during excavations found out that the stupa had a pedestal in the form of a rectangle, on which stood a monolithic cylinder of the tower.
The construction of Zurmala dates back to the 1-3 century AD. The dimensions of this tower are much larger than that of the Fayaz-Tepe stupa. The stupa is spherical. This tower is fourteen meters high, the material for it was a large square raw brick, decorated with typical painting of the Kushan period. Archaeologists estimate that it took more than a million of these bricks to build. Initially, the stupa was 16 meters wide and 22 meters high. There was a staircase inside to make it easier to perform religious rituals. Outside, the stupa was bright red. The foot of the stupa was paved with marly limestone and burnt bricks. Unfortunately, archaeologists have not found out its belonging to the temple complex. Perhaps it was an independent structure.
The Zurmala Stupa was the main symbol of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, so its role in history is enormous. Many rituals were held near it, relics, relics of saints, religious treatises and statuettes depicting Buddha were kept in it. For this, a separate room was built in the stupa - a reliquary.
