jiaohe ruins

Jiaohe Ancient City is located in the heart of LiuYe River in yarnaizigou, the western suburb of Turpan. It is named after the confluence of two rivers around the city in the south of the city. Jiaohe City was built by Cheshi people. Its architecture dates back to the Qin and Han Dynasties, but unfortunately it was destroyed by the continuous wars in the Yuan Dynasty in the first half of the 14th century. After 2300 years of trials and tribulations, the city is still well preserved and is the best protected raw soil building city in the world.

jiaohe ruins

Jiaohe Ancient City is the world's largest, oldest and best preserved earth building city. It is also the most complete urban heritage preserved for more than two thousand years in China. Anxidu Prefecture, the highest military and political institution in the western regions of Tang Dynasty, was first set up in Jiaohe Ancient City. In 1961, it was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

On June 22, 2014, at the 38th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Doha, Qatar, Jiaohe Ancient City, as a site in the "Silk Road: road network of Chang'an Tianshan corridor" jointly applied for World Heritage by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, was successfully included in the world heritage list.

Historical development

Jiaohe Ancient City was founded and built by Cheshi people from the 2nd century to the 5th century B.C., and reached its peak in the southern and Northern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty. From the 9th to the 14th century, Jiaohe City gradually declined due to its important strategic position and successive wars. During the Chagatai period at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were many wars in Turpan. Jiaohe City was seriously damaged and finally abandoned.

In the 14th century, after many years of cruel war, the Mongol nobles such as Haidu conquered Gaochang and Jiaohe successively. At the same time, Mongolian rulers also forced local residents to give up traditional Buddhist belief and convert to Islam. Under the double attack of spirit and material, Jiaohe finally completed its life course.

geographical position

It is located on an island platform 13 kilometers west of Turpan city. Because the river flows around the city, it is called Jiaohe. It was the capital of cheshiqian state, one of the 36 countries in the western regions.

Jiaohe City site is located in Yar Township, about 13 kilometers west of Turpan City, 10 kilometers west of Turpan City, on the 30 meter high loess platform at the intersection of yarnaizigou and yarnaizigou rivers. It is about 1650 meters long, narrow at both ends, and about 300 meters wide in the middle. It is a willow shaped peninsula. It is the former capital of Cheshi, one of the 36 cities in the western regions. It is the political, economic, military and cultural center of the country. The drought and less rain in Turpan made the old city well preserved. All the buildings were made of rammed earth, and the shape and layout were similar to that of Chang'an City in Tang Dynasty. Clay Bodhisattvas can also be found in the city's marketplace, government offices, Buddhist temples, pagodas, streets and alleys, as well as workshops, dwellings, military training grounds, Tibetan trenches, and Buddhist niches in temples. The temple covers an area of 5000 square meters and has a water well. There are 101 pagodas in the group. Looking down from the air, Jiaohe old city looks like a big willow leaf.

architectural composition

After thousands of years of ups and downs, the main structure of the city's architectural layout is still miraculously preserved. All these benefits from Turpan's unique dry and rainless climate. The scale of Jiaohe Ancient City is roughly the buildings of Tang Dynasty, and the buildings are mainly concentrated in the southeast of the platform about 1000 meters. The four centers of the ancient city are close to the cliffs, and three gates are built on the cliffs in the East, West and south.

The architectural layout of Jiaohe Ancient City is mainly composed of three obvious parts: a central avenue running through the north and South divides the residence into East and west parts. At the north end of the avenue is a large-scale temple, which forms the temple area in the north. The building area of this area is about 90000 square meters. Most of the buildings are rectangular courtyards with the gate facing the street. According to the layout of each courtyard, it should be a temple. There is a square earth column in the main room, which should be an altar or tower column;

In the south of Dadao east district is a large residential area with a building area of about 78000 square meters, in the north is a small residential area, and in the middle is an official district; in addition to most of the residential areas in Dadao West District, there are also many handicraft workshops. On both sides of the avenue in the city are high and thick Street walls, and there are no doors and windows near the street. Generally speaking, the 360000 square meter building complex is divided into several small areas by the streets and alleys that cross vertically from north to south, east to west, and connect vertically and horizontally, which is similar to the squares and curves of ancient cities in mainland China. This kind of architectural layout is enough to show that the old city of Jiaohe had a planned reconstruction in the Tang Dynasty, but the traces of the old city before the Tang Dynasty are beyond recognition. From the perspective of urban layout, on the one hand, it is influenced by the Central Plains traditional urban building regulations, and has unique local characteristics. The transportation network, city gates and other buildings with streets and alleys as the skeleton take military defense as the guiding ideology of their construction. The renovation of the ancient city is a huge military fortress, reflecting the fierce ethnic and social contradictions in this area in history.

In addition, it is incredible that apart from the absence of city walls, the architectural form also has an obvious feature, that is, most of the buildings in the whole city, regardless of their size, are basically excavated from the high platform surface by the method of "reducing the land and retaining the walls". The walls of temples, government offices, city gates and houses are basically raw earth walls, especially streets and alleys, which are long, narrow and deep, like winding trenches. It can be said that this city is a huge ancient sculpture. Its unique architectural technology is not only the only one in China, but also rare in foreign countries, reflecting the wisdom and great creativity of ancient workers.

Cultural relics protection

The site of the ancient city is well preserved. It is about 1750 meters long from north to South and 300 meters wide from east to west. It is divided into temples, dwellings and government offices. The total area of the ancient city is 470000 square meters, and the existing architectural relics are 360000 square meters. Most of the buildings in the city were built in the Tang Dynasty, and the architectural layout is unique. The city retains the architectural features of the Central Plains city before the Song Dynasty.

The whole city is like a big fortress with layers of fortification. Outside the pedestrian wall, it is like being in a deep ditch. You can't see the situation inside the wall. Inside the wall, you can stay high and control the internal and external movements. The city's fortification is also very tight. The layout of Jiaohe Ancient City is roughly divided into three parts. A South-North road about 350 meters long and 10 meters wide divides the residence into East and west parts. There is a grand temple at the north end of the avenue, and it forms the northern temple area with it as the center. In the north of the city, there is also a group of magnificent towers, which may be the tower forest for burying the eminent monks of the past dynasties. In the southeast, there is a grand underground courtyard with an 11 meter square patio on the top. To the east of the patio is the South Road, with four gates. On the ground of the patio, there is a tunnel 3 meters wide and 2 meters high, 60 meters long, connecting with the North-South Avenue. According to the investigation, it may be the residence of anxidu Prefecture, and later the Yamen of Tianshan county.

There are many handicraft workshops in the West. On both sides of the avenue are high and thick earthen walls, behind which are "squares" divided by crisscross short alleys, which are closed to the street. There are residential sites and workshops for textile, wine making and shoe making. On the east side there are military barracks and the rest are dwellings. Jiaohe City has only two gates, the east gate and the south gate. Because the city is built on a 30 meter high cliff, there is no need to build a city wall, and the city gate is informal. The south gate was the main channel for transporting supplies and troops in ancient times. The south gate is located on a precipice with "one man guarding the pass, and ten thousand men are not allowed to go". The east gate stands on a 30 meter high cliff, which is mainly the gateway to draw water for the residents in the city.

In 1961, the State Council announced that it was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit. Known as "the world's most perfect ruins.".

historical value

Jiaohe Ancient City has unearthed many cultural relics, such as lotus tiles of Tang Dynasty, lotus scriptures and so on. In 1994, archaeologists discovered for the first time an underground temple and a noble Tomb of Cheshi kingdom in the protective excavation of the old city, and unearthed a number of precious cultural relics such as Haizhu and relic.

Records of Ancient Poems

Mountain climbing in the daytime, watching beacon fire, drinking horse and crossing river in the evening.

——Tang Lixin's ancient army Tour

Traffic information

Take bus No.1 or No.101 at Xincheng Road, Turpan city to Yar Township, and take a taxi (about 20 yuan / car) to Jiaohe Ancient City.

Address: Turpan City, Turpan Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Longitude: 89.066056609154

Latitude: 42.953242765596

Tel: 0995-8667154

Tour time: 2-3 hours

Traffic information: in peak season (from April to the end of October), there is a special tourist bus of 20 yuan. In off season, take bus No.1 or No.101 to Yar Township, transfer to the front (2 yuan / person), tricycle (3 yuan / person), taxi (15 yuan / car), carriage (20 yuan / car) to Jiaohe Ancient City. Or directly from Turpan charter or taxi, 11km away from the city, 30 yuan / car

Ticket information: 70 yuan / person

Opening hours: 9:00-20:00

Chinese PinYin : Jiao He Gu Cheng