One of the ancient Mongolian legends tells about a mysterious city located in the modern Gobi desert. In those distant times, waves of the warm sea rose on the site of the desert. On its shore, according to legend, the sons of the gods built a magnificent city. Each of the surrounding peoples called this city differently, but the Mongols themselves call it Hara-Khoto.
Information about a city of such a considerable age has always thrilled archaeologists, because in the process of research, many questions like the secret of Stonehenge can be slightly opened. The Mongolian legend tells about the last ruler of the city, the batyr Khara-jian-jun, who declared war on the Chinese emperor, however, having suffered a series of defeats, he hid behind the high walls of Khara-Khoto. However, the Chinese did not undertake a hopeless assault on the walls, but diverted the bed of the Edzin-Gol River from the city. With this move, the Chinese troops forced the batyr to get involved in the last desperate battle. Choosing between death from thirst and death in battle, Hara-jian-chun chose the latter. Before that, he hid the treasures in a safe place, and killed his family. He himself was also defeated in battle, and the inhabitants of the city were also killed. Hara-Khoto was destroyed by the army of the emperor.
A successful attempt to find the lost city was made by the Russian traveler Pyotr Kozlov, a student of Nikolai Przhevalsky. Having received preliminary information about Khara-Khoto from Russian travelers who had visited there earlier, he, together with an expedition, went in search of the ancient city in 1907.
An important help in this search was the support of Peter by the leader of the local Torgout Bale tribe, who gave the researchers a guide who showed the way to the old city. The city was found, however, according to the treaty, the treasures found in it were to go to the tribe. However, the library of 2,000 copies found in Hara-Khoto turned out to be much more expensive than the treasures. When examining the premises, wall drawings were found on which mysterious creatures were depicted: two-headed birds, fish with human heads, frightening dragons. At the same time, figures of people are depicted next to these creatures.
However, in the summer, Kozlov's expedition had to hastily send people back to their homeland, since the locals believed that the reason for their troubles was the stay of foreigners in the ancient city (at this time, there really was a severe drought in the area). Nevertheless, many of the found manuscripts were sent to St. Petersburg.
Scientists managed to learn a lot from the decrypted documents, but a number of pages contain a language that has not yet been decrypted by anyone. Many scholars believe that these texts may contain material about the builders of the tower and the city. In the meantime, it remains only to wait.