On the ancient Silk Road, the existence of a small country has always been an unsolved mystery.
It is located in the west of Lop Nur and is recorded in the "Tale of the Western Regions" that the ancient Silk Road was divided from this small country, it went east to Dunhuang, west to Yuli, and was one of the thirty-six kingdoms in the Western Regions.
This small country is the famous "Loulan Ancient Country".
However, the strange thing is that the ancient kingdom of Loulan was founded in 176 BC, and suddenly disappeared in 630 AD, existing in the human world for only 800 years.
Loulan Ancient Kingdom was once a rich city, here once merchants gathered, emissaries from all over the world came and went from south to north, Loulan beauty stunned everyone, a prosperous scene.
Unlike many ancient villages that have disappeared, Loulan did not slowly disappear in the long river of history, but disappeared overnight, leaving only a broken wall.
What surprises people even more is that about a century ago, this ancient country reappeared in people's field of vision, just as unexpectedly as when it suddenly disappeared.
After this, many scholars and archaeologists at home and abroad have gone forward to find the truth about the disappearance of this ancient country, can they really unveil the mystery of the ancient country of Loulan?
Located in the Xinjiang region, in the eastern part of the Taklamakan Desert, the ancient country of Loulan is known as "Desert Bermuda", and the strangeness here is endless.
Loulan was originally under the jurisdiction of the Capital Protectorate during the Han Dynasty, but in the early Han Dynasty, it was actually very chaotic, because it was a very important transportation hub, so although it was restored to the Han Dynasty, many envoys and merchants from various countries were stationed here.
Because of its border, some people here submitted to the Han Dynasty, some people were the eyes and ears of the Xiongnu, and some were noisy merchants, and Loulan skillfully mediated in such an environment.
In the "Book of Han" written by Ban Gu, the Loulan Kingdom once had 1570 households, with a total population of 14100, although the population was not too large, but because it was too prosperous, it also once formed a prosperous scene.
The Book of Han sometimes describes the scene of Loulan as follows:
"The sand is less than the field, and the field is divided into the valley." National jade, multi-leaf reed (reed), willow (red willow), hutongjia (poplar), white grass (coriander). The people follow the livestock and chase the water and grass. There are donkey horses, many camels. Can be a soldier, the same as the Qiang. ”
The scene presented to us by this text is mainly desert and camels.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, because it was a springboard for controlling the Western Regions, the Imperial Court once vigorously developed here, which lasted for a hundred years, until the Wei and Jin Dynasties, which was an important channel to the Western Regions.
Therefore, Loulan once became the most prosperous trading city in the world, and it is also a harmonious place for the integration of Eastern and Western civilizations, and such prosperity can even be imagined.
However, after this, for unknown reasons, Lou Lan was recorded less and less in the historical materials, until it finally disappeared completely, and people could no longer find it.
Loulan suddenly disappeared into the long river of history, and gradually forgotten by people, until around the 4th century AD, it has become a ruin, and some are just desolate ruins.
On March 29, 1900, as if falling into parallel time and space, a dramatic event actually made the ancient country of Loulan reappear in front of people.
An explorer named Sven Hedin was funded to form an archaeological team and conduct a series of expeditions in the Lop Nur Desert.
On this day, the group just reached the north shore of Lop Nur and they had a hard time finding an ancient well, so they wanted to see if they could dig a water source from here.
However, whenever they began to work, they found that the only shovel was unfortunately missing, so they asked the guide to lead the way and returned to look for it.
However, the road was not so smooth, not only did they not find the shovel, but also encountered a sandstorm in the middle of the road, and the wind and sand swept in, and the hungry expedition team could only stop advancing and turn to avoid the wind and sand.
But unexpectedly, when the wind and sand passed, the scene in front of them frightened people.
I saw that in front of the desert, tall, towering houses appeared, and the strange shapes all told the long history of this place.
An ancient city miraculously rose from the ground, and Sven ran excitedly into the ruins of the ancient city, looking at the ruins of the broken walls and even digging out a few exquisite wood carvings from the soil.
Seeing this, Sven immediately returned to his country and began to recruit and reward, and the next year, he returned here with personnel and professional tools.
Sven and his party excavated the ancient city, and they found many porcelain pieces, red cloth, knitwear, wood carvings, etc., which all confirmed the prosperity of the past.
As the archaeological work progressed, a large number of cultural relics such as Chinese, Luwen Wooden Jane, and even paper gradually appeared here, and within a week after that, Sven deduced that this was the ancient country of Loulan based on the information consulted.
Sven returned to Europe with these excavated artifacts, and he found many experts to identify these artifacts, as well as many of the excavated texts, and the final results showed:
The ruins of this ancient city are the legendary ancient country of Loulan that disappeared overnight.
After all, this ancient country was once a link connecting many Western countries and occupied a very important position in the history of many countries, so because a large number of scholars in the world gathered.
After this, people ran to the site one after another to excavate, slowly unearthed a lot of dry corpses, and also found a lot of tombs, which made this ancient country even more confusing.
Regarding the disappearance of the ancient kingdom of Loulan, there is still a lot of debate. There are several versions that are widely circulated today:
The first is the plague theory, many people say that the plague outbreak, the ancient people's medical conditions are backward, the understanding of the prevention of plague is not thorough, so it led to the destruction of Loulan.
However, this statement has loopholes, according to the records, the population of Loulan at the beginning of its development has exceeded 10,000, what kind of plague can instantly make tens of thousands of people die, and disappear overnight?
The second is the foreign invasion that the geographical location here is special, in addition to the Westerners and the Huns, there are also records in the historical records, and the Xianbei people have also harassed Loulan.
But at that time, Loulan was a very important hub of the Han Dynasty, and when it was invaded by foreign tribes, the still powerful Han Dynasty had no reason to watch Loulan being wiped out.
The third is the deterioration of the ecological environment, which leads to the abandonment of the city by the Loulan people, which seems to make sense.
Among the excavated artifacts, many mousetraps have been found, that is, there may have been rat plagues, or even plagues, but it may also be a rat-like creature.
Either way, it has had a serious impact on people, with vegetation being nibbled away, trees being gnawed off, and environmental degradation leading to a rapid loss of water resources.
Originally located in the desert, after the green vegetation was reduced, the water resources were also greatly reduced, and finally a vicious circle was created, and people could only go elsewhere to make a living after seeing that they could not survive.
Of course, in addition to these, there are more outrageous speculations, such as that this place was invaded by alien creatures that burrowed into the dirt and not only mutilated vegetation, but also ate their houses.
People are miserable and can only give up here.
Speculation is still raging about the reason for the disappearance of the Loulan Ancient Kingdom, but soon after, people found their burial methods in the ruins of the Loulan Ancient Kingdom.
After research, experts said that these tombs are very strange, which may be the cause of the disappearance of the ancient country of Loulan.
This burial method is called "sun burial".
The so-called "sun burial" is to surround the tomb into a circle, and then around the circle to lay dense wooden stakes, these wooden stakes just surround the entire tomb, it looks like the shape of the sun, which is the origin of "sun burial".
So why is it said that "sun burial" is the reason for the disappearance of the ancient country of Loulan?
This way of burial requires a stake to be placed around, so where does the stake come from? Nature is about cutting down trees.
The vegetation in the desert is not easy to survive, and after they are cut down, the water and soil resources will be rapidly lost, and the remaining vegetation will be even more difficult to survive.
Therefore, in a short period of time, it will quickly become a desolate desert from a bustling city.
A total of 7 tombs have been unearthed so far, and according to rough statistics, these 7 tombs require more than 10,000 pieces of wood, which is a very surprising number in the lush tropical regions, let alone in the desert.
Large-scale logging has caused the ecological environment here to deteriorate sharply, and people are gradually unable to survive, so they have to leave the area and find a new place to live.
Trade here will certainly be affected as people gradually leave, and as the population becomes smaller and smaller in history, until it is completely forgotten. This bustling ancient city disappeared silently.
According to the excavated documents, it is also recorded that they had done a large number of rain prayer ceremonies, and in the later period of Loulan, there were also orders issued here, ordering people to start planting trees in large quantities, and also prohibiting the cutting down of trees.
However, it is obviously too late, how can a desert restore its former prosperity in a short period of time?
From these excavated cultural relics alone, it can be seen that the disappearance of the ancient country of Loulan is inseparable from the deterioration of the environment.
After people here leave, they may go elsewhere to survive, may begin to intermarry and multiply with other regions, or integrate with other ethnic groups.
Of course, where they went after they left is still a mystery, and there is no relevant record in history, perhaps one day, we will wait for the relevant cultural relics to be excavated again to completely unravel this mystery.
So what do you think is the truth about the disappearance of the ancient country of Loulan?