Turpan: The Oasis City of the Flaming Mountains

Turpan, an oasis city in the Turpan Depression of Xinjiang — at 154 meters below sea level, the second lowest place on earth — is one of the most remarkable sites in the history of Chinese civilization. Located on the northern Silk Road, Turpan was the center of the ancient kingdom of Gaochang and the capital of the Uyghur kingdom of Qocho. The city's unique irrigation system, its Buddhist cave temples, and its ruined cities rising from the desert make it an open-air museum of Central Asian history.

The Turpan Depression: Geography and Agriculture

The Turpan Depression is one of the hottest and driest places in China, with summer temperatures regularly exceeding 45°C. Yet the oasis has supported human settlement for millennia, thanks to an ingenious irrigation system known as karez (坎儿井). The karez system consists of underground channels that tap into the groundwater table and carry water to the surface through gravity, preventing evaporation in the intense desert heat.

The karez system, possibly introduced from Persia, has been in use in Turpan for over 2,000 years. There are over 1,100 karez wells in the Turpan region, with a total length of over 5,000 kilometers. The water from these channels irrigates vineyards, cotton fields, and fruit orchards, making Turpan famous for its grapes, melons, and raisins.

The Kingdom of Gaochang

The ancient city of Gaochang, located 40 kilometers southeast of modern Turpan, was one of the great Silk Road cities. Founded in the first century BCE, Gaochang served as the capital of a succession of kingdoms and empires: the Chinese Tang dynasty, the Uyghur kingdom of Qocho, and the Mongol Yuan dynasty. At its peak, the city covered over two square kilometers within its massive adobe walls.

Gaochang was a center of Buddhism, with over thirty monasteries within its walls. The Tang monk Xuanzang, whose journey to India was the inspiration for the novel 'Journey to the West,' passed through Gaochang in 629 CE and was received with great honor by the king, who tried to persuade him to stay as the state's religious leader. Xuanzang refused but promised to return after his pilgrimage, a vow he fulfilled on his way back to China.

The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves

The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, located in the Flaming Mountains near Turpan, are a complex of over 70 Buddhist cave temples dating from the fifth to the fourteenth centuries. The caves are famous for their murals, which combine Chinese, Indian, Sogdian, and Uyghur artistic elements. The 'Uyghur Princes' mural, depicting rows of Uyghur nobles dressed in silk robes, is one of the most important surviving examples of Uyghur portraiture.

The caves were damaged by iconoclasm during the Islamic period and by the removal of murals by foreign explorers in the early twentieth century. The German explorer Albert von Le Coq cut large sections of murals from the cave walls and transported them to Berlin, where many were destroyed during World War II. What remains in situ has been restored by Chinese conservators.

The Ancient City of Jiaohe

Jiaohe (Yarkhoto), another ruined city near Turpan, is one of the best-preserved ancient cities in China — not because it has been restored, but because it was built of rammed earth and simply abandoned. Located on a plateau between two rivers, Jiaohe was the capital of the Cheshi kingdom from the second century BCE and later an important Tang dynasty garrison.

Unlike most ancient cities, which were continuously rebuilt on the same site, Jiaohe was abandoned after its destruction by the Mongols in the thirteenth century. The desert climate preserved the adobe walls, streets, and foundations, creating a ghost city that visitors can explore. The site covers over 200,000 square meters and includes the remains of temples, pagodas, government offices, and residential quarters.

Grape Culture and the Turpan Grape Festival

Turpan is famous throughout China for its grapes. The region grows over 500 varieties, including the seedless white grapes used for raisins and the fragrant 'Horse Milk' grapes prized for eating fresh. Vineyards cover the landscape around the oasis, with grape trellises shading the courtyards of traditional Uyghur houses.

The Turpan Grape Festival, held annually in August, celebrates the harvest with music, dance, and feasting. Visitors can sample dozens of grape varieties, watch traditional Uyghur performances, and tour the vineyards and wine cellars. The festival is a celebration of the oasis culture that has sustained Turpan for two millennia.

Modern Turpan: Between Tradition and Tourism

Today, Turpan is a major tourist destination on the Silk Road circuit. Visitors come to see the ruined cities of Gaochang and Jiaohe, the Bezeklik Caves, the karez irrigation system, and the Flaming Mountains — a range of red sandstone hills that live up to their name. The Turpan Museum displays mummies from the Bronze Age, remarkably preserved by the dry desert climate.

The tourist economy has brought prosperity but also challenges. The traditional Uyghur culture of Turpan is under pressure from Han Chinese migration and commercialization. The old city, with its mud-brick houses and narrow lanes, is giving way to modern development. Balancing the preservation of Turpan's unique heritage with the demands of economic development remains an ongoing challenge.

Uyghur Life in the Oasis

Turpan's living culture is Uyghur, a Turkic-speaking people whose traditions blend Central Asian, Persian, and Chinese influences. Daily life revolves around the oasis: vineyards and melon fields in summer, underground cellars in the heat, and courtyard houses shaded by grape trellises. Uyghur music, with its long-necked dutar and frame drums, accompanies weddings and festivals, while the local diet of hand-pulled noodles, flat breads, and kebabs reflects the Silk Road's mixing of tastes. The Grape Festival each August turns the oasis into a stage of song and dance. Yet this culture faces pressure from migration and modernization, and the old mud-brick lanes of Turpan are steadily giving way to new construction, a tension common to heritage cities.

The Astana Tombs and Lost Manuscripts

Beside the ruins of Gaochang lie the Astana tombs, a vast cemetery used by the Chinese and local elites of the Turpan oasis from the Jin to the Tang periods. The bone-dry climate preserved an extraordinary archive: wooden documents, silk paintings, woven textiles, and everyday objects placed with the dead. Among the finds are official records, household registers, and personal letters that reveal the administration of the Western Regions in remarkable detail. Painted figurines and carved tomb guardians show the blend of Chinese and Central Asian styles. Because the region was a crossroads, the tombs also yielded manuscripts in several languages, making them a key source for historians of the Silk Road. The Astana cemetery is, in effect, a sealed library of daily life from a lost frontier world.