The grave of Khan Khubilai is probably located in the Partisan region, and it is possible that four golden horses are buried in it, which Genghis Khan's grandson carried everywhere with him.
Historical reference
Khubilai (1216-1294), grandson of Genghis Khan, became the fifth and last great Mongol khan. He fought in Asia, in 1258 he conquered Korea and Champa (Vietnam), in 1260 he attacked southern China. In the same year, after the death of his brother Munke, he seized the throne. Having conquered a significant part of China, in 1271 he founded the Yuan Dynasty. In 1279, his troops defeated the southern Song empire, and in 1280 the khan proclaimed himself emperor. The Yuan dynasty began to dominate the entire territory of China. Domestically, Khubilai's rule was marked by peace, prosperity in trade, religious tolerance (Buddhism flourished especially under him), and cultural upsurge. An important source of information about this period are the notes of the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, who served for more than ten years at the court of the Great Khan, as well as Chinese chronicles.
Grave mound
Once upon a time in the Golden Valley (Partisan District) there was one of the Jurchen cities. Their state had its own way of life, industry. And the resistance to his Mongol invasion was so strong that Genghis Khan instructed his grandson and governor of the East Asian lands, Khubilai, to wipe out the Jurchen empire. The Mongols marched across the coastal land with fire and sword, due to the large number of corpses on the territory a plague arose. The surviving Jurchens went to the forests (their descendants were later given by the tribes of the Oroch, Taz, Udege). By a strange coincidence, the last two facts played a role in the death of the khan and the appearance of his burial in the village of Vladimir-Alexandrovsky.
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… Asia was already at the feet of the Mongols. Hundreds of nationalities and tribes paid tribute to the Chingizids, but it was not enough for them. No, not wealth - territories. Some of Kublai Khan's troops were still suppressing resistance in southern China, and he was already preparing to seize Japan. The Mongols themselves did not build ships. They used the shipyards and craftsmen of Korea. It took several years to build a fleet of 900 ships, which accommodated 40,000 people. In October 1274, near the island of Kyushu, a typhoon destroyed 200 of their ships with soldiers. The khan had to turn the remaining fleet to Korea.
And two years after the defeat of the capital of the Song Empire, large shipbuilding resources fell into the hands of Kublai. He immediately ordered an increase in the fleet. A giant armada of more than 2,000 ships set sail. It seemed that nothing this time could save Japan from conquest, but then nature intervened again. The most severe typhoon, which the Japanese later dubbed "Kamikaze" ("divine wind"), swept and crushed the Mongol fleet. Part of it was taken down to the coast of Primorsky Krai.
The ships, badly battered by the storm, entered the mouth of the Suchan River. On board one of them, Khan Khubilai was dying of plague. Simple Mongol warriors and even military leaders were burned after death, and their ashes were scattered. Only persons of the ruling family were honored to have a burial. And the khan's associates began to look for a suitable place for the mound. Having passed upstream of the river, we found a small rocky outcrop at the very shore. While one part of the Mongols drove the remains of the Jurchens caught in nearby places to this place, the other performed the ceremony.
A pedestal of logs was erected on the rock, onto which a stretcher with the khan was brought. The slain concubines and horses were laid down beside Khubilai. When the flames fell and the Mongols finally said goodbye to the Great Khan, the Jurchens reached out to the ledge. They carried the earth in wicker baskets on rocker arms, following the example of the Chinese. The erection of the mound took several years.
Mongolian spearhead
Anatoly Shumilin, a resident of the village of Vladimir-Alexandrovsky, told me this exciting story about the emergence of the Rescue Hill. He is not a professional historian. But the clearly artificial origin of the hill constantly piqued his interest, and he began to collect historical facts and evidence …
We are standing at the top of a hill - 51 meters above sea level. Outside, there is evidence of a new history: a monument to partisans and Red Army men who died in the battles for Soviet power, and a monument to human swinishness - scattered plastic cups, broken bottles. If you turn your face to the west, then in front of you there is, as it were, the edge of a rhombus, which stretches from the top to the bottom. And on both sides of it there are straight steep slopes. It really looks like a man-made structure.
- And if you look from a height, you can see that the hill is similar in shape to the tip of a Mongolian spear, and it is directed to the west, where the Mongols came from. I've been crawling around here, measuring. There is a deviation of the edge by 8 degrees to the north, but this may be due to inaccurate work of the engineers. Among the Mongols, each warrior had an established weapon - a bow, sword or mace for close combat and a heavy spear with a special tip. With them, the warrior pierced the shields of the defense line, and, having thrust into the enemy, did not pull it out, but moved on. The tips of the Jurchen spears were straight, similar to short swords - with such spears they stabbed, chopped, attacked and fought back with them. So, in favor of my version is the fact that the mound looks exactly like the tip of a Mongolian spear.
Four golden horses
Of course, Shumilin's hypothesis also has opponents. At one time, the famous archaeologist Vasily Okladnikov conducted excavations in the Partizansky District. Three or four times they met with Shumilin, but, according to Anatoly Mikhailovich, the luminary was skeptical of his idea: “After all, he is an academic person. And to accept the hypothesis, he needed evidence - written, chronicles, for example, or material."
Non-folding beds are obtained in dates as well. Different sources give different dates for the second campaign, as well as the dates of Kublai's death. However, I personally did not find any mention of the place of death of the Great Khan. Either Chingizite died during one of the subsequent small campaigns to Japan (Marco Polo reported on the preparation of these campaigns), or the second invasion of the Japanese islands happened much later in 1276. It was possible to write off such a discrepancy to Shumilin's ignorance. However, there are people in the scientific community who believe that Khan Khubilai was buried in Primorye. True, academician Shevkunov believes that the grave of the khan is located near Ussuriysk. According to him, the battered Kamikaze fleet of the Mongols entered not at the mouth of the Suchan River, but at the mouth of the Razdolnaya (formerly Suifun).
There is another legend associated with Kublai Khan, which raises the minds of adventurers from archeology and makes them go in search. It is assumed that the Chinese, in order to appease Khubilai, presented him with four golden horses - a symbol of the fact that the Mongols can conquer all four cardinal points. True, in the annals there are no descriptions of them - what kind and size of the statue, but information has been preserved that Khubilai took them everywhere with him. And if so, it is quite possible that the golden horses rest next to the remains of the Great Khan. Maybe in Vladimir-Alexandrovsky, or maybe somewhere else …
Anna Yartseva