Karakorum

Karakorum

a ruined city in Mongolia: founded in 1220 by Ghenghis Khan; destroyed by Kublai Khan when his brother rebelled against him, after Kublai Khan had moved his capital to Peking (now Beijing)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Karakorum

 

(Mongolian, Khara-Khorin), capital of the ancient Mongolian empire. Founded by Genghis Khan in 1220, the city existed until the 16th century. Its ruins are located on the upper Orkhon River. Information about Karakorum is contained in Chinese chronicles and the notes of the 13th-century European travelers Giovanni de Piano Carpini, Marco Polo, and Guillaume Rubruquis. The Russian scholar N. M. Iadrintsev investigated the ruins of Karakorum in the late 19th century. By analyzing historical sources, A. M. Pozdneev confirmed the city’s location at the Buddhist monastery of Erdeni Dzuu (built in 1585 in the southern part of Karakorum). In 1948–49 a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition, under the direction of S. V. Kiselev, conducted excavations at Karakorum. The remains of the palace of Ugedei, which was built on a granite foundation, were discovered in the southwestern part of the city. The remains of a Buddhist shrine with wall paintings, dating from the late 12th century or early 13th century, were discovered. The trade and artisan quarters and other objects were investigated in the central part of the city. Plowed fields irrigated by canals were located to the east of the city.

REFERENCES

Atlas drevnostei Mongolii, fasc. 1. St. Petersburg, 1899.
Pozdneev, A. Mongoliia i mongoly, vols. 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1896–98.
Iadrintsev, N. M. “Puteshestvie na verkhov’ia Orkhona k razvalinam Karakoruma.” Izvestiia russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva, 1890, vol. 26, issue 4.
Drevnemongol’skie goroda. Moscow, 1965.

L. A. EVTIUKHOVA

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.