Ancient City of Hainuke

Ancient City of Hainuke

The Ancient City of Hainuke is a cultural tourism attraction.

Ancient City of Hainuke

The Ancient City of Hainuke is situated on the southern bank of the Yichebuhu Canal, approximately 4 kilometers northeast of Hainuke Village. The surrounding terrain is open and flat, predominantly modern agricultural land. The city was first established during the Yuan Dynasty and is thought to have been Yelieqian City during the era of Aruhu, which served as the site of his royal encampment. According to the research of Mr. Huang Wenbi, this city existed around the same time as Alimali City, dating back to the 13th century during the Yuan Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the Dzungar people still used Hainuke as a political and religious center. The Ancient City of Hainuke was a Mongolian khan’s city from the Yuan Dynasty. The city is not large in scale and consists of an inner and outer city. The walls of the outer city have long since disappeared, leaving only an earthen ridge with a circumference of over 2 kilometers. The inner city is roughly rectangular, with remnants of its walls still visible. These walls, built from rammed earth, stand about 2 meters high. The overall layout of the city is an oval shape, longer from north to south and narrower from east to west, covering a total area of 500,000 square meters. To the east, west, and north of the city, there are traces of a moat. Surrounding the eastern, western, and southern peripheries of the city are remains of burial sites, characterized by earthen mound tombs. To the east of the city, there are remnants of a spring ditch and temple architecture, which some believe to be the remains of the Silver Top Temple. A significant number of cultural relics have been unearthed within the city, including scattered pottery fragments in red, gray, and brown hues, wheel-made and plain-surfaced. Other artifacts include jade seals, tiger-head steel seals, brass daggers, and pottery jars. In 1966, the site was designated as an autonomous region-level key cultural relics protection unit and is under legal protection. However, the city has suffered severe damage, including devastating destruction by gold prospectors in the mid-20th century. Today, almost no architectural ruins remain.