A nearly 1,000-year-old city that was once a centre of religious learning, art and a trading hub in the far west of Inner Mongolia, China, now lies completely abandoned.
Khara-Khoto, also called Khar khot (meaning “black city” in Mongolian), is a ruined fortified city near the Juyan Lake Basin, deep in the Gobi Desert.
Built in 1032, the city thrived under the rule of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty, which occupied the area round the Hexi Corridor, a stretch of the Silk Road on the trade route between North China and Central Asia.
There are remains of over nine-metre-high defensive walls and 3.7-metre-thick outer walls, the latter of which ran for an impressive 421 metres east-west by 374 metres north-south.
The fortress was taken by the Mongol Empire in 1226, but it continued to flourish, reaching a size three times larger than during the Western Zia dynasty.
In The Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia in the 13th-century describes a visit to a city called “Etzina”, which has been identified with Khara-Khoto.
He wrote: “When you leave the city of Campichu [today known as Zhangye] you ride for twelve days, and then reach a city called Etzina, which is towards the north on the verge of the Sandy Desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.
“The people are Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country produces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. The inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle, for they have no trade.
“…When you quit Etzina, you enter on a desert which extends forty days’ journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor baiting-place.”
According to a legend of the local Torghut population, in 1372 a Mongol military general, Khara Bator, was surrounded with his troops by armies of the Ming dynasty. The Ming dynasty diverted the Ejin River, the city’s water source that flowed just outside the fortress.
When Khara Bator realised his fate, he murdered his family and then himself. His soldiers then waited within the fortress until the Ming troops finally attacked and killed the remaining inhabitants.
Another version of the legend suggests that Khara Bator made a breach in the northwestern corner of the city wall and escaped through it. After the defeat, and also possibly due to a water shortage, the city was abandoned and left in ruins, swallowed by the sands of the Gobi Desert.
Its incredibly remote location, however, has meant it has been preserved from looters.
The city was rediscovered in the early 20th-century and over 2,000 books, scrolls and manuscripts in the Tangut language were uncovered. Several further excavations followed, unearthing building materials, daily items and religious art.
The site is now a popular tourist spot, for those willing to make the journey. With the Ejin River largely dried up and the sand dunes constantly moving on the wind, navigating the desert surrounding the city is treacherous and must be done with extreme care.
Once you’ve arrived, you face the prospect of an entirely different issue – according to local rumour, it is inhabited only by ghosts and demons, with rumours of fuelless flames that burn for hours, the balls of light dancing in the dark, and the sounds of loud banging from unknown sources.
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