Gaochang

Gaochang, 40km/25mi southeast of Turpan, was built about 2100 years ago. In AD 630 the monk Xuanzang stayed here during his pilgrimage to India.

In the mid-9th C a tribe of Uigurs emigrated from what is now Mongolia, established a kingdom here and chose Gaochang as their capital. However, the settlement became deserted in the 14th C.

Today little remains of Gaochang's former glory - just the towns walls, made of compressed clay, 5m/16ft tall and some 5km/3mi long; in the southwest, the ruins of a temple complex which once covered an area of 1ha/2.5acres; the network of streets which divided Gaochang into three sections, the outer town, the inner town and the palace district, a lay-out which is reminiscent of that of Chang'an