Astana Hala and zhuogu tombs

Astana ancient tombs are public cemeteries of officials and people in ancient Gaochang. They were formed in the 3rd-8th century. The ancient tombs were buried in different areas according to their families and castes, with natural gravel as the boundary. The ancient tombs in Astana mainly buried Han people, and at the same time buried ethnic minorities such as Cheshi, Turks, Huns, Gaoche and Zhaowu. The corpses in the ancient tombs were naturally dried without decay. What's shocking is the completeness of these mummies. Some of them can even see their eyelashes clearly! In addition, the paintings and clay figurines unearthed from the ancient tombs are just like new ones, and even have intact ancient food.

Astana Hala and zhuogu tombs

The ancient tombs of Astana Hala and Zhuo are located about 40 Li southeast of Turpan, Xinjiang, and adjacent to the old city of Gaochang in the south. Astana, Hala and Zhuo are the names of two neighboring villages. Astana, which means "capital" in Uighur, is called "Sanbao" in Chinese; halahezhuo, which is called "Erbao" in Chinese. The burial area is about 5 kilometers long from east to west and 2 kilometers wide from north to south, covering an area of 10 square kilometers. In 1957, the State Council announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit. According to the epitaphs and documents unearthed from the tomb, the earliest date of the tomb is 273, the ninth year of Taishi in the Western Jin Dynasty, and the latest date is 778, the thirteenth year of Dali in the Tang Dynasty. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, explorers from Russia, Britain, Germany and Japan carried out destructive excavation here. In 1930, Chinese scholar Huang Wenbi visited here. From 1959 to 1979, Chinese scholars carried out 13 scientific archaeological excavations, clearing more than 400 tombs, and unearthed more than 10000 historical relics, including documents, epitaphs, silk, wool, cotton and hemp fabrics, coins, clay and wood figurines, pottery and wooden utensils, paintings, crops, fruits and foods. There are also hundreds of thousand year old ancient corpses, which are precious human specimens for studying the ethnic and ethnic characteristics of Xinjiang residents and their fusion process. The tomb complex is an underground museum.

Address: Sanbao Township, Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Longitude: 89.530107

Latitude: 42.876735

Tel: 0995-8692202

Tour time: 2-3 hours

Transportation information: it takes 40 minutes to get there by chartered bus; it costs about 80 yuan per taxi to get back and forth, or take the Turpan Shanshan bus from Turpan passenger station to get off at shengjinkou, and then transfer to the local passenger tricycle to Astana tomb (Turpan shengjinkou 5 yuan per person, shengjinkou Astana 2 yuan per person) You can also take the shuttle bus from the passenger station to Sanbao township government and get off at the entrance of Astana ancient tombs (Turpan Sanbao 5 yuan / person)

Ticket information: 20 yuan / person

Opening hours: 8:00-21:00 in peak season (4.21-10.20); 10:00-18:30 in off season (10.21-next year 4.20)