Heicheng site

Heicheng (Heishui city), the most complete and large-scale ancient city site on the Silk Road, is located in a desert Gobi about 26 kilometers southwest of dalaihubu Town, the seat of Ejina banner government. It shares the same scenery with Hongcheng site with a history of 2000 years, Datong site with a history of Sui and Tang dynasties, and strange woods, the graveyard of Populus euphratica forest District.

After entering the gate of the scenic spot, you can go deep along the tour road, followed by: strange woods, red city, Datong City, black city and other scenic spots. During the national day, the scenic area provides internal sightseeing buses to travel between the scenic spots (the fare is 30 yuan). There are many sightseeing buses, but the passenger flow is very large at this time, especially when you return to the gate from the black city, you can't get on the bus. From the gate of the scenic spot to Heicheng, it takes about ten kilometers and takes about half an hour. At present, the sightseeing bus only operates during the national day. In the rest of the time, tourists can rent a car from the town to visit the scenic spot. Local drivers do not need to buy tickets.

Heicheng, also known as Heishui City, is an important military castle and garrison fortress in the northern border of Xixia Dynasty. This is also the main post road from Hexi corridor to lingbeihang Province in the Yuan Dynasty. There used to be a large area of oasis around Heicheng. After the mid-14th century, the water source began to dry up. Now you are looking at the remains of a lonely city in the sand sea.

At that time, the wall of Heicheng was more than 200 meters long on each side, and there was a gate on both sides. Today, there are remains of the south wall and the south gate. In the southwest of the ancient city, you can see a well preserved ancient church, in which the top and wall styles of the chapel are the same as those of the Islamic chapel. Although many places are buried by quicksand, you can clearly identify the streets and building walls in the city. There is a covered bowl tower on the wall of the northwest corner, which can be seen from the desert 10 kilometers away. There are two groups of earth pagodas not far from the big earth pagoda outside the city, but only the base remains. The whole site gives people a feeling of boundless desolation and solemn and stirring.

Heicheng site

Located about 22 km (101.147 e, 41.7647 n) to the east by south of dalaihubu Town, Ejina Banner, Inner Mongolia, Heicheng site is the most complete and large-scale ancient city site on the north line of the ancient Silk Road. The city was built during the Xixia regime in the 9th century. In 1372, Ming Dynasty general Feng Sheng was abandoned after he conquered the black city. Up to now, there are abundant valuable documents of Xixia and Yuan Dynasties in the city. In recent years, due to the serious desertification in the surrounding areas, the quicksand erodes Heicheng from the East, West and North, and many sites have been buried under the sand. The rescue protection of Heicheng site has been carried out.

historical background

Heicheng (also known as Heishui city) was built in the Xixia period in the 9th century AD, located in Juyan area. Therefore, the black city is a part of Juyan civilization.

"Juyan" is the Hun language, which means "heaven". After Huo Qubing, a 19-year-old General of the Han Dynasty, defeated the Huns, the Han Dynasty once stationed troops in Juyan to guard the border, creating a splendid Han civilization in Juyan area.

In 1226, Genghis Khan's Mongolian army conquered the black city for the fourth time. In 1286, the emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty set up the "yijinai road chief office" here, which became the transportation hub from the Central Plains to Mobei. Along this ancient road, Marco Polo entered the Oriental Paradise. In 1372, after Feng Sheng, the general of the Ming Dynasty conquered the black city, the Ming Dynasty gave up the area. Since then, the black city has been sleeping in the dust laden history for nearly 700 years. In 1886, Russian scholar botanin discovered the black city during his inspection in Ejina. In April 1908, Russian Explorer Kozlov dug up a large number of Xixia cultural relics here, including precious ancient books such as "the Pearl in the palm of the hand of fan Han Heshi" and "Yintong" and "Wenhai" in both Chinese and Xia languages. This important archaeological discovery and plunder caused a sensation in the field of Archaeology and history

Site structure

Heicheng site is located about 22 km (101.147 e, 41.7647 n) to the east by south of dalaihubu Town, Ejina Banner, Inner Mongolia. It is the most complete and large-scale ancient city site on the north line of the ancient Silk Road.

Heicheng Mongolian is harihot, which means "Heicheng". The existing city wall was built in the Yuan Dynasty. The plane is rectangular, about 1km in circumference, 434m from east to west, 384m from north to south, about 1600m around, with a maximum height of 10m. The city gate is set up on the East and west sides, and an urn is added. On the northwest corner of the city wall, there is a pagoda with a height of about 13 meters. The city's official offices, mansion, cangao, Buddhist temples, dwellings and street remains are still vaguely visible. In the southwest corner of the city, there is an Islamic arch north, towering on the surface.

The wall is rammed with loess, with a remnant height of about 9 meters. There are five covered Lama towers in the northwest corner of the city. The original streets and main buildings can be discerned, and the remains of the ancient rivers and farmland around the city still keep their outlines. The desert has almost swallowed up here. How many treasures are still buried in the black city is an unsolved mystery, but the thinking it brings to mankind should not be just treasures Although Heicheng had become an isolated city in the sand sea as early as the mid-14th century due to the depletion of water resources, the Northern Line of Juyan, which was opened up two thousand years ago, passed near Heicheng, so Heicheng still has high archaeological value.

On June 25, 2001, the Heicheng site was approved by the State Council to be listed in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units as a building in the Xia Zhi Yuan period, and included in Juyan site.

Site excavation

As early as the early 20th century, many foreign explorers explored the mysterious Juyan culture for many times. Russian scholar Kozlov plundered the black city and stole a lot of historical materials. In 1963, the Soviet Union published the Xixia written version and printed version, which published the catalogue of some Xixia documents that Kozlov had robbed. There are 345 kinds of Buddhist scriptures, 60 kinds of political, legal, military, philology, divination, calendar and other works, totaling 405 kinds.

There are many cultural relics of the same time around the black city. There are lots of village sites, independent farmhouses and Buddhist buildings. Due to desertification, many houses are deeply buried in the sand, and some are exposed from the sand. In 1963, the Inner Mongolia Cultural Relics team excavated a newly exposed temple from the sandbags and found a number of painted Buddha statues, which were masterpieces of craftsmen in the Yuan Dynasty.

After the founding of new China, the people's governments of Gansu and Inner Mongolia sent people to investigate on many occasions. The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revised and interpreted the unearthed Juyan Han bamboo slips and published the Monograph Series A and B of Juyan Han bamboo slips. The Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, together with the Alxa League cultural relics workstation, formed an archaeological team to excavate the Heicheng site twice on September 10, 1983 and from August to November, 1984. Although the area of 11000 square meters excavated in these two times only accounts for one tenth of the total area of the city, the architectural sites of the main parts of the city have been basically revealed, the archaeological data of the construction history and urban layout of the city have been obtained, and a large number of documents and cultural relics have been unearthed. These two excavations are of great significance to the excavation of the city sites of Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, which exist in the northern grassland.

With the further excavation, collation and research of the black city culture and the restoration of the black city site, it has become a tourist attraction and will surely show more dazzling brilliance in the history of our national culture.

Site protection

Heicheng site is the most complete and large-scale ancient city site on the ancient Silk Road.

The ancient capital of Xixia in the north of the black city is also called Nai, which is the black water city in Dangxiang language. The plane of the black city is rectangular. Today, the city wall is still towering. The streets, walls and neatly arranged wooden eaves and columns in the city are exposed from the quicksand. In the southwest of the city, a church with a domed roof and niche stands in the wilderness. The dome mosque built of adobe has not been buried by wind and sand. A chapel in the southwest outside the city stands completely in the wilderness. In modern times, many people came to explore treasure for many times and plundered a large number of precious cultural relics. In many precious historical materials unearthed in Heicheng, and in the Xixia text Dictionary of "the Pearl in the palm of fan Han Dynasty", people have interpreted Xixia text. It gives a more complete interpretation of the mysterious Xixia. The city was built during the Xixia regime in the 9th century. In 1372, Ming Dynasty general Feng Sheng was abandoned after he conquered the black city. Up to now, there are abundant valuable documents of Xixia and Yuan Dynasties in the city. Due to the serious desertification in the surrounding area, the quicksand erodes Heicheng from the East, West and North, and many sites have been buried under the sand. Cultural relics protection workers call on relevant departments to act as soon as possible to rescue and protect the Heicheng site. There are five pagodas on the top of the northwest corner of the city wall of Heicheng site, which are very precious today, but also face the risk of wind erosion and collapse.

The first phase of the rescue maintenance and protection project of Heicheng site started on August 1, 2008 has been successfully completed at the end of 2017, and the second phase of the project has also been fully started.

According to the general requirements of the plan for emergency reinforcement and protection of Heicheng site, all the construction projects of the first phase of the project have been successfully completed. Among them, the renovation of the landscape gate and steel guardrail of Heicheng was completed, the original civil construction yurt for nursing was removed, the simple nursing house for Heicheng was built, and the silting formed by wind deposition inside and outside the city was cleaned up appropriately, with a total of 3000 cubic meters of sand resistance cleared. At the same time, completed the west wall gap filling, northwest

Chinese PinYin : Hei Cheng Yi Zhi