Ancient Cities
South of the Thousand Buddha Caves (about 40km/25 miles southeast of Turpan) are the ruins of Gaochang (Kharakhoja), an ancient desert capital founded in the 2nd century B.C. as a garrison on the Silk Road. It served as the capital of Xinjiang (the Western Territories) during the Tang Dynasty, starting in A.D. 640. From 840 to 1209, Gaochang became the Uighur capital. It was destroyed in 1275 and has stood unoccupied ever since.
The dry air and lack of rain have preserved the outlines, adobe outer walls (5km/3 miles in circumference) and inner buildings-its bell tower and a few of its many Buddhist temples.At the center of this city of sand, which is a nearly a mile across, there is a large temple, its platform and shrine still evident, and close by, a two-story circular pavilion surrounded by a square wall where the pilgrim Xuan Zang preached in A.D. 630 on is way to India.
The city is empty of human remains, of course, but the royal graveyard, a few miles away, is now receiving visitors. The Astana Tombs (Asitana Muqun) have been blessed with centuries of dry weather, meaning that the corpses, their silk wrappings, and even the foods buried with them have survived in fine fettle. The earliest of the 500 graves is dated A.D. 273; the latest, A.D. 782. The burial chambers are 5m (16 ft.) beneath the surface, Wall murals depict the pleasures of family life and the beauties of nature, particularly of birds. Among the 10,000 relics excavated at Astana is a pair of woven linen shoes and a fossilized jiaozi (steamed dumpling), both specimens from the Tang Dynasty.
Jiaohe, like so many Silk Road towns, began as a garrison during the Han Dynasty. It reached its peak under Uighur control in the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty. It has been abandoned for more than 5 centuries, but it has preserved its ancient cityscape in sand and brick. A Buddhist temple stands at city center, with Buddhas (heads now missing) carved into its niches. Streets and the courtyards of houses were dug into the ground.
Jiaohe looks like a life-sized model of a Tang Dynasty city, sculpted from a high sandstone column standing between river gorges, or like an oasis striped by a miraculous wind of every piece and particle that was not composed of sand or brick.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Heavenly Lake (Tian Chi)
- Southern Pastures
- The Road to Urumqi
- Urumqi: The Lake of Heaven
- A Minaret & the Karez Wells
