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Introduction

The site of Sirkap was built according to the Hippodamian grid-plan characteristic of Greek cities. It is organized around one main avenue and fifteen perpendicular streets, covering a surface of around 1,200 by 400 meters (3,900 ft × 1,300 ft), with a surrounding wall 5–7 meters (16–23 ft) wide and 4.8 kilometers (3.0 mi) long. The ruins are Greek in character, similar to those of Olynthus in Macedonia.

Buddhist stūpas with strong Hellenistic decorative elements can be found throughout the Sirkap site, for instance the stūpa of the two eagles, there is a Jain temple and a Jain stūpa, as well as a Hindu temple, indicating a close interaction of religious cultures.

All notes are drawn from Wikipedia.

Small Stūpa

One round stūpa is present at Sirkap. It is one of the oldest stūpas in the Indian-Subcontinent. It is assumed that this stūpa was uprooted and thrown to its present location by a strong earthquake in the 1st century AD. When the new city was built later, the stūpa was kept by building a protecting wall around it.

Apsidal Temple

The building that is known as the Apsidal Temple is the largest sanctuary of Sirkap, measuring about 70 by 40 meters (230 by 130 ft) (by contrast: the Parthenon in Athens is 70 by 31 meters (230 by 102 ft)). The Apsidal Temple consists of a square nave with several rooms, used by the Buddhist monks, and a circular room, which gives the building its apsidal shape. After the earthquake that destroyed the city in c. 30 AD, the Buddhist shrine was built in a spacious courtyard. The round part was probably in use for a small stūpa, but no traces of it remain. Some carvings were probably done by an artist from Greece.

Double-Headed Eagle Stūpa

A special stūpa at Sirkap is the so-called Double-Headed Eagle Stūpa. The pilasters here are Corinthian columns of a Greek design. In the middle arch, a Greek temple is shown; in the outer, a shrine of a Hindu design can be seen. On top of these sanctuaries, a double-headed eagle is seated from which the name of the stūpa has been derived. This motif is rather odd, to say the least, as it is originally Babylonian. It seems to have spread to Scythia, and was then introduced by the Saka rulers.