Tonggusibashi City Site

Tonggusibashi City Site

The Tonggusibashi City Site is located in Paixianbaizha Township, Xinhe County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It was one of the larger ancient fortresses of the ancient Kucha Kingdom and served as a key military stronghold under the Tang Dynasty’s Anxi Protectorate.

Constructed during the Tang Dynasty, the city site features a square layout, stretching 250 meters from east to west and 230 meters from north to south, with a total area of 49,000 square meters. The city walls are 6.2 meters high and were built using rammed earth mixed with willow branches. Prior to 1949, excavations uncovered house ruins, wooden artifacts, cloth fragments, and fragmentary documents bearing the reign title of the Tang Dynasty's Dali era.

The ancient city features prominent wall bastions at each of its four corners and also includes well-preserved horse-face battlements. The grand scale and intact preservation make it a representative architectural site of the Kucha region. It holds significant value for studying the political, economic, military, and cultural development of the Kucha area, as well as for understanding the location of the Tang Dynasty’s Anxi Protectorate headquarters and its governance over the Western Regions.

In May 2006, the Tonggusibashi City Site was designated as part of the sixth group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level by the State Council.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level