Khara-Khoto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Khara-Khoto (mong. Khar Khot, chin. Heicheng, lit. Black City, probably identical with Marco Polo's Etsina) refers to a Tangut city ruined by Ming troops in 1372 and discovered by Russian explorer Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov during an expedition of the Gobi desert from 1907–1909. No less than 2,000 books in Tangut language were uncovered there.
Contents |
[edit] History
The walled fortress of Khara-Khoto was taken by Genghis Khan in 1226. In 1372 the Mongol king Khara Bator and his subjects were surrounded by the armies of China's ascendant Ming dynasty. Diverting the Black River, the city's water source that flowed just outside the fortress, the Chinese denied Khara-Khoto moisture for its gardens and wells. As time passed and Khara Bator recognized his fate, he murdered his family and turned his sword on himself. After his suicide Khara Bator's soldiers waited within the fortress until the Ming finally attacked and slaughtered the remaining inhabitants.
[edit] Measurements
30-foot ramparts; 12-foot-thick outer walls - as much as 450 yards to a side.
[edit] Sources
Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov, Mongolia, Amdo and the Dead City of Khara-Khoto, 1923
