JIAOHE
RUINS
Buddhist
stup at Jiaohe Ruins
Shown
within Xinjiang
Location
: Turpan, Xinjiang and China
Coordinates : 42°57'02 N 89°03'50 E
Type : Settlement
Site notes
Condition : In ruins
Jiaohe
or Yarkhoto is a ruined city in the Yarnaz Valley, 10 km west of
the city of Turpan in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.
It was the capital of the Jushi Kingdom. It is a natural fortress
located atop a steep cliff on a leaf-shaped plateau between two
deep river valleys.
Names
:
The Hou Hanshu, in discussing Jiaohe, alludes to a conventional
reading of the name, as meaning "river junction":
The
king of Nearer Jushi lives in the town of Jiaohe. A river divides
into two and surrounds the town, which is why it is called Jiaohe.
Lionel Giles recorded the following names for the city (with his
Wade-Giles forms of the Chinese names substituted with pinyin):
Jiaohe,
ancient capital of Turfan [Han].
Jushi Qianwangting (Royal Court of Anterior/Nearer Jushi) [Later
Han]
Gaochang Jun [Jin]
Xi Zhou [Tang]
Yarkhoto [modern name]
Aurel Stein has suggested that the name Yarkhoto is a combination
of Turkic and Mongolian words, being derived from yar (Turki: ravine)
and khoto (Mongolian: town).
History
:
Model
of the plateau on which Jiaohe is located
Jiaohe
ruins
Jiaohe
ruins
Jiaohe
ruins
Landscape
at the foot of the plateau on which Jiaohe is located
From 108 BC to 450 AD Jiaohe was the capital of the Anterior Jushi
Kingdom. It was an important site along the Silk Road trade route
leading west, and was adjacent to the Korla and Karasahr kingdoms
to the west. From 450 AD until 640 AD it became Jiao prefecture
in the Tang Dynasty, and in 640 AD it was made the seat of the new
Jiaohe County. From 640 AD until 658 AD it was also the seat of
the Protector General of the Western Regions, the highest level
military post of a Chinese military commander posted in the west.
Since the beginning of the 9th century it had become Jiaohe prefecture
of the Uyghur Khaganate, until their kingdom was conquered by the
Kyrgyz soon after in the year 840. Yarkhoto was also built on a
plateau and this plateau is 30m high.
The
city was built on a large islet (1650 m in length, 300 m wide at
its widest point) in the middle of a river which formed natural
defenses, which would explain why the city lacked any sort of walls.
Instead, steep cliffs more than 30 metres high on all sides of the
river acted as natural walls. The layout of the city had eastern
and western residential districts, while the northern district was
reserved for Buddhist sites of temples and stupas. Along with this
there are notable graveyards and the ruins of a large government
office in the southern part of the eastern district. It had a population
of 7,000 according to Tang dynasty records.
It
was finally abandoned after its destruction during an invasion by
the Mongols led by Genghis Khan in the 13th century.
The
ruins were visited by the archaeologist and explorer Aurel Stein,
who described "a maze of ruined dwellings and shrines carved
out for the most part from the loess soil", but complained
that a combination of local farmers' use of the soil and government
interference in his activities prevented examination. The site was
partially excavated in the 1950s and has been protected by the PRC
government since 1961. There are now attempts to protect this site
and other Silk Road city ruins.
Conservation
:
Both the Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute and
the Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau have been cooperating in a joint
venture to preserve the ruins of the site since 1992. In 2014, the
Jiaohe Ruins became part of the Silk Road UNESCO World Heritage
Sites, after several years of preparation.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Jiaohe_ruins