Balkh was historically an ancient place of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism and one of the major cities of Khorasan, since the latter's earliest history. The city was known to the Ancient Greeks as "Bactra", giving its name to Bactria. It was mostly known as the center and capital of Bactria or Tokharistan. Marco Polo described Balkh as a "noble and great city". Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated some from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about .