Jiaohe Ancient City is located on an island-shaped terrace 13 kilometers west of Turpan City, known locally as "Yaerhetu", which means Cliff City. Because the river intersects at the beginning and end of the terrace, it is also called "cross river" in ancient times.
The formation of the ancient city of Jiaohe is first of all due to the glacial snow water on Bogda Mountain, after thousands of years of erosion, the formation of a thick alluvial fan, a Jiaohe River water from the north divided into two, surrounded by, and then merged into one, gradually forming a cliff around the cliffs such as cutting, 1650 meters long and about 300 meters wide HexinZhou, from the air, like a large willow leaf.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" was created > the Cheshi people, originally white Indo-Europeans who spoke Tocharian</h1>
Jiaohe Ancient City was founded and built in the 2nd to 5th centuries BC by the Cheshi people, a multi-ethnic group with an Indo-European population and a large number of Mongol races. To put it bluntly, Cheshi is a predominantly caucasian regime. The Drivers speak An Indo-European language, Tocharian, and Tocharian and Celtic are the most closely related, between Italian-Celtic and Slavic.
Historians have deduced that the tocharian ancestors of the Cheshi people may have first wandered in the area from Poland to the north coast of the Black Sea. After leaving the Proto-Indo-European Northwestern Language Group, they moved south to interact and come into contact with other Proto-Indo-European language groups; then crossed the Black Sea steppe and the Central Asian steppe, crossed the Altai Mountains, the Tianshan Mountains, and south to the Tarim Basin.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > born to find a physique, neighboring countries set up a special "attack car division" official position</h1>
In cheshiguo's time, the river was a natural barrier to a city. Jiaohe Ancient City is surrounded by cliffs and banks, and there is a danger that a husband and wife cannot open the door, which has been a famous military fortress since ancient times, and the place where soldiers and families must fight.
Therefore, the neighboring cheshi state, the yanshan state and the yanqi state often had official positions specifically responsible for attacking the cheshi. For example, the Yanshan state has "the commander of the car division" and "the master of the car"; the state of Yanqi has "the king of the car" and "the jun of the Guiyi car". Even further west in the Kamezi kingdom, there is a position of "Captain of the Strike Division",
At the same time, the struggle between the Dynasties of the Central Plains and the northern nomads for the Western Regions also began in the Western Han Dynasty, and the Jiaohe River was a key point of contention between the two sides. If the Western Han Dynasty wanted to control the Tarim Basin, ensure the smooth flow of the Silk Road and economic ties with the vast areas of the West, it had to control cheshi and control Jiaohe City. At that time, the Xiongnu were also artificial: cheshi land is fertile, close to the Xiongnu, so that Han can get it, more fields and valleys, will harm the people's country, must not be indisputable. From 108 BC to 60 BC, the Western Han And Xiongnu fought 5 major battles for jiaohe city, historically known as the "Five Contending Car Divisions".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the end of the bustling, the most perfect ruin in the world</h1>
Jiaohe City reached its peak during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and tang dynasties, and gradually declined from the 9th to the 14th centuries due to years of war. During the Chagatai period at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Turpan area was plagued by wars for many years. In the 14th century, the Mongol nobleman Haidu and other rebels, after years of brutal war, successively attacked Gaochang and jiaohe. At the same time, the Mongol rulers forced the local population to abandon the traditional Buddhist faith and convert to Islam. Under the double blow of spirit and material, Jiaohe finally completed the course of its life.
Thanks to the drought and little rain in Turpan, the old city of Jiaohe has miraculously preserved the main structure of the urban architectural layout after thousands of years of ups and downs. The architecture of Jiaohe Ancient City is unique, and most of the walls are built by subtracting ground and raising. Most of the buildings in the center of the ancient city are dug out of the original soil and then roofed with wood, which is unique and unique in China by the method of "reducing land to build houses, ramming the city as a wall, and digging up soil and leveling roads".
Jiaohe Ancient City runs north-south, entering from the south gate, facing a central avenue, and to the east is the royal palace and the official office area, with outbuildings and small squares, covering an area of 20,000 square meters. To the west is the mill, which houses the ruins of residence and handicraft workshops for weaving, brewing, and shoe making. On the east side, there are military barracks and the rest are civilian residences. It is not difficult to imagine the bustle and prosperity of the old city of Jiaohe, and because the water and cliffs of jiaohe river give natural barriers and a sense of security, it is more like an impregnable paradise. In 1961, the State Council listed the Ancient City of Jiaohe as a national key cultural relics protection unit and was hailed as "the most perfect ruin in the world".