The Dead City and Its Curse
As one Mongolian legend says, at a time when the waters of the warm sea still flowed on the site of the rocky Gobi desert, a beautiful and rich city was built on its picturesque shores by the first descendants of the gods, in which sages and traders, brave warriors and skilled artisans lived.
This city had many names. The Uighurs called it Indikutshari, the Chinese called it Hozhou (Fire City). They called him Gaochang - after the name of the state, the capital of which he was. The Mongols called this legendary ancient city Khara-Khoto.
His death is told in the Mongol legend. The last ruler of the city of batyr, Khara-jian-jun, declared war on the Chinese emperor, but after losing several battles, he hid behind impregnable walls. Unable to take the city by storm, the Chinese diverted the Edzin-Gol river bed from Khara-Khoto, thereby depriving its defenders of water.
Realizing that the city and its inhabitants are doomed to inevitable death, Hara-jian-jun hid all his untold treasures in a secret place, killed his wife and children and gave a decisive battle, as a result of which he was killed. The Chinese troops who broke into Hara-Khoto killed all its inhabitants, and the city itself was turned into ruins …
Russian travelers and scientists have long known about the “black city” (as the toponym Khara-Khoto is translated from Mongolian) about the dead, lost in the sands of the southern part of the Gobi desert. 1886 - Grigory Potanin's expedition learned from the Mongols about some kind of fortress left by people and covered with sand. Vladimir Obruchev, who visited the same places in 1893, asked local residents in detail about the ruins of the ancient settlement, but never saw them.
1907 - the famous traveler Pyotr Kozlov, a student of Nikolai Przhevalsky, sets out in search of the dead city. He was able to enlist the support of the leader of the Torgout Beile tribe, who lived in those parts, and with the help of a guide, the expedition arrived at the dead city at the bend of the Edzin-Gol River.
According to the parting words of the leader, foreigners could not bring pack animals into the destroyed city, burn fires and eat inside the city walls. Women were not allowed to appear in Hara-Khoto. Violation of prohibitions could cause the wrath of the spirits - the founders of the dead city. Russian researchers were even told the story of how a local resident accidentally wandered into the city in search of lost horses a hundred years ago. In the midst of the ruins of buildings, she found several strands of large pearls. When the woman left the city, a terrible sandstorm suddenly began. A few days later, her body, half-covered with sand, with strands of pearls clutched in her palms, was found by a caravan passing by. The leader of the Torgout-bale tribe also wished that the researchers, if they discovered the treasure of Hara-jian-jun, would give the found treasures to him.
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And now, before the eyes of Russian researchers, the once high fortress walls, almost completely covered with sand, appeared. At the western wall there were two suburgan mausoleums, one of which was completely destroyed. And in the second one, unique and invaluable from a historical point of view finds awaited travelers. Inside the mausoleum, scientists have found the rarest examples of Buddhist icon painting made in colored paints on silk canvases, many metal and wooden figurines. These miniatures were characteristic of the XI-XII centuries. The discovered library was of particular value - more than 2,000 well-preserved handwritten books and scrolls.
In the center of the mausoleum, on a stone pedestal, from which a high metal pole rose upward, 20 clay figures, as tall as a man, were placed face to face. Handwritten sheets of paper lay next to each figure. A well-preserved skeleton was sitting in the far corner of the suburgan. Travelers suggested that this is the skeleton of a clergyman, for whom, in fact, the mausoleum was built. With the help of an anthropometric examination, it was established that the skeleton belonged to … a woman of about 50 years old. She was buried sitting, as required by customs, and was probably the very high-ranking clergyman. It seems that the ancient inhabitants of the "dead city" were much more civilized than the current inhabitants of the desert.
Many interesting and mysterious finds awaited the members of the expedition in the city itself. In the center of Khara-Khoto, they cleared sand from a round stone structure 2.5 m high, which looked like a giant head of cheese. On its upper flat side, travelers stumbled upon incomprehensible cuneiform writing, which differed from those with which the found manuscripts were made, and, apparently, belonged to a much earlier era, as well as mysterious concentric circles, spirals and lines woven into a bizarre web. All of this was hollowed out in solid stone. According to the researchers, the building in antiquity could well serve the inhabitants of the city as an observatory, as well as a sanctuary where the ancient priests made sacrifices to their gods.
In one dilapidated building, after careful cleaning, the eyes of amazed researchers saw well-preserved fragments of wall painting, in which, in addition to the faces of the saints, there were images of mysterious creatures: two-headed birds, fish with human heads, a frightening look of dragons. Next to these mythical creatures were miniature figures of people. A unique collection of documents dating back to the reign of Genghis Khan, including a description of ancient fortune-telling, also fell into the hands of travelers.
But either by coincidence, or as a consequence of the once imposed curse, during the stay of the Russian expedition in Khara-Khoto, an unprecedented drought began in those parts. Moreover, a series of powerful tremors swept through the central part of Mongolia. All this was interpreted by the elders of the Mongol tribes as a sign that the powerful spirits are unhappy with the presence of the Gentiles on their lands. In the middle of the summer of 1907, the Mongol authorities ordered Kozlov to stop the excavation and leave the country. This was motivated by complaints from local residents to the administration that outsiders were desecrating the "Dead City" with their presence.
Despite the obstacles posed by the authorities, the researchers managed to transport a significant part of the found exhibits and manuscripts to St. Petersburg, to the Geographical Society. “We have collected,” summed up Pyotr Kozlov, “archaeological material that filled ten pood boxes prepared for shipment to the Russian Geographical Society and the Academy of Sciences. In addition, I immediately sent by Mongolian mail to Urga (now Ulan Bator) and further to St. Petersburg several packets with the news of the actual discovery of Khara-Khoto, attaching icon painting and writing samples found in the excavations for speedy study and determination: fragments of Buddhist essays in Chinese, two small passages of the Tibetan text and eleven notebooks of Xi Xia letter manuscripts.
Thanks to the discovery of the Xi Xia dictionary of the Tangut language in the library of the black city, experts and scientists of the Geographical Society managed to decipher most of the discovered manuscripts. It turned out that, starting from the 2nd century, there was a defensive zone that protected the population from the raids of nomads, and there was an outpost of China in long clashes with the Huns.
Another century passes, and the chronicles begin to mention the trading city of Xihai standing in the oasis. But three centuries later, during the decline of the Han Empire, the city seems to disappear. However, not for long: in the Tang era, the Tongcheng fortress was built on that place, which first passed to the Tibetans, after the Turks, and in the 9th century - to the Uyghurs. At the same time, the Tanguts appeared on the historical stage, who at the end of the 10th century created the powerful state of Xi Xia, stretching for hundreds of kilometers from west to east and from south to north.
1226 - Mongolian troops led by Genghis Khan set out on a campaign against China. The state of Xi Xia was destroyed and dissolved in the huge Yuan Empire founded by the Mongols, which stretched in the XIII-XIV centuries from the banks of the Danube to the Pacific Ocean.
Hara-Khoto received a new name - Edzina (in Mongolian Ijinai). It became an important trading city on the way from China to the Mongolian capital Karakorum, founded at the beginning of the 13th century on the banks of the Selenga River at the confluence of the Orkhon River. Marco Polo mentions Edzin in his notes: “He stands at the beginning of the sandy steppe in the north of the Tashut region. The people are idolaters, they have many camels and all kinds of cattle. The local people … are engaged in arable farming and cattle breeding."
The traveler called the Buddhists idolaters. In fact, not only they settled there. Kozlov's findings testified that representatives of many peoples lived in the city. In addition to the Tangut, Chinese and Mongolian texts, manuscripts in Persian and Arabic were found in Khara-Khoto. Thus, the Yijinai of the Yuan era was actually a center of transit trade with a motley mixed population.
But in 1372 the Chinese commander Feng Sheng captured Yijinai. Having blocked the Edzin-Gola branches with dams, he not only left the defenders of the city without water, but also destroyed a huge blooming oasis, which was no longer able to revive. Maybe it was the first environmental disaster in history, provoked by people.
Scientists have not deciphered some of the documents found. They were written in an unknown language. According to one of the versions, on the mysterious scrolls, the ancient priests encrypted some magical texts, which mere mortals were not allowed to know. According to another, these writings are, perhaps, the only material evidence of a certain mysterious civilization that created the city of Hara-Khoto and escaped the attention of chroniclers. Only the silent ruins, covered with sand and covered with many incredible legends, know about it.
Y. Podolsky