Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
was mainly inhabited by artisans, scholars, religious leaders and others captured
by the Mongols during their foreign raids.
Its main feature was a brick wall with four gates that encircled the city. Each gate
had its own market, selling grain in the east, goats in the west, oxen and wagons in
the south and horses in the north.
The Mongol khaans were famed for their religious tolerance and split their time
equally between all the religions, hence the 12 different religions that coexisted
within the town. Mosques, Buddhist monasteries and Nestorian Christian churches
competed for the Mongols' souls. Even powerful figures such as Ögedei's wife and
Kublai's mother were Nestorian Christians.
The centrepiece of the city was the Tumen Amgalan (Palace of Worldly Peace) in
the southwest corner of the city. This 2500-sq-metre complex, built in 1235, was
the palace of Ögedei Khaan. The two-storey palace had a vast reception hall for re-
ceiving ambassadors, and its 64 pillars resembled the nave of a church. The walls
were painted, the green-tiled floor had underfloor heating, and the Chinese-style
roof was covered in green and red tiles.
A team of German archaeologists recently uncovered the foundations of the
palace, close to one of the stone turtles. You can see a model of the palace in the
National Museum of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar, while inside the new Karakorum Mu-
seum (
Click here
)
, in Kharkhorin itself, there is a model of the whole ancient city.
Arguably, the most memorable aspect of the city was a fountain designed in
1253 by the French jeweller and sculptor Guillaume Bouchier (or Bouchee) of Paris,
who had been captured by the Mongols in Hungary and brought back to embellish
Karakorum. The fountain was in the shape of a huge silver tree, which simultan-
eously dispensed mare's milk from silver lion heads, and wine, rice wine, bal
(mead) and airag(fermented mare's milk) from four golden spouts shaped like
snakes' heads. On top of the tree was an angel. On order, a servant blew a pipe like
a bugle that extended from the angel's mouth, giving the order for other servants
to pump drinks out of the tree.
Tours
Most of the ger camps can help to arrange horse trips around Kharkhorin. Family Guest-
house, located in the ger district at the north end of town, also organises horse treks and
jeep tours to surrounding sights in the region.
Morin Jim
HORSE RIDING
MAP
