Ancient City of Niya

The ancient city of Niya, another Pompeii-like city on the Silk Road, lies 150 kilometers from Minfeng, an oasis county in the Taklimakan Desert. The ruins are believed to be of the ancient Kingdom of Jingjue (2nd century BC - 5th century AD), one of the oasis states recorded in the Western Han Dynasty(206BC-AD24) chronicles. However, the city vanished between 500 and 1000. The site has been listed as a state-level important cultural relics unit under protection.

At the heart of the Taklimakan Desert, some existing wooden structures, including houses with courtyards, stables, graves, and clay Buddhist stupas (shrines), and even a bridge, were found. In the residential quarter, jewelry,bronze mirrors, coins, arrowheads, household utensils, and other items were also found. Wooden tablets written in the long-dead Kharoshthi writings especially have been considered very important finds.

Preserved beneath the sand, some naturally mummified corpses resting in hollowed-out tree trunks were excavated in the city ruins too. Those corpses together with other findings indicate the city was once a place where Chinese met with Indians and Europeans.

The city was not only a trading post and but also a cultural exchange center. Although evidence indicates that it was the encroaching desert that destroyed the once prosperous city, enemy invasions might also have contributed to its demise.

The site has supplied precious materials to the study of the relationships between the empire located in the Central Plains and ancient kingdoms in the Western Regions, which covers the area of the present-day Xinjiang and parts of Central Asia. It is also of great importance to the study of the cultural exchanges between the East and the West, as well as the Silk Road.

 Introduction

The remains of the lost ancient city of Niya are believed to the ancient Jingjue Kingdom during the Han (206BC-220AD) and Jin (265-420) dynasties. The ancient Jingjue Kingdom was at the south end of the Silk Road, sprawling over an area 25 kilometers long from north to south and 5-7 kilometers wide from east to west.

At the site, the ruins of house foundations, courtyards, tombs, stupas,temples, fields, orchards, channels, kilns, and smelting workshops among others have been excavated, together with a large quantity of cultural relics, including wood ware,bronze, pottery, stone ware, woolen articles, coins, and so on.

 History

In 1959, a wool pile carpet fragment was unearthed at the site of Niya, on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert found along the Silk Road. The fabrication of the fragment discovered has been dated back to about 100 BC. The Niya Site is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Tarim Basin and is actually the site of the ancient Jingjue Kingdom.

No one can believe that there was a rich and varied community that once thrived deep in today's Taklimakan Desert some 1,600 years ago. Just like other places in China, it was then under the control of several officials appointed by the central government. There lived families with a population of more than 3,000 people.

Hover, despite at one point sprawling over an area 20 kilometers in circumference around what is now the dried bed of the Niya River, the city eventually became buried in the desert sand and slipped in oblivion. The extinction of Niya has left archaeologists and scientists many questions to answer. It has also given the ruins of the ancient holy city a feeling of mystery.

The Niya River winds through the southern Taklimakan Desert Desert for about 210 kilometers and its head waters are fed by melted snow from the towering Kunlun Mountain, known was Nan Mountain in ancient times. The river gradually dries up near a small Uygur village.

The city's ruins were lost until the early part of the 20th century, when the British explorer Sir Aurel Stein discovered the ruins; archaeologists have continued to explore the area ever since.

 Cultural Heritage

Eight tombs have been discovered at the northern part of the ruins. Some of them were already exposed when they were laid out in hollowed out logs or wooden trunks with an outer coffin. Dried out by the desert heat and virtually undisturbed, the bodies, clothes, and burial articles are in excellent condition.

The details of the brocade show exceptional care. The edge of the silk hasn't been unraveled and the fabric still has its original luster. Even the green and yellow, colors that usually easily fade, are preserved. Pieces of brocade, much less in quantity and variety, were found in Niya in 1959, with three motifs: animal patterns, geometric designs, and auspicious tokens, all of which were never encountered before.

Among the burial articles is a place of food with mutton, pears, and grapes. This variety serves as evidence of oasis agriculture and the raising of livestock.

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