Milan Ancient City

The ruins of the ancient city of Milan are a group of cross-cultural sites of different ages, including the site of Yixun City in Shanshan, the site of the Han Dynasty, and the site of the ancient fortress in the Tang Dynasty. Ancient Milan is an ancient oasis city in the south of the Taklimakan Desert, located at the intersection of Lop Nur and the Altun Mountains on the Silk Road. Once, it was a busy trading center on the southern route of the Silk Road, an important passage into and out of Central Asia. In order to avoid crossing this "big desert" ("Taklimakan" means "Taklimakan" in the Uyghur language, others call it "the sea of death") and the Tarim Basin, they often choose to bypass the north and south sides of Milan. Ancient Milan was an important base for the Central Dynasty to manage the Western Regions at that time. According to historical records, this place in the Western Han Dynasty was the Yixun City of Loulan in the Western Regions. In the fourth year of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty (77 BC), Yutu Qi, the king of Shanshan (the ancient Loulan Kingdom), asked the Han Dynasty to send a general and troops to settle the fields and Jigu. . In the mid-Tang Dynasty, Milan was occupied by Tubo, and the ancient castle was a military fort built by Tubo. Representative buildings: Gushu Fort The Gushu Fort is a representative building in the ruins of the ancient city of Milan. It is located on the main road of Xingan Highway. It is about 56 meters wide from north to south, and about 70 meters long from east to west. It is an irregular square. The city wall is built with rammed earth. Red willow branches are sandwiched between the rammed earth layer. The rammed earth layer is built with adobe. There are two gaps in the west wall with a width of 5-6 meters, which may be the gate of the ancient fortress. The northern part is a step-shaped large earth slope. The house is built on the slope from the low depression to the north wall of the garrison. The house has a flat roof and no door opening. In the east of the fort is a large house, and in the south is an earthen platform with a height of nearly 13 meters. On the east and west sides of the ancient castle, there are numerous pagodas and large-scale monastery ruins. According to historical records, Fa Xian, a famous monk in ancient my country, taught the Dharma and worshipped Buddha here on the way to Tianzhu in the west or back to his hometown in the east. Todai Temple Todai Temple is another representative building in the ruins of the ancient city of Milan. It is divided into upper and lower floors and is surrounded by a high courtyard wall. Inside the temple is a 12m x 0.6m x 2.4m Buddhist shrine, which still exists in the shrine. The semi-relief statues of Bodhisattvas and Heavenly Kings also have Cirrus cloud stigmas around them. Under the buildings on the east side of the ruins of the Buddhist temple, there are still large statues of Buddha statues and a large Buddha head abandoned on the ground. Xida Temple is a Buddhist temple building opposite to Dongda Temple. It is centered on a 5.6-meter x 12.2-meter rectangular Xumi-style base, and a corridor is placed around the base. building. The Buddhist ruins of the monastery are typical of the early Buddhist culture in the Western Regions. The Buddha statues have vivid postures, patterns, and graceful and concise lines, which provide precious material materials for the study of Chinese and Western culture and art history. Tips: To enter the old city of Milan, you must first go through the formalities at the Ruoqiang County Cultural and Sports Bureau and pay the cultural relics protection and management fee, and you must contact the local cultural and sports bureau for the specific fee. The cultural relic protection fee is about 350.