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Well, that was pretty anticlimactic. Suggest you go read about a more interesting abandoned city in the Gobi Desert instead: > Built in 1032, the city thrived
by decimalenough 1y ago
Well, that was pretty anticlimactic. Suggest you go read about a more interesting abandoned city in the Gobi Desert instead:
> Built in 1032, the city thrived under the rule of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty. It has been identified as the city of Etzina, which appears in The Travels of Marco Polo. ...
> According to a legend of the local Torghut population, in 1372 a Mongol military general named Khara Bator was surrounded with his troops by the armies of the Ming dynasty. Diverting the Ejin River, the city's water source that flowed just outside the fortress, the Ming dynasty denied Khara-Khoto water for its gardens and wells. As time passed and Khara Bator realised his fate, he murdered his family and then himself. After his suicide, Khara Bator's soldiers waited within the fortress until Ming troops finally attacked and killed the remaining inhabitants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khara-Khoto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khara-Khoto
- mikhailfranco 1y agoKhara Khoto appears to be on or near the extension of the 'Gobi Wall' into present day China, presumably as part of the same system. https://cms.interestingengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/land-14-01087-g001-550.jpg?w=1920 https://cms.interestingengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/20... The name 'Gobi Wall' seems to refer to the section of the wall within Mongolia. Its garrisons and forts are numbered from G01 at the western end of the section, where the wall crosses the border. https://cdn.grid.id/crop/0x0:0x0/700x0/photo/2025/05/31/land-14-01087-g002jpg-20250531095149.jpg https://cdn.grid.id/crop/0x0:0x0/700x0/photo/2025/05/31/land... Khara Khoto is about 100 km WSW of G01.
- forshaper 1y ago> a Mongol military general named Khara Bator wait is this dude's name basically 'Black Knight'?
- decimalenough 1y agoEven better, it's Black Hero.