Astana-Karakhoja Tombs
Known
as the "Underground Museum" and widely valued by Chinese and foreign
archaeologists and historians, this group of ancient tombs is 40 kilometers southeast of
Turpan city proper and 6 kilometers from the ancient city of Gaochang. Astana means
"capital" in Uygur and Karakhoja is the name of a legendary hero of the ancient
Uygur Kingdom who removed the evils from the people by killing a vicious dragon.They are
now the names of two local villages.Buried in these tombs are nobles, officials and others
from the period beginning in the Western Jin and ending in the middle of the Tang dynasty.
Curiously, the tomb of King Gaochang is found nowhere in the group of tombs, but the
renowned general Zhang Xiong of the Qushi Gaochang Kingdom was buried here with his wife
and son Zhang Huaiji.Almost all of the corpses in the more than 500 tombs have not rotted;
instead they have become dried-up bodies, a phenomenon more unusual than the mummies found
in the pyramids of Egypt. Most of the dried-up bodies are complete and intact. Thanks to
the dry and hot climate, many paintings, earthen figurines and thousands of other
unearthed cultural relics are well-preserved and as color-ful as new ones. The unearthed
boiled dumplings of the Tang dynasty are the same shape as those of todayand the stuffing
of the dumplings is still fresh.Furthermore, on a bail of horse fodder are written the
words "Judge Cen" and"Minister Feng". JudgeCen is the
famous frontier poet Cen Shen of the Tang dynasty and Minister Feng is Feng Changqing, the
governor of Beiting Prefecture of the Tang dynasty. Most of those buried here were people
of the Han nationality, but also
some minority nationalities, such as the Cheshi, Hun, Di, Xianbei, Gaoche, and
Zhaowujiuxing.Now three tombs have been opened to visitors. Besides dried-up corpses,
there are murals depicting figures, birds and flowers on display in the three tombs.It was
classified as an important cultural unit protected by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
in 1957.
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