Ancient Jiaohe city layout model. The layout of the ancient city is roughly divided into three
parts. At the north end of the main road, you will see a large-scale monastery and
magnificent towers in the north of the city, which may be pagodas used for burial or
worship in ancient times.
Jiaohe ruins cover a large area, which can be
divided into monasteries, residential buildings,
and Government offices to name just a few.
Furthermore, the buildings in ancient cities are
rammed with loess or clayey materials which are
very distinctive.
The archaeological finds revealed that the
Jushi people had already been able to make
iron tools for agriculture and livestock farming
activities during the second century BC. The
numerous historical articles unearthed at Jiaohe
provided rich data for the study of the social
economic conditions, politics, ethnic groups and
the evolution of the ancient civilisation.
Ancient Wells
One of the questions posed by most visitors is how
the residents obtained their water since the river is
10m below the cliff top plateau. Their main source
of water was wells – there are traces of about 300
wells in the city. Most wells have a diameter of 1m
and grove lines on the walls of the wells, formed
by the cord’s friction. In 1993, archaeologists
excavated a buried ancient well and they obtained
water at a depth of 27m.
The other means of access to water was likely
via the 4.1m-wide East Gate which is 8m above
the river bed. Archaeologists opined that this gate
served mainly as a passage for obtaining water
from the river for the residents who lived within the
city walls. There is a pit filled with stone lumps at
the right side of this East Gate which were used as
weapons against invading enemies.
Jiaohe was designated as a China State
Council’s national major art and science protection
area in 1961. With funding from the Government,
the preservation and conservation works started
in 1993 to 1995 which consisted of the following:
a) testing the methods and materials for the
protection and conservation
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