Ancient Kingdom: Lou Lan City

     I just read an article from a book that I bought and keep for quite a while ago. Inside the content, I just read about an ancient city that had been disappeared from our eyes- the Lou Lan City. I search online and find out something interesting in it. Here is the info.

Loulan was a city along the central Old Silk Road where the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220) central government set up its administrative organs. By the fourth century it was the most prosperous city in Xinjiang with a population of 14,000, where merchants of all nationalities converged. After peaking in the fourth century Loulan went into rapid decline. There are no records of Loulan extant beyond the fifth century. Tang Dynasty Monk Xuanzang wrote in his travel notes on his scripture seeking pilgrimage to India, “The city and houses still stand, but there are no people.”
Archaeologists conclude that a change in river course and deterioration of the natural environment led to the city’s abandonment.


Since Sven Hedin discovered the Loulan City ruins in 1900, it has drawn a steady stream of fascinated visitors from China and beyond. Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of government offices, residences, and Buddhist pagodas, as well as exquisite silk fabrics and glassware. Their most significant finding was a female mummy, the “Loulan beauty,” whose good looks 1,000 years later, are undiminished.

The Loulan ruins are in western Lop Nur in the midst of desert, Yardang landform and hard salt shell where sandstorms are frequent and the weather is changeable. Here the temperature often hits 40 degrees Centigrade at noon and plunges to zero after sunset. The road to Loulan is not easily traveled. It takes several days by cross-country vehicle from Xinjiang’s Ruoqiang, Korla and Turpan, or from Gansu’s Dunhuang. Vehicles can travel no faster than two to three kilometers per hour in the Loulan area, as every two minutes an average three sharp turns must be made.

One of the great mysteries in Chinese history is the disappearance of the ancient city of Loulan.

The most eye-catching architecture is a wooden Buddhist pagoda located in the east of the city ruins. This octagonal-shaped pagoda is ten meters in height, with a square base and a round top.