INGENIEUR
Ancient Jiahoe City, China
By Chin Siew Yin
T
he city of Turpan is a prefecture-level city
located in the east of Xinjiang province,
People's Republic of China. Just 10km west
of Turpan city, lies the abandoned city of Jiaohe
which was once a thriving ancient city. Jiaohe
means “where two rivers meet”. What remains
now are the ruins of buildings, roads and basic
facilities that are now maintained under the
heritage body administration.
I took a trip there to understand the history
and the construction techniques of that bygone
era. After a 30-minute ride from Turpan city, I was
guided to an isolated modern museum shaped like
an old fortress. At the entrance hall, there was a big
sign proclaiming “Jiaohe ancient city – the world’s
only city built with natural earth”. Another signboard
displayed the phrase “A place where two rivers
meet; the birth place of wisdom”. There were also
photos and artifacts narrating the history of the
creation of this city and its destruction by attackers,
and its eventual abandonment until this day.
The site of the ruins of Jiaohe’s ancient city is
about 1km away from the isolated museum and we
were transported to it in a 30-seater electric buggy.
From 108 BC to 450 AD, Jiaohe was the
capital of the Anterior Jushi Kingdom. It was an
important site along the Silk Road trade route
leading to the west, and was adjacent to the Korla
and Karasahr kingdoms to the west. From 450
AD until 640 AD it became Jiao prefecture in the
Tang Dynasty. In 640 AD, it was made the seat
of the new Jiaohe County. From 640 AD until 658
AD, it was also the seat of the Protector General
of the Western Regions, the highest level military
post of a Chinese military commander posted in
the west. Since the beginning of the ninth century
it had become Jiaohe prefecture of the Uyghur
Khaganate, until their kingdom was conquered by
the Kyrgyz soon after in the year 840.
Jiaohe City Plan
The city was built on a large islet in the middle
of two rivers, which formed natural defenses. It
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is 1,650m in length and 300m wide at its widest
point. Steep cliffs more than 30m high on all sides
of the river acted as natural walls. This explains
why the city was built without walls. The layout of
the city consists of eastern and western residential
districts, while the northern district was reserved
for Buddhist sites of temples and stupas. Along
with these, there are notable graveyards and the
ruins of a large Government office in the southern
part of the eastern district. At its peak, it had a
population of 7,000, according to Tang dynasty
records.
It was finally abandoned after its destruction
during an invasion by the Mongols, led by Genghis
Khan, in the 13 th century.
Building Structure
Besides the absence of walls, the building
style has another significant feature, i.e. most
buildings, including wide streets, were cut out
of the primary earth. Cave dwellings were also
directly cut from the primary earth. Most of the
single-storey houses were composed of four
walls left after cutting through the primary earth
and supported by wood. Some of them were
carved into the cliff or dug into the earth, while
others were built by piled up earth. There is only
one large residential building made from brick
blocks. All of the residential buildings had two
floors: one aboveground and one underground.
Although abandoned a long time ago, they are
well preserved. The lack of rain and the arid
climate in the region throughout the last few
centuries are likely reasons why Jiaohe city’s
structures avoided significant decay.
Adobe materials, which are a mixture of earth
and straw made into bricks and dried in the
sun for construction, commonly used in ancient
buildings, were not that visible in the Jiaohe
ruins. During the Uyghur period, adobe materials
were widely used to build vaulted roofs, which
is evidenced by the vaulting grooves left on the
walls of many rooms.