Ancient Ruins of Gaochang
7 min readThe ancient ruins of Gaochang is located in Murtuq river Delta on the southern slope of Flaming Mountain，45km to the east of the current Turpan City，Xinjiang and 40km to the southeast of turpan County which is the ruins of the capital of the ancient Gaochang Uigur Kingdom.as the only way to passand pivotal gateway on the well-known Silk Road，the geographical position of the flourishing Gaochang is very significant，exerting an extensive and farreaching influence on the history of the communication between the West and the East.Going through over 2，000 years of weathering and tremendous changes，the prosperous metropolitan can’t restore its glory in history，but the profile of the ancient ruins still exists and magnificent walls still stand firmly under Flaming Mountain.In 1961，Gaochang ruins were listed as a key national relics protection unit by the State Council.
Gaochang City has a long history，which was first built in 1 century BC by the cultivation army in the territory of Cheshi Former Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty.Because of its”high altitude and large population”recorded in Traditions in the Western Regions in the history of the North it was named Gaochang”.The dynasties of Han，Wei and Jin all sent Wu-Ji lieutenant to station in this city to manage cultivation，so it was also called”Wu-Ji Lieutenant City There were lots of wars in Gaochang area in history.The right of its jurisdiction was changed several times among some minorities In 327 AD Former Liang Zhang Jun established Gaochang Prefecture here，and subsequently it was controlled by Former Qin，Later Liang，Western Liang and Northern Liang successively In 442 AD，Northern Liang Juqu Wuhui established a regime here.In 450 AD，Juqu Anzhou broke through Jiaohe city and destroyed Cheshi Former Kingdom.In 460 AD，Cheshi Kingdom perished and rouran made Kan bozhou the king and named its kingdom Gaochang Kingdom，starting the new page of Gaochang Kingdom
Afterwards numerous wars were occurred in gaochang area.after the middle of the 13 century the mongolian nomadic nobles which lived in the vast land to the north of mt tianshan led by haidu and duwa started rebels and invaded Uigur Gaochang Kingdom for several times，thus Gaochang City was severely destroyed in the war and presenting a scene of desolation.In 1275 AD，120，000 Mongolian soldiers besieged Gaochang and the war lasted for as long as 40 years，and finally Gaochang was destroyed during the battles Since then，it was abandoned gradually and a time-honored ancient city stepped down from the stage of history
Since the Han and Tang dynasties，Gaochang had been the hub to connect the Central Plains, Central Asia and Europe. There were many dynamic business activities and the religions from all over the world were introduced to the mainland through Gaochang. It is no exaggeration to say that it was one of the most dynamic and most developed places of the ancient religion in the world as well as one of the treasured places of the religious culture in the world. The well-known eminent Buddhist monk Xuanzang of the Tang dynast once crossed Gaochang on the journey to the west, where he chanted sutras, disseminated the dharma and preached and became sworn brothers with Gaochang King leaving an eternal story.
The existing ruins of the ancient city were built in the Gaochang Uigur period based on Gaochang City of the Tang Dynasty. The whole city presented an irregular square shape with an overall area of 2.2 million m. The layout of the city was more or less similar to Changan of Tang. Its scale was formed after years of construction, consisting of three parts:
Outer city: the wall profile of the outer city is basically complete and some sections are well protected with the circumstance about 5 4km, wall basethickness 12m and height 11.5m. Each wall has 2-3 gates, among which the North West gate was protected the best with twisty barbican entrances and lots of abutments all built with rammed earth with rammed layer 8-12cm thick and mixed with a small amount of adobe; there are clear building stick holes From the southeastern and southwestern parts of outer city people can tell the ruins of a temple. the outer city of the ancient city was built in Qu’s Gaochang period. The excavated writs included such records as taking about central city”,”southeastern corner”and”southwestern corner”indicating that the city had been divided into the east, south, west and north at that time and all gates were named such as Qingyang Gate and Huide Gate. Meanwhile, in the Xizhou period of Tang Dynasty, it also had a subsidiary city
Inner city: inner city is at the center of outer city, which is the center of outer city and the south of the palace. the wall was fully built with rammed earth. The majority of the wall in the west and south is preserved and some parts are damaged; and in the east, people can only see highland in the northeastern corner and an earth stylobate in the southeastern corner; at the center of the north and in the northwestern corner there is still some wall base left; as for the ruins of gate, people can’t find any trace on the ground According to the measurement and calculation, the circumference of inner city is about 3, 600m, basically consistent with the records of the book of Su. the year of its founding was earlier than that of outer city and it is in rectangular shape from north to south and inner city mainly consists of palace and temple and others
Palace: it is located in the northernmost of the whole city with northern wall of outer city as the northern wall of palace and northern wall of inner city as the southern wall of palace. The whole palace is of rectangular shape withcircumstance of about 700m. several sections of wall base of the western wall can be connected, so people can still see the ruins. The eastern wall is completely destroyed, so nothing can be seen Many tall and big palace bases are left in the palace, generally 3. 5-4m high and with rammed thickness about 35-48cm, so people can tell it’s the ruins of a palace building of 4 floors high The early palace is located in the current “Khan Fort. With the building andrepairing of outer city in Qu’s Gaochang period, the palace was moved to the north, facing the south, which was similar to the layout of Changan City of the Sui and Tang dynasties. During Uigur Gaochang period the palace was largely built during the Uigur Gaochang period.There are multiple places of interest existing in Gaochang ancient city, which is the witness of the 1,000 years of history, including the several well known ones.
(1) The temple where it is said to be the pulpit for Tang Monk to sermon as the ruins of the largest temple in the whole city it is located in the southwestern corner of outer city. There are still Bodhisattva figures and fresco n the niche of the temple. According to the textual research it should be the place where Tang Monk took sermon at that time. Beside the pulpit remains a pagoda of 15m high and for one pagoda in the facade, only 2 feet remained There are many niches side, called”Ten-Thousand Buddha Pogada”, where there should have been many small Buddha figures and sculptures
(2) Khan Fort is the ruins resembling the palaces of the tang dynasty, located at the center of the north of inner city, which is called by the loca people as”Khan Fort On the platform in the north of the Fort, there is a tower-shaped building about 15m high there is also a building in the west which is divided into two levels, above ground and underground, and now only underground part is left and there are cascade gateways for access in the south, west and north and its building style is the same as the Tang government office existing in Jiaohe ruins, thus it might be the ruins of a palace
(3) The graves in the north were the cemetery of the citizens of Gaochang ancient city, located in the gobi to the north of gaochang City, and most of the citizens were buried there after they died. The whole cemetery covered an area of about 10km where the historical relics such as writs, fabric, epigraphs coins, clay sculptures and woodcarving figures, pottery and wood utensils, crops and melons and fruits and food had once been excavated.
In a word, Gaochang ruins were used for more than 1, 300 years since the building of”Gaochang Wall”in 1 century BC Western Han Dynasty until it was abandoned at the end of the 13 century(the beginning of Yuan)Gaochang ancient city not only had significant strategic position which was always a place fought for by armies but also was one of an important politica economic and cultural centers in the ancient Western Regions. As the hubconnecting Inland China, Central Asia and Europe, the economic and trade exchanges of Gaochang are very active. Meanwhile, all kinds of religions werentroduced to the inland which is also a significant spot of religious culture through Gaochang. In Gaochang, historical relics of multiple languages were excavated, which were the significant data to study the history and culture of the Western Regions
