The Ruins of Khara-Khoto

In the westernmost banner of Inner Mongolia, in the middle of the Gobi Desert, there once stood a prosperous kingdom. It was a center of religious learning, of art and a trading hub. But all that remains now are the crumbling ramparts that once protected the city, a few shattered mud buildings, and scattered sun-bleached bones. Photo: Twitter Khara-Khoto, or “black city” in Mongolian was founded in 1032 AD as the capital of the Western Xia Dynasty (1038–1227) and soon rose to become a thriving trade hub. The city was captured by Genghis Kahn in 1226, but instead of laying to waste as the Khan's Golden Horde usually did to captured cities, Khara-Khoto actually flourished under Mongol rule. During Kublai Khan's time, the city expanded to three times its original size, and was even mentioned by Marco Polo in his travelogue by its Tangut name of Etzina: When you leave the city of Campichu you ride for twelve days, and then reach a city called Etzina, which is towards the north on the verge of the Sandy Desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut. The people are Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country produces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. The inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle, for they have no trade. At this city you must needs lay in victuals for forty days, because when you quit Etzina, you enter on a desert which extends forty days' journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor baiting-place. Under the Mongols, the Tangut people were able to enjoy peaceful existence for nearly 150 years, until the Ming dynasty laid siege to the city in 1372. No one knows exactly how Khara-Khoto fell, but local legend states that the cunning Ming rulers diverted the Ejin River, the city's only water source, that flowed just outside the fortress thus denying the city’s troops and inhabitants of the life-giving elixir.