the main Methods of fishing POR-BAZHYN: who built a fortress in the middle of the lake. Siberia Power Places

POR-BAZHYN: who built a fortress in the middle of the lake. Siberia Power Places

In the Republic of Tyva, almost on the very border with Mongolia, in the mountains at an altitude of 1300 meters above sea level, Lake Terle-hol is located. Mountain reservoirs, which in Russia you can count thousands. But it is unique that in the midst of him on the island the ruins of the ancient fortress are preserved.

POR-BAZHIN Fortress (in Tuvinski - "Clay House") on Lake Tere-hol was built in the middle of the 2nd century by order of the head of the Uygur Kagan Eletmis Biegg-Kagan. In 750, he came with troops on the territory of the current Tuva to capture it. In order to entrenched on the conquered territory, he built a fortress. The walls were reached in a height of ten meters. The Central Palace, which stood on a high platform, belonged to the Eletmis Biege Kagan himself. Ancient builders had to start thousands of clay tons and burned bricks.

The monument has a complex architecture - inside the right rectangle there is a whole labyrinth of buildings resembling Buddhist or Hindu mandall.

At that time, a whole system of fortresses appears in the Valley of the River Kemchik - only 17 such structures. But the strength of POR-BAZHIN is very different in design from all known. It clearly denotes the influence of Sughd culture. It is very possible that the Fortress has participated in the construction of the fortress - immigrants from China, who led trade with all the nomadic world central

History of origin

Today we could call this building with a summer residence, replete with game and fish, in a hard-to-reach for enemies. Up to this point, Kagan had its own capital - Kara-Ballsun or Horde-Balyk. Now it is ruins are located on the territory of Mongolia - in about two days of the steppe way from Por-Bajän.
D. A. Klementz In 1891, first explored Kara-Ballsun and found the amazing similarity of the two fortresses: Por-Bajän was a miniature copy of the Uigur capital. This is especially clearly visible according to plan, drawn by scientists more than a hundred years ago.
Apparently, removing the fortress, the rules around the construction took out clay, then in a wetland valley, this ditch was just enough. In addition, locals say that the lake increases over the years. Therefore, it is possible that in antiquity in the valley there were several small lakes, which could be artificially connected together by Por-Bajärian fortifies. Interestingly, the late legends belonging to the Mongolian period say that the lake appeared suddenly: some khan, catching the fish in the well, in the alarm, he drove his people on the mountain and looking around, saw the water of the Valley . "TERE NUR! - Here and the lake! " - he said. So the title of Tere-hol appeared (Nur - in Mongolian, hol - in Turkic means lake).

It is possible to raise the veil of this mystery to help those generic tams and letters in the vicinity of the valley of Lake Terie-hol, about which Kagan tells in his inscription. They have to be found and read in the summer during the examination of the valley and the surrounding sacred mountains.

Architecture

The monument has a complex architecture - inside the right rectangle there is a whole labyrinth of buildings resembling Buddhist or Hindu mandall. The walls form the right rectangle with dimensions of 211x158 m.

Southern and north walls are partially destroyed, the Western and Eastern and Eastern are relatively well preserved. The greatest destruction of the walls is observed in the north-western and southwestern corners. In the middle of the Eastern Wall there are gates with strongly destroyed by the transduted towers, which inner sides are raised in parallel walls inbound ramps.

Along the north, western and south walls there are 26 rectangular premises. The walls of the premises are strongly redefined and launched. The premises are adjacent to each other. The places are separated by a global wall with a height of 0.7 to 1.5 m.

Parallel walls are undergoing continuous global walls, and transverse people have passes in a checker order. The dimensions of all such compartments are almost the same 26x16 m. Inside each compartment there are square structures made from raw bricks, the size of 7x8 m.

The territory in front of the eastern wall is the similarity of the area in front of the palace building, which could host military fees, training or solemn, including ritual, ceremony.

The Palace Complex is two buildings interconnected by the jumper and erected on the stylobate - platform from carefully tamped clay and land, lined with a well-burned brick of gray clay. The buildings were square shapes - 23x23 m and 15x15 m and combined with an indoor transition of 6 m long. On the east side, two wide front-length eight-adjusted stairs made of plates and bricks. In the center of each staircase had a ramp from the plates.

To the eastern part of the building with the northern and south side, adjoined the entrances - ramps. The roof of the building was maintained by wooden columns (36 in large and 8 in a small room), based on granite bases. It was covered with a gray-white cylindrical tile and decorated on edge with end discs with an ornament.

The outer walls of the building made from raw bricks had a thickness of more than 1 m and covered with ornamental frescoes of red and orange. In the process of excavations, traces of a fire were recorded. In the fire killed buildings, impressive with their magnificent architecture, absolutely not characteristic of ordinary nomads. According to S.I.Vinestein, it was a palace complex of Uygur Kagan or the governor. During the excavations, fragments of ceramics were found, which can be correlated with Uigurs, and the treasure of 101 iron blacksmith blanks on which the stamp was applied.

Until now, the fortress of Por-Bazhyn did not open his secrets ... Why was it built? Who lived behind her walls? Did the random treasures, which are referred to in local legends in the dungeons of pore-box? Why until now the remains of at least one person - a resident of Por-Bajän.

Well history and ears Khan

There is a legend about the fortress and Lake Lake Lake: "Earlier early, ancient ancient in time, when there was no lake in these places, which is now called the Tere-Holle, Elchigen-Khan lived here (Han Oft). From birth, Hana's ears were like a donkey, so it was so called. One morning, he saw that from the well, that behind the walls of the fortress beats the water. It was so much that the threat of flooding fortress came. Khan was scared and quickly ran into the mountains. From the height of the nearest mountain, everyone saw that the fortress was surrounded by a large lake. Han got up, waved his hand towards the lake and cried anxiously: "Ter Has, ter Hov!". "Ter" in Mongolian - "This", "Hall" in Tuvinski - "Lake". Today, this legend finds confirmation in scientific research. With the help of space monitoring, geologists managed to see the road located at the bottom of the lake.

In the Republic of Tyva, which is near the border of Russia and Mongolia, at an altitude of 1300 meters hides in the mountains of Lake Terle-hol. In the XVII century, Semyon Remez, the famous compiler of Siberia cards discovered on the island in the center of the lake ruins of the monumental fortress. What I recorded in my papers: "The city of Stone old, two walls are intake, two collapsed, and the city is not known." The fortress on the island. Locals are called "Pore-Baiga" (translated from Tuvinian language means "clay house").

The ruins of the fortress were found in 1891 by an employee of the Minusinsk Museum Dmitry Alexandrovich Klemenz.

Coordinates: 50 ° 36 "54.19" N 97 ° 23 "5.23" E

Some sources report that the fortress is oriented on the sides of the light. But as you can see, it is not. Little side is looking at the north-west.

The fortress has a clear internal planning, which includes a central structure and a system of courtyards with small buildings in the center of the inner perimeter of the walls.
The total area of \u200b\u200bthe fortress is 3.3 hectares.
The fortress is relatively well preserved due to the hard-to-reach location and remoteness from transport routes. You can get to the area of \u200b\u200bthe fortress only by air or in a dry period by car increased passability.

The exact dates of building and destruction of the fortress are not installed.
The fortress is the correct rectangle, the walls preserved in some places reach the height of 8 meters. Gate is located in the center of the Eastern Wall. To the left and right of the goal with the outside of the fortress were the fortified tower. The length of the island on which the ruins are located, about 240 meters. The fortress stretched from west to east at 211 meters, from north to south by 158 meters.

In 1957-1963, an archaeological expedition was organized on the island. It was then that the first excavations were made in the fortress. And they confirmed that, indeed, architects and, perhaps, the builders of the fortress were immigrants from China. This was evidenced by roofing wreckage with Chinese ornaments and discs for the closure of drainage holes with a dragon image.
But when the foundation and raw bricks were carefully investigated, from which the walls were made, it turned out that they were made on Sogdia technologies (Sogdiana - the ancient state was located on the territory of modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).

The researchers immediately grabbed the "Uigur" track in the history of the fortress. The fact is that in the VIII century of our era, the territory of modern thousand was part of the Uigur Kaganat - the most powerful "nomadic empire" of Central Asia of the time. Despite the fact that the right pore-in-law in Uygur sources is not mentioned.

Walls fortress

For a long time, no one could understand why it was necessary to build such a massive structure in almost deserted terrain - from whom the residents of the fortress were protected there, from bears, or what? To the version that the fortress used to be a guy point on a great silk path from China to Europe, now scientists are skeptical - the most northern branches of the silk way passed by about a thousand kilometers south of the place where the fortress is worth. There were no military bases, gold or food warehouses near the fortress.

Preserved and wooden elements of buildings

In addition, scientists could not understand for a long time how the ancient builders managed to build a fortress on the island in the middle of the lake. How did building materials delivered, where there were workshops on the manufacture of bricks, as in general, in a small plot of sushi could fit hundreds of builders? Expedition 1957-63. Also could also establish for what reason people, in the end, left POR-Bhazhin.

Most of all archaeologists surprised the extremely thin cultural layer of the settlement. In some places, the bones of the Baranov were found (this refuted the version of the locals about the fact that Por-Baigan was a Buddhist monastery, since Buddhist monks do not eat meat), a few female jewelry and forge blanks - that's all that the inhabitants of this city have lost Tens of years of the existence of the fortress. In addition, only one burial was found in the vicinity of Por-Bazhin, and there are no them on the territory of the fortress.

Scientists came to the conclusion that Por-Baigan, apparently, was the summer residence of Uygur Kaganov or major dignitaries. But this is only their version.

It was also possible to find out why the fortress suddenly was on the island. Thanks to the research of the group of geomorphologists and soils from Moscow State University. Lomonosov and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to establish that in its entire history of the existence of the lake Tere-hol several times disappeared almost completely. This happened as a result of the fact that the earthquakes, which in the past quite often occurred in these places, from time to time they led to the disappearance of underground keys that feed this reservoir. Apparently, in one of these periods of "deductions", the terra-hol and a fortress was built.

This is also evidenced by the geologists detected by geologists traces of the road at the bottom of the reservoir. But under the water of the roads no one builds, it means that it was lakes, the lakes were not. After, during the next earthquake, the keys again "opened" and the brand of terry-hol again filled with water.

If you look at, then under water and in fact one more building can be seen

In August 2007, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Prince Monaco Albert II visited POR-BAZHIN. Unusual interest in such persons. POR-BAZHYN became a monument of federal significance through the efforts of Sergey Shoigu. But at present, the excavations are completed, the conservation is not produced, the detected structures are intensively destroyed by erosion.

"Cheburashka"

Photos from the excavation of the middle of 20V.:

Well-preserved brick masonry

Where was the production of this brick?

Historians argue that this is the structure of the Uigurians (by analogy with the buildings of Sogdiana). And if you look at it under other facts?

Somehow I wrote about

The place where this fortress is located is located in the territories where Arias lived for a long time: Andronovskaya, Afanasyevskaya, Okunevskaya, Taganskaya and subsequent cultures. They are somehow studied, but little-known to the public. They even attribute the creation of irrigation channels :. And most likely, they were not nomads.

So maybe Port Baiga is one of the surviving small fortress cities of representatives of these cultures?

In the Republic of Tyva, near the border of Mongolia, at an altitude of 1300 meters hiding in the mountains of Lake Terle-hol. In the XVII century, Semyon Remez, the famous compiler of Siberia's cards, discovered on the island in the center of the lake ruins of the monumental fortress, which was recorded in his papers: "The city of Stone old, two walls are intact, two ordered, and the city does not know . The fortress on the island. Locals are called "Pore-Bajn", which means "clay house" in Tuvinsky.

The first mention of Por-Bashane is available in the "Drawing book of Siberia, compiled by the Tobolsky Son of Boyar Semen Remezov in 1701" (published in St. Petersburg in 1882). In 1891, the settlement was examined by the Russian ethnologist and the archaeologist D.A. Clements, who removed his plan and first drew attention to the similarity with the ruins of the city of Karabalgasun on the Orkhon River in Mongolia. He wrote that the builders of pore-box were "not Mongols and not the Chinese and hardly Kidan or Giurgeny, most likely, the same or the people, child builders of ancient Karakorum."

Very long, Por-Bajän did not attract the attention of researchers because of its inaccessibility. All the same archaeologists sometimes referred to him and even expressed the assumption that the settlement was related to the period of the Uygur Kaganat (744-840).

In 1957, the Soviet archeologist S. I. Weinstein began excaving the settlement and continued by the Tuvinian expedition of the Institute of Ethnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Dating and attribution of the fortress were based on typological similarity of the preserved end ornamented tile discs.

According to the description of the scientist, the remains of the strength of POR-BAZHIN were destroyed walls located in the form of a rectangle consisting of light-oriented walls. The height of the walls reached 10 meters. In the middle of the Eastern Walls, the remnants of the gate with well-fortified turning towers are preserved. Inside the fortress, archaeologists also found traces of dwellings and service buildings, in the place of which in 1957 and 1963 were found fragments of ceramic and stone dishes, iron nails and other artifacts. In the central part of the fortress, two earthen hills were discovered up to 2 meters high, under which there were bases of two buildings.

The purpose of the strength of POR-BAZHYN remains not entirely clear. Initially, the idea was expressed that the fortune could be a monastery, but very soon scientists refused her. If you rely on the information of the Bayan Chora's inscription, on the basis of which the date of the structure of the fortress was determined, it can be said that the fortress was built as a summer residence of Uigur Kagan. This is how Bayan-Chor says about his campaign against the Chicks tribe:

Then, in the year of the tiger (750) I went hiking against chikov. In the second month, in the 14th day, near the [River] who I broke them. In the same year, I ordered the establishment of the bid of Cavar Cordan in the upper reaches [rivers] Tez (on the western slope of Owuel). I ordered the walls there and spent the summer there. There I set the boundaries of [my possessions]. There I ordered to draw my signs and my writings.

Russian Türcologist S.G. Pusher, who belongs to the clarification of these lines, believed that Kavar Cordan (in the Terkha Inscription - Casan Khorody) was a western camp and the Eletmis-Kagan Eletmis rate. He identified Kavar Cordan with the strength of POR-BAZHIN.

Many Tuvinian legends are connected with the ruins of POR-BAZHYN. One of them tells about the Kane, who had big ears, for which he received the name Elchigen-Kulak-Khan - donkey ears. Han hid his ears from others and killed everyone who saw them. Only one brand was able to see them and tell about it to all people. In another legend, the fortress was built by some Khan in the Valley of the Yenisei, where there were no lakes. The lake was formed from the water that flies from the well built in the fortress. Han, running away from the water, flooded the neighborhood of the fortress, looking at the valley, surprisedly exclaimed in Mongolian: "Teri-Nur wipe!" (She became lake!).

Currently, researchers attract a legend that Por-Bazhyn was a palace built by Uygur Kagan for the Chinese princess. Uygur Eletmis Biegg-Kagan really received in his wife Chinese Princess Ningo in gratitude for military assistance provided by the Tansky dynasty in the suppression of Anne Lushan's uprising (755-762 years). From the sources it is known that Princess Ningo went to the Uigur bid in September 758, but after six months, Uigur Kagan died. The tanning chronicles tell about how Uigur wanted to bury the princess together with the late husband, but having met a strong objection, left her alive. A few months after the death of Kagan, Princess returned to China.

In the Uygur bid, the Tanning Princess accompanied another representative of the Imperial House - Xiao Ningo (Junior Ningo), a daughter of one of the Chinese princes. Xiao Ningo remained at Uigurov and was a consecutive wife of Bayanchor and his son Boyj-Kagan (759-779). During the palace coup in 779, two of her sons born from Boggy-Kagan were killed, and Xiao Ningo "left and lived outside (capital)." If it is true that Por-Bajän Palace was built in 750-751, he could not be built for the Chinese princess, which arrived at the Uygur bet after many years after the construction of Por-Bajän - in 758 and lived among the Uigurs around One year.

Of course, the palaces and cities for the princesses were built by Uigurs. Among the Uygur cities in Chinese sources is called, for example, the "City of Princess" - "Gunzha Cheng". However, they were located much south of the Kagan. Thus, the legend that the Uygur Por-Bazhin Palace was built for the Chinese princess, there is no reason. The latter, however, does not exclude that Chinese masters could take part in its construction.

For a long time, no one could understand why it was necessary to build such a massive structure in almost deserted terrain and from whom the residents of the fortress were protected there. To the version that the fortress used to be a guard point on the Great Silk Road from China to Europe, now scientists are skeptical, since the most northern branches of the silk pathway took place about a thousand kilometers south of the place where the fortress is. There were no military bases, gold or food warehouses near the fortress.

In addition, scientists could not understand for a long time how the ancient builders managed to build a fortress on the island in the middle of the lake. How did building materials delivered, where there were workshops on the manufacture of bricks, how could one know hundreds of builders on a small plot of sushi? The expedition of 1957-1963 could not also establish for what reason people, in the end, left POR-BAZHIN.

And only comprehensive studies of the 2007-2008, conducted under the auspices of the EMERCOM of Russia, were able to minimize the secret of this place a little. As a result of the work, the appearance of an ancient city was fully restored, a variety of items confirming the "Uigur Trail", and it was found out why Por-Bazhyn was destroyed.

V.V. Putin and S.K. Shoigu in POR-BAZHYN, August 2007 / Photo: Por-bajin.ru

So, what was POR-BAZHIN? The ruins of the fortress occupy almost the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe island and are a regular rectangle, oriented on the sides of the light, with dimensions of 211 by 158 meters. The height of the fortress walls, even in a dilapidated form, comes up to 10 meters. On the eastern side, the gate with the tinted towers remained, the remains of the entrance ramps lead on the towers.

Inside the fortress walls there is a whole labyrinth of buildings and buildings. Along the western, south and northern walls there are 26 compartments separated by global walls height up to one and a half meters. In each of them, the raw brick built a room of 7 to 8 meters - in them, apparently, the palace servants, artisans and the protection of the fortress lived. Two palace buildings were found in the middle, perhaps one of them was a temple.

Both "Palace" were placed on the hill of the rammed land and clay. Apparently, they were connected to each other with a 6-meter indoor transition. The first building has a size of 23 by 23 meters, and the second is 15 to 15. Their roof maintained wooden columns. It is assumed that in a large room there were 36, and in a small - only 8. The roofs were covered with a cylindrical tile. The wall thickness in the palaces, apparently, was more than a meter, which is not surprising, because winter on Kungurtugu is very severe, and the temperature is 45 ° C - here is the norm. This thickness of clay and bricks covered ornamental frescoes of orange and red colors.

Most of all archaeologists surprised the extremely thin cultural layer of the settlement. In some places, the bones of the Baranov were found (this refuted the version of the locals that Por-Bazhyn was a Buddhist monastery, since Buddhist monks do not eat meat), a few female jewelry and forge blanks - that's all that everyone lost the inhabitants of this city for several Tens of years of the existence of the fortress. In addition, only one burial was found in the vicinity of Pore-Bajna, and there are no them on the territory of the fortress.

All this suggests that Por-Bazhyn, apparently, was a summer residence of Uygur Kaganov or major dignitaries. Constantly in this fortress, apparently, no one lived, people appeared there only in a warm period. And he was very nice to relax to Uygur aristocrats on Kungurtuga - pure mountain air, around the abundance of wild animals, in a lake a lot of fish, and a five-minute drive from the fortress are healing hydrogen sulfide sources. Does not have any presence forced the kagan to decide on the construction of "sanatorium" in this place?

It was possible to find out why the fortress suddenly was on the island. Thanks to the research of the group of geomorphologists and soils from Moscow State University. Lomonosov and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to establish that in its entire history of the existence of the lake Tere-hol several times disappeared almost completely. This happened as a result of the fact that the earthquakes, which in the past quite often occurred in these places, from time to time they led to the disappearance of underground keys that feed this reservoir. Apparently, in one of these periods of "deductions", the terra-hol and a fortress was built.

Earthquakes, in the end, destroyed the fortress itself. The soils on the island were found traces of characteristic displacements of the occurrence of soil layers, which arises as a result of the oscillations of the earthly solid. By dating, these shifts coincide with the age of traces of a fire fortress found earlier by archaeologists. But the remains of the people who died from this natural disaster did not find people. This refuted the previously nominated version of the death of the fortress as a result of the assault by enemy armies or during the uprising of local residents.

In reality, most likely, the earthquake destroyed the fortress in winter or in the fall, when there was no one in it. Apparently, having arrived at the next summer in the "Sanatorium" and finding a pile of Rasullen in his place, Kagan did not want to restore the structures, since it considered this place dangerous for recreation.

Although, according to the stories of local residents, Kagan and his soldiers are still sometimes returning to these places. According to them, in the dark nights on the island among the ruins you can see ghosts on the horses, with weapons and in the clothes of the VIII century. It is possible that the rest in Por-Bazhyn liked Uygur nobility so much that many of her representatives continue to visit this wonderful "holiday home" after death.

In one of the articles of the expose "official history" on "Kramole", they write about this fortress as follows:

"There are monuments that are recently open, and therefore not fully studied: mentioned repeatedly arcam and the country of cities, which includes more than twenty fortunes, similar to the arcaim and constructed by one with it. There is objects not studied at all, eg, ruins of the strength of POR-BAZHYN (50 ° 37'00 "S.Sh.; 97 ° 24'00" V.D.), located on the island, in the middle of the artificial lake Terø-hol in Tuva. And scientists of men talked the pharynx, proving each other, what was actually pore-boxed - the Uygur fortress of the XIII-th century or the Buddhist temple of the IX-go - persistently not noticing his obvious similarities with the same Arkim (they even died equally, burned own inhabitants who have gone to the unknown). Although, I was reading recently that one of the researchers was still visited by a brilliant insight and, choking on the courage of his own guesses, he is crushing, that, de, it must be recognized that the architecture of Por-Bazhyn "is absolutely not characteristic of simple nomads."

Well, let's start to get acquainted with the fortress and with ideas about her scientists.

"In 2007-2008, at the initiative of the Minister of Health S.K. Shoigu, a large-scale expedition on the scientific study of the Ancientugur Fortress of POR-Bajän was held, in which specialists of IEA RAS, IIMK RAS, the Museum of History of the Narods of the East, Tiga and others took part Scientific institutions. In the spring of 2011, the author took part in the survey of the settlers of Central and Western Tuva in the survey. In the fall of 2011, there was own archaeological intelligence of a number of settlements. The collected materials allowed the most promising for archaeological research fortification monuments .

The most interesting from the point of view of archeology and architecture remains the ancient-Uygur fortress of POR-BAZHYN, located on Oz. Tere-hol in the south-east of the republic in the upper reaches of the Small Yenisei. Por-Bashin almost completely occupies an island with an area of \u200b\u200b6 hectares on Oz. Tere-hol. In the plan, it is rumored and focused by the walls of the countries of light, the long axis passes from west to the east. The global walls of the fortress about 211 m long and about 158 \u200b\u200bm long and widths surrounded the remains of 27 housing and service buildings (average sizes 7 * 8 m). Excavations 2007-2008. Allowed to fix the basic structural features of the fortress. Fortress and interior walls were built of global layers 12-14 cm thick reinforced every 5-6 layers of larch trunks with a diameter of up to 20 cm - on the ancient Chinese technology "Hanta". The base of the central structure was decorated with tanning format bricks (26 * 13 * 6 cm). Roofs of buildings were covered with a thick layer of clay and burnt roof tiles with dietary terminal discs. The closest analogues were found in Nakhodka S.V. Kiseleva on the Horde-Balyke (Kara-Bulgas), built by Uygur Kagan Bayan-Chor (Mojun-Chur) in 751-752. in Mongolia on r. Orhon.

Excavations of the monument for two field seasons did not allow to determine the functional purpose of the strength of POR-BAZHIN - about 20% of the territory underwent a study.. It was revealed that the overall design of the monument corresponds to the typology of the serf - The presence of a fortified gate, a massive defensive wall with a height of up to 14 m with 11 pilon protrusions that played the role of counterphorts. The inner planning of the monument assumed the palace and temple character, but the cultural layer was not revealed on the monument, both everyday-domestic and cultural and religious. Nevertheless, traces of multiple repair of indoors, as well as walls (layers of plaster, cracks of cracks after earthquakes, etc.). This made it possible to assume that the monument is a memorial complex, but it did not find its confirmation due to the lack of the object of remember (burial or the image of the late).

This makes an urgent task of completing the study of the fortress in the near future due to the threat of its complete destruction. Under the influence of permafrost processes there is a progressive coastal abrasion, threatening preservation primarily of the fortress walls. POR-BAZHYN is located on the island formed above the post of permafrost, which under the influence of lake annually fell annually, and the shores of the island are gradually collapsed into the water ...

Literature:

2. Tulush D.K. Archaeological exploration of fortification structures of Tuva (the preliminary results of the field season of 2011) // Archeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. Research and hypotheses: Mater. Dokl. 52nd reg. (VIII Vseros. With international participation) ARH.-ENTOGR. conf. Students and young scientists, devoted. The 50th anniversary of the Humanitarian Faculty of Novosibirsk State University / Novosib. State University, IAET SB RAS. Novosibirsk, 2012. P. 238-239.

3. Kiselev S.V. The ancient cities of Mongolia // Soviet archeology. 1957. №2. P. 91-106.

4. Kosurnikov A.V., Zykov Yu.d., Panin AV and others. Studying the frozen base of the archaeological monument "Fortress of Por-Bazhyn" // Engineering surveys. 2008. No. 6.

5. Tulush D. K. Some problems and prospects for the preservation of the Oldugurian settlements in the territory of the Republic of Tyva // Actual problems of research of ethno-logical and ethnocultural traditions of the peoples of Sayano-Altai: Mater. II interreg. conf. with international. participation. Kyzyl, 2010.S. 64-67.

As you can see, it's not necessary to say that the object "is not studied at all", somehow impossible. It is also impossible to argue that POR-BAZHIN is an analogue of arcaima. Vladimir Orlov is either not aware of this (why then writes?), Or instigators.

Foreigners also participated in the foregoing. Quote

"Letters from Siberia: the fortress of loneliness" Heinrich Herke

The most mysterious archaeological object of Russia dominates on a small island in the center of the remote lake, high in the mountains of Southern Siberia. Here, just 20 miles from the Mongol border, the external walls of the medieval ruins of Por-Bazhin are still rising 40 feet in height, surrounding the area of \u200b\u200babout seven acres, more than 30 remains of buildings intersecting the labyrinous.

POR-BAZHIN ("Clay House" in Tuvinian) for a long time was considered a fortress built by Uigurs, nomadic Turkic-speaking people who once ruled the empire, which embraced Mongolia and South Siberia, and whose modern descendants now live mainly in Western China. Archaeologists conducted limited and unconvincing excavations at this place in the 1950s and 1960s, but now Irina Argentsev from the Russian Academy of Sciences is operating here, so that the Por-Banchin Culture Fund learned when the complex was built and why. Several artifacts found in place seem to relate to the middle of the eighth centuries of our era. During this period, POR-BAZHIN was located on the periphery of the Uygur Empire, which lasted from 742 to 848 and held together with the forces of warriors on top.

The tile of pore-well-in-law in the form of a defender, possibly a dragon or bat, shows the influence of China (left). Silver men's earring (right). Roofing tile and final item. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

Were some of those warriors who were once garrisons in Por-Bazhin? Uigurs could also build a site on the island for other reasons other than defense. Perhaps the island was the place of the Palace or Memorial for the ruler. The unique layout of POR-Bazhin, more complicated than other Uygur fortresses of that time, prompted some scientists to assume that she could have a ritual role.

States managed by nomadic peoples often had symbiotic relations with neighboring civilizations. China had a strong influence on the culture of Uigur. In the end, the Uigurs even accepted the maniken, popular in China at that time religion, which united elements of Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, a Persian religion based on the teaching of the Prophet Zoroistra. The object very much resembles the Chinese ritual architecture of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), so it is possible that Por-Baigan, had some kind of attitude towards Manichayan rites.

Determining how the object was used, can also help archaeologists to understand why it was left. There are some evidence of a large fire in Por-Bazhin, but there may be other reasons why Uigurs ultimately left.

These issues occupy a central place in the work of the Por-Bazhin Culture Foundation. In the second season of excavations in 2008, I and my students were lucky to join the team of Argeantsev, in which there were about 200 students, archaeologists and local workers.

Thanks to Sergey Shoigu, the Minister for Emergency Situations of Russia and the only Tuvinian native in the country's office, excavations in the port-Bashina are carried out across almost unheard of modern archeology. . In his youth, he worked on excavations in the Altai mountains, in the west of Por-Bazhin. Since then, he has dreamed of excavations of a large site in his native Republic, so in 2007 he founded the POR-Bailen culture fund to finance the work of archaeologists, geologists, geographers and other specialists on this site.

The militarized forces of his ministries had comprehensive excavation support, built an excavation camp infrastructure and bridges that bind this site with the lakeside. They even provide archaeologists with helicopter transport. Argeantseva believes that this can only be a second case in history, when military army teams were involved in this scale in archaeological works, the first of which are sponsored archaeological studies of Napoleon, in Egypt from 1798 to 1801. During the first field season in Por-Bazhin, Vladimir Putin, then the President of the Russian Federation, even interrupted the hunting trip to Tuva with the Prince of Monaco Monaco to visit this site. Apparently, an organization that supports such a large enterprise made a great impression on him.

Small yards (left), running along the walls of Por-Bazhin, had a building in the center. Digital reconstruction (right), based on excavations, shows that each building could function as a home, perhaps for monks if this object was a monastery. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

As an archaeologist, I was struck as a scale of excavations and the site itself. During my first task in Por-Bazhin, I worked in a trench, cut through the outer wall of the perimeter, which rises on both sides of the excavated area almost to the initial height of four floors. The wall at its foundation has a thickness of 40 feet. If pore-bazin was a fortress, these ruins suggest that it would be almost impregnable.

In the trench, I worked with a small team of Russian students collecting wood samples for dendrochronological datingwhich may be key in the final interpretation of the site. Wood, which we mined, was out of a frame that supports a compacted clay fabric of the walls - Chinese construction technique called Hangtu. When I met her, I thought whether Chinese architects and builders were directly involved in the construction of this complex. Argeantseva says that this is possible, but Hangtu is not necessarily the most convincing proof of this. Instead, she points to the Chinese site layout, and the wooden remains of the Chinese roof design called Dou-Gun, as even stronger indicators of China's influence. I found that I am surprised at how widely this influence is.

When I joined the excavations from the walls of the main gate of the complex, I was surprised for the second time, finding permafrost at a distance of less than three feet from the current surface. I had to expect a frozen soil here at an altitude of 7,000 feet in the Siberian Mountains, but I just didn't think about it when I sweated in summer warmth. Although I never came across the eternal Merzlot, before the excavation, it is easy to recognize: it is very similar to the above-mentioned soil, but it has solid, like a bone, mass and quickly covered in the effects of warm air. We had to repeatedly clear the surface of permafrost, and then allow her to disappear a couple of hours before we could deepen.

Just like the eternal Merzlot, the water of the lake can grind, and this means that the eternal Merzlot is periodically thawing. This causes the gradual erosion of the island banks. Design geologists and geomorphologists headed by scientists from Moscow State University Igor Modin and Andrei Panin believe that if the coastal erosion continues at the current speed, the main walls are collapsed in about 150 years. It makes work in pore-box even more important.

Artist Elena Kurkin (Right) draws a room plan in Por-Bazhyn, and the conservative Galina Veresotskaya (kneeling) stabilizes on the spot fragments of wall painting. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu (right), and then President Vladimir Putin (second right) listen to Archaeologist Olga Inivatkina (center), explaining Por-Bajna Layout. On the right on the right is the Prince Albert from Monaco (in sunglasses). (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

One of the keys to this work is a study under the guidance of Modine and Panin. They showed that the eternal Merzlot is located at the lake and under the island, but not under the lake itself. In other words, the complex stands on the eternal Merzlot. But whether it was built on the island or the lake appeared around the pore-box later, remains an open question. Now geologists tend to think that the lake existed when POR-Bajän was built, despite problems with the material and technical support that it would create for builders. The depth of the lake around the island is less than two feet. If Por-Bazhyn was a fortress, the lake would not play a big role in protection.

Excavations of the central site of the site can be key to response to questions about how the site was used and why it was left. Archaeologist Olga Inivatkina from the Museum of Eastern Art, Moscow, to which I joined the last couple of weeks of my stay in Por-Bazhyn.

The central square consists of two large yards surrounded by a number of small courtyards along the walls. In one of the large courtyards there is a complex consisting of two pavilions. A larger pavilion was most likely used for ceremonial purposes, while the smaller is a private residence. Each of small courtyards, in turn, has a building in the center, a model that was typical of Chinese religious or ritual sites of that period.

When we dug, I was puzzled by the fact that we could not find a cultural layer or level that would contain artifacts that refer to the time of the actual use of pore-box. In fact, the absence of artifacts was unexpected. The only finds by this time for the two seasons were a stone vessel, iron dagger, one silver earring (probably mens), several iron tools, iron balloons from a soldier chain, a variety of iron nails and a turtle handle from the main gate of the site. During my stay there, I could not add to this quantity, removing three rooms in the complex. But I discovered the destruction wreckage left by fire, and helped restore the sequence of construction and destruction of the building.

In the Republic of Tyva, located in the Siberian Federal District, on the island in the middle of the lake, is an amazing, which is building, whose age exceeds 1250 years. Scientists disagree in the opinion of who built pOR-BAZHIN Fortress,the construction is comparable in cultural significance with the famous. It affects not only its geometrically correct proportions, but also by the fact that they lie away from the ancient centers and roads. Historians break her head over the riddle: who and why built such a serious fortification. And the size of the construction with its walls of nine-meter thickness is amazed.

POR-BAZHIN, Fortress of Uygur Kagan

The ruins of POR-BAZHYN, or translated from the Tuvinian language of the "Clay House", are located on the island in the middle of the Lake Tere-kol, which is located in the south-east of Tyva, in the Tere-kol tectonic brand. The lake is relatively large - about 40 km2, but at the same time small.

POR-BAZHIN is the remnants of the fortification facility of the Uygur Kaganate period. Built, presumably, on the command of the Uygur Kagan Moine-Chura (Moyun-Chura), which ruled from 746 to 759

Uygur Kaganat existed from VIII to IX century. And after the 20-year war with Yenisei kirgiz, in 840, the town-Bazhyn settlement was obviously, one of the first signs of settling of Uigur, who had already combined cattle breeding with agriculture and crafts. The time of the reign of Kagan Moyun-Chura is endless interne-free wars with applicants for the throne and many external enemies: Karlukov, Tatars, chicks, chicks, Kirgiz, Turgshai, Basmals. Por-Bazhyn was not the only settlement of that era: Kagan built a palace-fortress, but he did not love to sit behind their walls, spending all the time in the campaigns. Despite the seeming believability of such a version, the appointment of pore-box, built in the wilderness, and today remains a mystery.

The historical ruins discovered in 1891 the first explorer of the ancient cities of Tuva Russian ethnographer, archaeologist and geographer Dmitry Klementz (1848-1914). Exploring the islands of Lake Terle-hol, he found a settler of 26 dwellings located along the inner perimeter of the wall forming a rectangle stretched from the west to the east. Even in the destroyed state of the wall reaches a height of 9.5 m and the same thickness.

The planning of the settlement is characterized by simplicity of lines and at the same time accurate observance of proportions. Interestingly, residential premises, lined around the perimeter of the wall, are comparable from those in the center and referred to as the palace.

Riddle of the lake fortress POR-BAZHYN

To date, the number of versions regarding the prescription of the pore-box approaching three dozens no one has not yet received irrefutable evidence.

There are two buildings in the center of Por-Bajin settlement - large and smaller, separated from other housing by the wall. On the eastern side of buildings there are two wide front brick stairs. The excellent quality of the building material is drawn to: the brick is perfectly preserved. Both buildings were under the roofs that were lying, respectively, on 36 and 8 massive columns standing on granite stoves, also preserved to this day.

In the middle of the eastern wall there were a gate, on both sides of them from the outside were the fortified towers. They could be climbed from the inside of the settlement on ramps located in parallel wall.

The pore-box puzzle is that it is so finally and not proven who and why built it in this wilderness. Places are wild, they always walked them, and the mounds are left by nomads of the era of the great resettlement of peoples. Legends only ascribe to the complex by Uygur Kagan Moyan Chur, but the researchers found the similarity of the fortress, including with the Northskaya buildings of the Pang dynasty period (VII-X centuries), and the bricks are manufactured using Central Asian Sogdian technologies. It could be a temple complex: planning resembles a Buddhist monastery. The settlement could also build people andronovskaya, Afanasyevskaya, Okunevsky or Tagarian cultures that were not nomads.

There are completely fantastic versions about the grave of Genghis Khan, the entrance to the Shambalu and the construction of the fortress of the Sumerum. It is known that the inhabitants threw POR-BAZHIN suddenly, but not found out why. A real reason could be a fire or storming of the settlement: detected by a break in the northeast corner of the wall.

In 1995, the settlement received the status of a monument to federal significance under the name "The Old Town Fortress of POR-BAZHYN, VIII-IX BB."

Curious facts

When excavations of POR-BAZHYN in the 1950s. Fragments of Buddhist cult sculpture, Chinese patterned tile, fragments of clay dishes and, most importantly, the residues of the frescoes are found. Unfortunately, they failed to save them.
The bottom of the valley in which the Lake is terly-hol is an ancient glacier. The water level in it varies noticeably, so that now the island area is increasing. Aerial photography discovered an ancient road and a quarry at the bottom of the lake, where the builders took clay, as well as the buildings that were once part of the complex. Probably, earlier the island was a hill, at the top of which the fortress was built, and later the water was flooded with underground sources.
Dmitry Clemenz, who opened the world of Por-Bajän, is known not only as an outstanding scientist, but also as a revolutionary population. During his studies at the St. Petersburg University, he joined the mug of populists, was friends with the then young Peter Kropotkin, was an active revolutionary-propagandist and a supporter of the idea of \u200b\u200b"walking to the people". In 1879, it was arrested, his conclusion was serving first in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then Sylane was exiled and found himself in Minusinsk Yenisei province. Here participated in geographic expeditions. After serving the term, the cautious remained in Siberia and then opened POR-BAZHYN. The merits of the scientist were so great that, having moved to St. Petersburg, in 1902, he, despite the revolutionary past, received the custodian of the Academic Ethnographic Museum of Emperor Alexander III.
The conclusion about the possible affiliation of the fortress Uigur is made on the basis of the coincidence of the collapse of POR-BAZHYN with the planning of the Fortress of Hara-Baltas, or Karabalgasun ("Black City"), he is the Orda Balyk - the ancient capital of Uigur Kaganat in the VIII-IX centuries.