Astana-Karakhoja Ancient Tombs

Located in the south of Flaming Mountains, about 42 kilometers southeast of Turpan city, the Astana-Karakhoja Ancient Tombs are part of the Underground Museum of Turpan and the Living Archives of Gaochang. Astana means capital in Uigur; Karakhoja was a Uigur hero who protected his people from a vicious dragon.

Known as a magical "Underground Museum" in Turpan, Astana-Karakhoja Ancient Tombs of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a burial ground of Tang Dynasty (618-907). Served as a public cemetery for Ancient City of Gaochang, these tombs were gradually formed from the 3th to 8th century and have a history of more than 2,000 years. Occupying an area of 10 square kilometers, it stretches from northeast to northwest of the ancient city and about 5 kilometers long from east to west and 2 kilometers wide from north to south.

Astana-Karakhoja Ancient Tombs are mainly for Han people, some ethnic minorities such as Cheshi, Turkic, Hun are also buried here. The tombs were a peaceful and secluded resort for residents of Gaochang City to rest after death. From prominent officials, excellent general, normal soldiers to common residents, they are people from different class, career and ethnic minority and were buried at the same place, which reveals the relations between different ethnic groups here are harmonious and equal. In 1988, Astana-Karakhoja Ancient Tombs was listed as one of the country's key protected cultural sites in China.

A slope of over 10 meters (32.8 feet) long leads down to the chamber. The chamber is 2 meters (6.6 feet) high with a flat ceiling or a dome. The dead are placed on an earthen or wooden bed in the back of the chamber. They had wood in both hands and wore cotton, linen or silk clothes. Around them are miniature pavilions, carts and horses, parades, musical instruments, chess sets, pens and ink, grapes, melons, dumplings and pancakes -- to be used by the dead in another world. Owing to the arid climate, the relics are very well preserved; dumplings are the same as today's, and the stuffing is as intact as it was when fresh. Murals with vivid pictures of humans, animals, flowers, mountains, and rivers decorate some chambers. A painting of ladies playing chess illustrates the happy life of aristocrats in the early Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Among the more than ten thousand cultural relics excavated are over 2700 books, epitaphs, paintings, clay figurines, and pottery, wood, gold and stone wares, ancient coins, silk and cotton textiles. The time recorded in the books ranges from 273 to 772.

Thanks to the high location and natural conditions for being drought and hot, the sterile environment offers an ideal place for maintaining the ancient corpses and burial articles. They are still well preserved miraculously after going through millennium vicissitudes. Thousands of paintings, earthen figurines and other relics are as fresh as they were new. It is noteworthy that mummies here compare favorably with Egyptian mummies in both quantity and the quality, providing precious specimens for anthropology, history, medicine, and ethnology. The mummy of the well-known Gaochang General is 1.90 meters (6.2 feet) tall with well-preserved beard hair and clothes.

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