Ancient State of Loulan

 Brief Introduction to Loulan

Loulan, one of West China's 36 ancient states, whose exact location is unknown, mysteriously disappeared after 500 years of continuous prosperity. The rapid disappearance of such a large, prosperous trading hub on the thriving Silk Road, which dealt mainly in the trade of silk, glass, and perfume, is one of history's biggest puzzles.

Returning from his Western journeys during the Tang Dynasty(618-907), Tang Xuanzang(a famous Buddhist monk, on whom Journey to the West is based) witnessed the already bleak scene of the Loulan city buildings that held very few people.

Some 1,500 years later, a Swedish adventurer named Sven Hedin and his guide discovered Loulan on March 28, 1900. The discovery actually caused a great sensation at the time, and was reputed as the "Oriental Pompeii." For more than 100 years since, Loulan has stirred the enthusiasm of adventurers, historians, and travelers both from China and abroad. Loulan Beauty, Loulan Tomb, Loulan Coffin … one miracle after another has persistently aroused the world's attention.

Scholars from both home and abroad believe the Loulan relics are the most important discovery along the once-prosperous Silk Road for researching and exploring the rich history of Xinjiang and Central Asian countries, the history of the Silk Road, cultural communications, and the mélange (mixture) of East and West.

 Site of Loulan State

The site is located on the west bank of Lop Nur Lake, which was once a rich water network, but has now completely dried up. The expanses of vast sand dunes are dubbed the "forbidden zone to life" to the northeast of Ruoqiang County in Xinjiang. The weather there is very extreme: During the summer, the maximum temperature tops 50 degrees Celsius, and in the winter it can fall to as low as 30 degrees below zero.

Records from the Loulan kingdom abound in major historical works in both China and the West of over 1,600 years ago. Loulan was a sprawling kingdom of 360,000 square kilometers, whose domain bordered Dunhuangin the East and Niya City in the West. It had a population of over 14,000, and, as a key traffic hub on the ancient Silk Road, it served as an important trading center between China and the West, welcoming streams of camels loaded with exotic goods from many parts of the world. Many of the visitors and caravans were from the Mediterranean region.

The ruins unearthed so far cover an area of over 100,000 square meters, filled with the ruins of city walls, residential buildings, palaces, temples, workshops, and towers, as well as broken beams and pillars.

The city has an irregular square shape, with the east city wall measuring 333 meters, the south wall, 329 meters, and the west and north walls 327 meters each. Archeologists believe there was once a water tunnel running through the city that divided it into two functional parts. The most eye-catching architecture is a wooden Buddhist pagoda located in the eastern city ruins. This octagonal-shaped pagoda is 10 meters high with a square base and a round top.

In the city center are rows of adobe houses surrounded by piles of wood, with some pieces of timber up to five or six meters in length. On the foundations of some of the houses, traces of red paint can still be seen. A large amount of historical documents have been discovered among these houses.

 Loulan Beauty

The greatest discovery in Loulan is without doubt the Loulan female mummy discovered in 1980. Perfectly preserved, delicate in appearance, and with good skin, the relic earned the nickname "Loulan Beauty." Experts confirmed that the woman lived some 3,800 years ago.

Later, more of such mummies were excavated, reflecting the characteristically dry weather of the region. In 1998, the well-preserved body of an infant that died about 4,000 years ago and the remains of an old man who died more than 1,500 years ago were also unearthed in the area.

The woman has distinct Caucasian features: light-colored hair and steep nose bridge. The Loulan Beauty has long hair and is only 5.2 feet tall. Archaeologists also found colorful painted and crosshatched coffins that looked like new. Archaeologists believe that the area's residents were both Mongolians and Caucasians. But how the Caucasians came to Western China thousands of years ago and then suddenly disappeared remains another mystery.