Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae were a nomadic people in the Central Asian regions of Transoxiana and Bactria.
Asia in 400 AD, showing the Xionites ("Chionites") and their neighbors.
Alchon Hun horseman on the so-called "Hephthalite bowl" in the British Museum, 460–479 CE.
Mural of a man, from Balalyk Tepe, with an appearance similar to that on the coinage of the Chionites of Chach. 5th–7th century CE.
Chionite coinage of Chach
Bactria, or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian civilization in Central Asia based in the area south of the Oxus River and north of the mountains of the Hindu Kush, an area within the north of modern Afghanistan. Bactria was strategically located south of Sogdia and the western part of the Pamir Mountains. The extensive mountain ranges acted as protective "walls" on three sides, with the Pamir on the north and the Hindu Kush on south forming a junction with the Karakoram range towards the east.
Xerxes I tomb, Bactrian soldier c. 470 BC.
Pre-Seleucid Athenian owl imitation from Bactria, possibly from the time of Sophytes.
Gold stater of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides
The treasure of the royal burial Tillia tepe is attributed to 1st century BC Sakas in Bactria.