Created in 1993, the French-Uzbek Expedition in Northern Bactria has as purpose field study of History and population of the Surkhan Daria Province (Southern Uzbekistan), from its conquest by Alexander the Great till the end of the Medioeval period. An initial phase of activity was devoted to the regional survey and partial excavations on medium size sites (Karabag Tepe, Khaytabad, Payon Kurgan) presenting remains of the Hellenistic period. Then the Expedition focused its work on the exploration of the site of Ancient Termez. Medioeval Termez covers a large area (500 ha with its suburbs) when in 1220 Genghis Khan conquered it and slaughtered its heroic inhabitants. A new Termez is then created on a site closer to Surkhan Daria and the Ancient Termez is definitely abandoned, except for the Citadel reoccupied in the XVIth c. The exploration of the site, widely accessible to the archaeological research (except for the border area), began in 1926 and continued episodically along the XXth century. Were then uncovered Islamic, then Kushan and pre Kushan remains. Finally in the 1980s, greek ceramic sherds are evidenced. The excavations of MAFOuz de Bactriane, initially concentrated on the citadel, are developed to the northwest over a wide band along the river to the top of the Tchingiz tepe hill. After more than fifteen campaigns of varying importance, several monuments (a palace, three religious buildings and a vast and powerful system of fortifications) are discovered bringing new and unexpected insights about the history of Old Termez. At the origin, Termez is a plain Seleucid and Graeco Bactrian military colony invigilating the river. After the Greeks abandoned it, it grows strongly under the Yue Chih, apparently thanks to the digging of a new canal coming from the Surkhan Daria. It probably becomes the capital of the Yue Chih north of the river Oxus, then the first capital of the Kushan Empire and a major Buddhist centre. Deserted after the sixth century, it gradually repopulates from the ninth century, playing a major economic and military role in Central Asia until the irruption of Genghis Khan.