Ruins of the Ancient City of Manas

Ruins of the Ancient City of Manas

The Ruins of the Ancient City of Manas is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

About three kilometers northeast of Manas County in Lou’nan Village, Tougang Township, there lies an ancient city known locally as "Pochengzi." The remnants of dilapidated city walls still surround the site—this is the Ruins of the Ancient City of Manas, which was once a highly important military garrison along the Silk Road.

Known locally as "Lou’nan Ancient City" or "Pochengzi," the Ancient City of Manas was designated as an Autonomous Region-level Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the People's Government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as early as 1990. Judging from the large number of precious cultural relics unearthed both above and below ground at the site, the age of this city is roughly comparable to that of other ancient cities along the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, such as the Changji Ancient City, Liuyun Ancient City, and Beizhuangzi Ancient City. Due to historical reasons, parts of the land within the ancient city have been cultivated as farmland, and even the western city wall ruins were once turned into a makeshift path for farming machinery used by local farmers.

In 2019, the Ruins of the Ancient City of Manas were included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further reading:

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units