Lukqun Historical and Cultural Tourism Area The famous ancient city of Liuzhong, located on the ancient Silk Road, sits in Lukqun Town. It is a renowned ancient town with a history of over two thousand years. Since ancient times, Liuzhong City was known for its willow trees, earning it the title “Green Willow Town.” Poetic verses such as “Every day the walls stand, willows grow year after year; by Flaming Mountain, the willows herald spring” celebrate its lush willows.
The Thousand Buddha Caves of Shengjinkou are located about 40 kilometers northeast of Turpan City. They are the ruins of Buddhist temples dating from the Tang to the Yuán Dynasty. There are four cave complexes in total: two situated on the mountainside and two at the foot of the mountain. The site includes 10 caves built from adobe bricks, some of which feature murals. The ceilings are adorned with lotus flowers, bare trees with crows, vines laden with grapes, and weeping willows in the shade, all framed by swirling cloud motifs, as well as images of a thousand buddhas. Most of the caves bear inscriptions in the Uyghur script. One of the caves features a wall with a Uyghur-language Buddhist scripture. In addition, the courtyard at the foot of the mountain houses a main hall and monks' quarters, where Brahmi-script documents, Sanskrit and Chinese Buddhist scriptures, as well as Tang Dynasty "Kaiyuan Tongbao" coins have been discovered.
The Astana Tombs are located about 40 kilometers from Turpan City. They served as a public burial ground for officials and commoners of both urban and rural areas in the ancient Kingdom of Gaochang, stretching 5 kilometers from east to west and 2 kilometers from north to south. The tombs were divided by family clans and social castes, with boundaries marked by natural gravel, creating clearly delineated zones. The Astana tombs feature a sloping passageway leading to a cave chamber…
Just past the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, a short distance to the southeast lies Xizhou Tiansheng Garden, designed and built by young artist Zhang Wenge. On May 1, 1991, Xizhou Tiansheng Garden opened to the public as Phase I of the "Turpan Silk Road Art Museum," featuring architectural elements depicting stories from *Journey to the West*, with a total construction area of approximately 3,000…
The Turpan Museum is located on the west side of Gaochang Road, the busiest street in Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Built in 1989, it covers an area of 9 mu and consists of two parts: the main building and the Giant Rhinoceros Exhibition Hall, with a total floor space of 2,000 square meters. The museum is fully equipped with modern security facilities, enclosed…
Divine Spring is located in Erpu Township, Turpan City, approximately 28 kilometers west of Turpan. It is accessible via an asphalt road nearby. The spring sits at an elevation of 100 meters. Divine Spring is situated in a gully at the southern foot of the Flaming Mountains, where the water emerges from Cretaceous strata in the form of seepage. The outflow is slow, with a daily discharge of about 0.51 cubic meters, slightly increasing in summer. The water temperature remains relatively stable year-round at around 15 degrees Celsius. Visually, the water is colorless and transparent, odorless but has a bitter and salty taste, with a total mineralization level reaching 85.9 grams per liter.
Located on the western terrace of the Jiaohe Ancient City gorge, separated from the city by a single ravine. The entire tomb area is a long, narrow terrace, covering a large expanse of over 100,000 square meters. Only three tombs were excavated in the 1950s, yielding more than 500 burial artifacts. These mainly include pottery, embossed gold ornaments, copper petal-shaped decorations, crystal red beads, Kai...
Sugong Tower is located in the southeastern suburbs of Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, about 6 kilometers from the city center. Locally known among the Uyghur people as the "Turpan Tower," an inscribed stone tablet preserved at the tower’s entrance documents the reasons for its construction in both Uyghur and Chinese on its two sides. The tower was built by...
Turpan's Desert Botanical Garden The Turpan Desert Botanical Garden is affiliated with the Xinjiang Institute of Biology, Pedology and Desert Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is one of the 12 botanical gardens directly under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the only desert botanical garden in the arid desert region of Northwest China, and also the lowest-altitude botanical garden in the world. It is located about 10 kilometers southeast of Turpan City…
Uygur Ancient Village is located in Yargole Village, Yar Town, Gaochang District, Turpan City — a place with a history of several hundred years. Adjacent to the ancient city of Jiaohe, it covers an area of over 20,000 square meters. It is a tourist attraction that showcases the original Uygur folk customs and the historical culture of Jiaohe, and serves as a large complex of museums. The site includes the Uygur Folk Custom Exhibition Hall and...
Ten Thousand Buddhas Palace Amidst the misty haze of the Flaming Mountains and along the lush Muted Gully, a grand cultural landmark stands on the west side of National Highway 312 with its unique artistic style. It is the Xinjiang Desert Earth Art Museum, which opened to the public in May 1991. Geographic coordinates: 89°32′7″E, 4…
Located on the cliffs of the western bank of the Murgu River Valley in the central section of the Flaming Mountains, over 40 kilometers southeast of Turpan, the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves consist of 83 caves, more than 40 of which still retain over 1,200 square meters of murals. The earliest caves were carved in the 6th century, with the site flourishing during the mid-9th century under the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho. The Buddhist statues and murals have been damaged to varying degrees…
Turpan, anciently known as Gushi, was a key town on the ancient Silk Road. Located in the central part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it neighbors Urumqi to the north across the Tianshan Mountains. With a long and fascinating history, Turpan has been the political, economic, and cultural center of China’s Western Regions since the Han dynasties, and a vital hub along the Silk Road. Since the Ming Dynasty, it has been called Turpan…
Oil Sand Hill At the junction of the rear hills of Urumqi and the Mongolian Autonomous County of Hoboksar, there is a fault mountain range formed by the mutual compression and uplift of mountains during the orogeny. Intense crustal movements caused underground oil layers to spill along the faults and seep to the surface, creating an exposed oil layer landscape spanning over 20 square kilometers. Of this, …
Astana Tombs Known as the “Underground Museum,” the Astana–Karahoja ancient tomb complex is located on the Gobi wasteland in the northern suburbs of Gaochang. The tomb cluster stretches approximately 5 kilometers from east to west and 2 kilometers from north to south, covering an area of about 10 square kilometers. After the liberation, this area was developed in conjunction with farmland water conservancy projects and road construction, including the Turpan Toyuk Thousand Buddha Caves…
The Ancient City of Yar Lake is the ruins of the administrative center of Gaochang Commandery during China’s Gaochang Kingdom period. It is located in Yar Naizi Gully Village, Yar Township, approximately 10 kilometers west of Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Situated in an area embraced by the crossing of two riverbeds, it was historically also known as the Ancient City of Jiaohe. In the early 20th century, Germans such as A. von Le Coq, Japanese explorers like Tachibana Zuichō and Kiyonobu Fujita, and...
Introduction The interior is spacious, and the architecture is solemn, simple, and can accommodate thousands of worshippers for prayer. During Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, Muslims from nearby gather in groups of three or five, while those from farther away come on donkeys, bicycles, or by car from all directions to recite scriptures, worship, and pray for blessings.
Introduction Gaochang Ancient City is rectangular in shape, with a perimeter of 5.4 kilometers, divided into three parts: the outer city, the inner city, and the palace city. The outer wall has a base width of 12 meters and a height of 11.5 meters, built from rammed earth. There are nine city gates in total, with the one in the northwest of the west side being the best preserved. The city was abandoned during the wars in the late 13th century, and most of its buildings disappeared...
Introduction The Desert Clay Art Museum welcomes a continuous stream of domestic and international visitors with large-scale sculptures such as the "Ancient Castle on the Silk Road," "Kalakho," "Princess Iron Fan," "Tang Seng Preaching Scriptures," "Maitreya Buddha," and "Guanyin Hall." This scenic area consists of 20 attractions, offering rich content that ranges from ancient myths and legends to ethnic...
Introduction The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves were first carved during the later period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and continued through the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, and Yuan dynasties, remaining one of the Buddhist centers in the Western Regions throughout. Originally there were 83 caves, of which 57 still exist, with 40 featuring murals. The total area of the murals is 1,200 square meters. The mural content mainly includes “Jataka Transformation” story paintings centered on large standing Buddha images...