Capital of Tartary. Results. Are the Chinese hiding the traces of Khanbalik?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

And now we have come to the denouement of our investigation of the main region of Tartary - Katay, - and its capital, the city of Khanbalik. After examining dozens of documentary evidence left by the contemporaries of Khubilai and other rulers of this mysterious country, we found out the approximate location of traces of the legendary residence of the Tartar khans.

For those who have not yet understood what we are talking about here, we strongly recommend that you look at the previous articles in this series, namely:

And if you are already in the subject, then let's briefly go over the main conclusions obtained as a result of our documentary "excavations". From general to specific. And let's add something else.

Key findings from the historical investigation

The first series of facts. The empire of the great khan was called by his contemporaries “Tartary”, and not “Great Tartary”. The empire was created not earlier than the end of the XIII century by Genghis Khan (a Scythian by origin) on the basis of the regions of Scythia and Serik (“nationalities” with an “Aryan” haplogroup) by annexing the lands of neighboring peoples. The center of the new empire was the province of KATAI, where during the first seven Great Khan generations, four seasonal residences with harems, ruled by empress wives, were located at a sufficient distance from each other. Up to 10,000 people were subordinate to each spouse.

Katay bordered on the traditional Chinese-Chin-Xing (China / Sina) territories in the south, Tangut in the west, Niuche Tartars (later they took the name "Manchus") in the east, as well as the Lop / Gobee desert and Altai mountains in the northwest …

Second series of facts. It is difficult to establish exact data on the original composition of Tartary and the date of its foundation due to the lack of maps and written evidence created in the XIII-XIV centuries.

Realistic dating of certain events of the Middle Ages is hindered by three main factors:

1) the absence of a "lifetime" date on some documents (paintings, maps, miniatures, in books) and their late dating; most often, this leads to the fact that the sources are artificially “aged”;

2) in the 16th century, historical and cartographic works “after Ptolemy” were published. Although, according to the official version of history, he lived in ancient times; why it was necessary to wait more than a thousand years to make his findings public is unknown. It is interesting that in such works the political situation of the Middle Ages and "Antiquity" are mixed. In a situation when on the same map you see France, Chaldea, Troy, Babylonia, Scythia and medieval Tartary, all sorts of temporary landmarks are lost. In fact, these works "after Ptolemy" were not the only ones where such a mixture of eras can be found. Here is a map attributed to Christopher Columbus himself.

3) the third factor - European historiography “settled down” gradually, but already from the 16th century, historians began to “age” world history and, in particular, European history. In the 17th century, for example, in the book of 1677 (when Tartary begins to burst at the seams), there is an extensive table of events and dates on a scale “from the creation of the world” in the Catholic manner (now it is 6018). And even in this table, you can find a lot of time shifts, when certain events occur 200-300 years later or earlier than accepted by modern historical "science". Some centuries are practically "empty" for events - apparently, stretching out the history of the world, the scientists of that time had not yet had time to figure out what to insert there. At the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. European historians come to a common denominator, and the Scaliger chronology is considered the only correct one.

Given these factors that complicate the reconstruction of the historical development of Tartary, it is impossible to know exactly how this Asian empire began its victorious movement across the continent and how it reached its peak. There is not enough written evidence that Europe was part of this empire, if only indirect signs. But we can prove that the primordially Russian lands belong to Tartary even thanks to digitized maps of the alleged XIV century.

To help, for example, a nautical chart like 1339 by Angelino Dulcert. On them, the lands of Rostov-on-Don and modern Ukraine are marked with khan flags with Ukrainian “falcons” and crescents upside down. The same banners flutter over Siberian cities, where the great Khan Usbek is depicted (Usbec; also a close descendant of Genghis Khan). Polonia (Poland), according to the map, marked at this time on its flag a crescent moon connected to a simple cross. Most likely, the real date of creation of the map is almost a hundred years later than the declared one. In style and handwriting, it resembles the Catalan atlas of the world allegedly of the end of the XIV century.

Third series of facts. Khanbalik stands out on the maps of contemporaries as the capital of Tartary, from about the middle of the 15th century. To the east of it - the city and region of Camul, in the south - Sina / China (China), in the north - Altai with the tombs of the khans, in the east - everyone draws differently, sometimes Lake Xandu, usually the sea-ocean; this happened until the Europeans began to visit these places, approximately, from 1660-80, that is, the time of the complete fall of the capital and the transformation of the empire (Tartaria) into the Great, allied Tartary.

It would be unfair not to mention the structure of Khanbalik itself during its heyday. According to the descriptions of Western pundits, it was a huge city 28 miles in circumference. This raises the question of how many meters were meant in one such mile. Usually a mile is more than a kilometer. But in those places, Chinese miles were often used - "li", about a little over half a kilometer in length.

A separate article can be written about the features of the capital of Tartary and its palaces. But we will try to briefly walk through the main characteristics of the city from the descriptions of the Venetian Marco Polo, a contemporary of the great khan Kublai.

The traveler says that during the reign of this emperor, Khanbalik was 24 miles in circumference. The streets were square, and the city itself, square in shape, looked "like a chessboard." The walls of the city fortress were surrounded by a wide moat and rose in height by 10 steps (approximately, 7, 5 m), in the corners of the outer fence of the capital there were gates for the movement of residents. In the center of the southern wall is the main, khan's entrance - only for the passage of the emperor. At the corners of the fortress and between them - along a large tower.

There was another such square inside the city walls, and it also had 8 “palaces” (towers), the doors in the inner walls were located in the same way as in the outer ones. This was the imperial palace complex, inside which was the main palace of the great khan; the building was adjacent to the northern wall of the complex and was one-story, raised above the ground to a height of 10 palms (approximately 1 m).

The palace was so huge that the reception hall alone could hold 6,000 people (according to Marco Polo). In addition to the hall, the palace had chambers for the khan's family, the emperor's “cabinet” chambers, his treasury, etc. The Venetian writes that at that time in the world there were no buildings similar to this in size and chic design.

On the southern side of the courtyard, inside the palace complex, there was a park with beautiful trees, including fruit trees; there were quietly walking various animals - birds, roe deer, animals … Above the thick grass stretched a path at a height of two cubits from the ground.

Behind the northern wall of the complex (in the north-west) there was a large lake, from where the great khan was caught for dinner of various types of fish. The lake, into which a small river carrying fish flowed, was man-made. The excavated land formed a nearby large hill with a height of 100 "good" steps (0.75-0, 80 m * 100 sh.), Which equals 75-80 m (the height of an ordinary five-story building is 15 m) the summit took 100 steps, then the height of the hill was less). There was also a park on it, where the great khan ordered to plant any type of plant he liked, some trees, on his order, were transplanted on this hill along with the roots. In the center of the park there was a small recreation palace.

Khan ordered to build a palace of the same size (as the main Great Khan palace) - for his son, the future emperor. It stands on the other side of the lake, writes Marco Polo, and there is a bridge “crossing the water from one (palace) to another”.

Summarizing the features of the city and the palace complex in the capital of Tartary, it is important to note their rather strong difference from the characteristics of Beijing and the Forbidden City. Despite this circumstance, since the flood of 1642, Europeans are increasingly convinced that the capital of Tartary is located in Beijing. The logic of such conclusions of contemporaries can be understood by reading the previous article of this cycle.

The city of Khanbalik (the Venetian explains: “Kan-Baligh” = “City of the Khan”) was located 10 miles east of the wide river Polisangin, which flows into the ocean. Pulisanghin was crossed by a 24-arch marbled bridge; the length of the structure was 300 "good" steps (300 * 0.75 m), which is equal to 225 m. The width of the bridge across the Polisangin was equal to eight "good" steps.

Further to the west, another river flowed - the Karamoran (“Black River”). In the English translation of Marco Polo's 1903 edition with commentaries and additions from 1920, the footnote says that by this name all European contemporaries and some Muslim authors of that time meant the Yellow River, or Yellow River.

Thus, we can conclude that the Polisangin River with an average channel width of 250 m flowed east of the Yellow River, that is, the Polisangin was not the main channel of the Yellow River, but, most likely, was connected with it. The location to the west of Katay and Khanbalik of the Yellow River (which, according to the descriptions of Marco Polo, was so wide that it was impossible to throw a bridge across it) shows that the main residence of the great Khan was located in the places now called Ordos Prefecture in Inner Mongolia (People's Republic of China).

One more detail - across the river, not far from Khanbalik, there should be the remains of the earlier city of the khan - the city of Taidu.

The fourth series of facts about Katai and Khanbalik. In 1557, in the places of China (China / Sina), KATAYA (CATHAYO) and Kokonor Tartares (east of the Chinese Shanxi), a flood occurred (apparently, there was a tsunami from the Yellow Sea), which created the Qinghai salt lake (Kukunor) in the center of the Kukunor Plain. The length of the lake is about 105 km, the maximum width is up to 65 km, the area is 4200 km², the greatest known depth is 38 m. The reservoir is located at an altitude of 3205 m. The date of the flood may differ from the real one. There is a possibility that this flood destroyed the first khan's city of Taidu, and there was a need to build a new residence - the city of Khanbalik. But this is only a version that requires more detailed research to confirm. By the way, now there are a lot of salt lakes in Ordos, apparently, this is a silent proof that the flood really happened here several centuries ago.

The second known disaster that affected the landscape and history of local states was the powerful flood of 1642 due to the flooding of the Yellow River. The water killed 300,000 people. Most likely, it was this event that led to the fall of the capital of Tartary. By the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. Europeans drew on the maps of these places the cities of Campion and Camul, neighboring with Khanbalik, at some distance from the Yellow River, closer to the Gobi Desert. Obviously, they were able to survive after a large-scale flood, which cannot be said about Khanbalik itself. After the flood of the Yellow River, it gradually disappears from the maps of contemporaries, and Tartary, having turned into “Great Tartary”, begins year after year to be pulled apart by neighboring empires.

It must be said that the Yellow River for centuries has prevented the Chinay Chinese from living in peace and periodically steals hundreds of thousands of lives from this people. The Mountain of China spills about every 20 years and is now covered with dams to control the water level. Let us recall the floods on the Yellow River in 1887 and 1938, which led to the death of 900 thousand and 500 thousand people, respectively.

It should be admitted that finding the destroyed city of Khanbalik after a series of several large floods will be a difficult task for researchers.

Why there can be no Khanbalik near Kurakhan Ulan-Nur

And by the way, about that map from 1747 by Thomas Kitchin, who points to Lake Kurakhan Ulan Nor (Nor / Nur - “lake”) as the approximate location of the Great Khan residence. All maps of that time indicate that this reservoir stands on the outskirts of the Altai Mountains, that is, very close to the tombs of the Tartar emperors; and this does not fit with the data, for example, Marco Polo. He writes that the journey from Katay to the tombs took more than 100 days. If we assume that the average speed of the funeral procession was 2 km per hour (taking into account descents and ascents), sleep took about 5 hours, plus another 3 hours for meals and 3 hours of rests (1 halt - 1 hour) … 24 hours - 5 hours - 6 hours = 13 hours of travel per day. The procession took place about 26 km a day (2 km / h * 13 h). It turns out 2600 km. Most likely, for more than 100 days of travel, the procession allowed itself regular breaks for a long time, which affected the speed. Thus, Kurakhan Ulan Nur cannot be the location of Khanbalik.

Another point about this lake is that it is very difficult to find in our time. Perhaps it no longer exists. On the territory of Inner Mongolia, lakes are constantly drying up. To my own surprise, a rather large body of water in the province of Ordos - Karaman, indicated on almost all maps from the 18th century - left only a trace in a semi-desert area, and it is clearly visible on satellite maps.

Ordos - a province that preserves the great past of Tartary

Now it's time to get to know Ordos himself.

It is a province of the large macro-region Inner Mongolia in China. The official version of history tries to convince us that these lands became part of the Chinese state in 1649, allegedly then they were divided into 6 khoshuns (districts). We do not see any of this on the maps of the 17th century. On most maps, after the flood of 1642, these lands belong to Tartaria, where the political center of the empire is located. After 1688, the region is already located in Chinese Tartary (belonging to China / Chin) and is first called Ordos, on some maps this area is generally empty, without cities, sometimes several settlements are indicated (among them the city of Campion is a neighbor of Khanbalik) and destroyed cities are mentioned in this area (formerly Katay and Kara-Katay).

Still, historians recognize the Scythian past of Ordos. And of course, they attribute it to distant antiquity, because the Scythians “died out” by the 6th century AD. Among the archaeological finds are gilded boots with patterns, bronze and gold plaques, made in a style that is sometimes so close to the Scythian that it seems as if they were made by the same master. Among the artifacts found there are also metal plates, including those with swastika symbols.

However, if you look at Ordos from above, you get the impression that the city was built on the basis of another equally large settlement. Here and there you can see the traces of streets - sometimes they seem to bend around something rounded, sometimes the “ancient” city seems to be in a “cage” or “rectangle”. Often in the provinces, especially in Ordos, one can see high and not very high "mounds" - mounds planted with even rows of young trees (they go as if in circles, narrowing from the very tops of the embankments and expanding downward) - this is how the Chinese try to hide "structures”Of non-Chinese origin.

And given the traces of quite a lot of human activity in these places, the published archaeological finds are, in my opinion, too scarce. Dishes and other household items, clothing, jewelry, bones and skulls of people are practically not advertised. Plaques often depict horses and riders. But why horse harness (ammunition) is practically absent among the demonstrated archaeological finds? It seems that only that which does not convey the national characteristics of the nationality that lived here before the Mongoloids is on public display. The objects found and their style become the basis for the creation of new iconic historical systems during the construction of local monuments, architectural structures, clothing and household items, as if reconstructed for tourists.

For example, in Ordos, they often mean a trident under the guise of a symbol of the khan's power; they attach it to scepters as a pommel. But the contemporaries of the great khans depicted this knob in different ways, as if they did not know for sure its real shape.

About the flags of Tartary. Modern historians believe that a circle with a crescent was drawn on the banners of the imperial dynasty. However, it is hardly possible to find in the public domain ancient documents that would prove that this symbol belongs to Genghis Khan and his dynasty. But let us recall the symbol already seen on the map of the alleged XIV century (author: Angelino Dulchert) on the banners of the Tartar Empire, which soared over the cities of Eurasia up to Muscovy and Poland. The flags clearly show a two-horned rosette with the ends down, suspended from a “handle” with a small ring. Often such a sign was complemented by a raised “tail” extending from one of the “horns” of the symbol. Sometimes a crescent moon was placed next to it at the sharp end. Later, on the flags of Tartary, they begin to depict someone who looks like a dragon, but this happens closer to the decline of the empire.

The relatively new cities of Ordos and the neighboring Kanbashi / Khanbashi (almost Kanbalik / Khanbalik) are stuffed with images on the theme of Genghis Khan and Tibetan Mongols. Here you can admire sculptures and paintings praising the great "commander" and his army - the Horde. You can go to the mausoleum of the Golden Horde Khan - the complex is made in the form of "yurts". That's right, where do the palaces come from, about which the contemporaries of the closest descendants of the founder of Tartaria, the khans Kublai and Usbek, wrote? Historians do not know, or pretend not to know, details about the life of the descendants of Genghis Khan; in any case, according to the descriptions of Ordos and its environs, the feeling is created that the local land keeps no memory of anyone, except for the first khan of the Horde, who allegedly lived in the XIII century.

Summarizing the story about the Ordos region, it is worth noting that the historical and tourist spheres of China and Inner Mongolia have done a great job, distorting the original meanings for the sake of Chinese national ideology. People, even in their wildest fantasies, should not admit that “Indo-Europeans” could live on the plain between the Yellow River and the Great Wall of China. And yet, some finds, for example, mummies of white people, in spite of the Chinese leadership shed light on the not-so-ancient inhabitants of the north and west of the PRC.

With almost one hundred percent certainty, we can talk about a deliberate distortion of the real history of these places. Countries founded with the direct participation of representatives of the Chingizid dynasty, or previously part of Tartaria for several centuries have jealously kept the secret of their birth from the “womb” of the “ancient” Eurasian empire. These states include Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, China, Turkey, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India and others. The archives of these countries are strictly guarded, the most shocking finds for us are likely to be destroyed. But researchers and historians get only "crumbs", either what the keepers of this secret "overlooked", or accidentally caught the eye of the general public; another option is that which can be interpreted in the course of official history.

The origin of the Ordos region and its city of the same name is interesting for another reason. The Chinese and intra-Mongolian business community ventured to build a millionaire city in the middle of a desert plateau on the basis of a small village. However, even now, after the large-scale development of these lands, traces of a large settlement are visible everywhere, huge embankments like mounds, ditches, remnants of the layout of fortresses and other silent witnesses of the great Tartar past. Why was it here that a new high-tech city was built under the brand of Genghis Khan, supposedly a Mongoloid who conquered half the world? Is it because China is planning to repeat the exploits of the great "commander" and strike at the former Tartar lands? Imagine: Chingigs Khan as a symbol of the warlike, victorious East, as the image of the founder of a powerful super-empire of his time.

Having built Ordos and Kanbashi from scratch, the Chinese business could not provide an influx of buyers. Both cities are inhabited by only a few percent. On the Internet, some sites write that the situation is gradually improving. Nevertheless, Ordos became known all over the world as the largest ghost town in China, where huge residential complexes stand empty, and there are almost no visitors in rare shops and cafes.

This is the present of these lands, which were formerly called the Katay region, the location of the famous palaces of the great khan, now called by modern historical "science" only yurts. The Chinese are trying to win the ideological battle of meanings, using the Aryan-Scythian past of the Ordos region for their "Mongoloid" purposes. But his energy seems to resist, and some unknown force prevents the Chinese from gaining strength through lies and half-truths. The city of the future has become a ghost town. The Chinese / Chintsy swung too abruptly, after all, at the capital of the most powerful empire in the world of all times and peoples.

Anastasia Kostash, specially for the Kramola portal