Gaochang
The Ancient City of Gaochang lies at the foot of the Flaming Mountain 40 kilometers southeast of the Turpan County seat, which has been a must passageway for communication between the East and West since the Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, and an important section of the ancient Silk Road.

The foundation of the Gaochang Ancient City was laid in the first century B.C. which was called Gaochang Wall and then renamed as the Gaochang King Capital in the sixth century. The total area of this city is about two million square meters.

Ascending a height to enjoy a distant view, one can see the whole city in a plane shape of an irregular square, which is divided, into three parts the exterior city, interior city and the palace city. The layout of the city was very similar to those of the then Chang An City (everlasting peace) of the capital of China in Han and Tang Dynasties.

The walls of city are well preserved. The outer city is in a shape of rectangle with perimeter of about 5 kilometers, occupying an area of 2 million square meters. The walls were built by ramming and the foundation is 11.5 meters high and 12 meters wide. There are outstanding battlements on the outside of the city walls - "Mamian" structure. The west city has two gates, from one of which, the small town outside the city gate can still be seen. The southeast and southern part of the outer city is the temple area. The bigger temple area lies on the southwest part of the city. The original of the ruins are the gate of temple, yard, main hall, pagoda basement of storied niche, and some remaining mural and figures of Buddha can still be vaguely seen in the niches. Some ruins of "workshop" and "fair" still exist in the southeast and northeast outsider the ancient city, perhaps the workshops ruin of small handcraft industry.

Today, the interior buildings of the site of the ancient city can be seen scattered all over, particularly concentrated in the southwest of the city .The temples and the Buddhist halls for worshipping and the streets leap up before the eyes.


Jiaohe
Jiaohe city is located on a river islet in the Yarnaz River valley 10 km west of Turpan. Jiaohe means "intersecting rivers", it is 1,650 m long from east to west, 300 m at the widest. Like a willow leaf, the ancient city of Jiaohe (Yarkhoto) with a history of 2300 years lies between two rivers on a loess plateau atop a cliff of over 30 meters (98.4 feet).

About 2000 years ago, Jiaohe was powerful and important - it was the capital of the state of South Cheshi, one of the kingdoms of the Han dynasty (206-220BC). It was the seat of the imperial court of the front State of pretty well due to its high location and scanty rainfall.

Jiaohe distinguishes itself from other ancient cities owing to three features. First, it had only two city gates, the South and East Gates. The main South Gate vanished long ago, leaving a huge breach. The East Gate cut by the cliff was virtually non-existent. Second, the city faces cliffs on three sides, so there are no city walls commonly seen in other ancient cities. Third, all the buildings were dug from earth, and wood was rarely used.

According to historical records it was home to 700 households, 6500 residents plus 865 soldiers. The surviving ruins such as official buildings, pottery kilns, courtyards, temples and pagodas are still distinguishable. A Buddhist monastery complete with dagoba, stands in the center of the city and inside there are the remains of several headless statues of the Buddha enclosed in niches.

The relics we see today featured Tang Dynasty ( 618-907) architectural style. Houses were dug downward from the earth, and as no house gates faced the streets, military defense was apparently priority.

At present, one can find well-preserved ruins of official buildings, temples, streets and graveyards there. The ruins, very rare in the world, are extremely valuable for studying ancient cities.