Stone City
2 min readStone City is located under the current Sarykol Range in the north of Tajik Autonomous County in Tashkurgan, which is a famous ancient city ruins on the Silk road in Xinjiang and a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Stone city was the junction of the middle path and south path of the Silk Road where a number of channels from Kashgar, Shache, Yingjisha and Karghalik to the Pamirs converged here. the castle was built on a hill, whose terrain was very precipitous despite of its small size. The castle was 3, 700m above sea level, occupying the key position with a magnificent momentum From the Tang to the Qing Dynasty, it was expanded and quartered by army continuously. The highest place of the castle wall was up to over 20m. the castle is divided into inner city and outer city. the circumference of outer cityis 3, 600m where ruins of wall, battery and residential traces can be seen. Inner city is preserved well: gate, wall, battlement and inner wall are all protected well till now, which are mostly relics of the Qing Dynasty. The city walls, continuous or separate or multiple-floor have been built outside of the castle Between the partitions, the stones are piled up to form peculiar scenery of Stone cit.
In the Han Dynasty, it’s the capital of Puli Kingdom, which is one of the thirty six kingdoms in the Western Regions. After the Tang Dynasty uniting the Western Regions, the Congling Shouzhuosuo was set here. At the beginning ofthe Yuan Dynasty, the Imperial court spent a lot of money to expand the cit Ils; in the 28 year of the Guangxu Reign, the Qing Government established Puliting, repaired and supplemented the old castle. Meanwhile, a new town was built in the south of the castle; therefore the stone city was gradually abandoned. In 1954, it became the capital of tajik autonomous County in Tashkurgan.
Stone City preserves excellent geographical conditions with prairie under the city and around it. Several major mountains on the road to the west of the Central Asia include Hongqilapudaban, Mingtiegaidaban and Wahejilidaban and so on. There are also natural valley roads to reach the place, thus the city is a castle with strategic importance on the ancient silk road. Although thereonly ruins at present, the round snow peaks, grass lands and rivers as well as the strong Tajik national customs all enjoy the beauty of boldness.
