Por bazhin. “Clay House” Por-Bazhyn: The secret of the lake fortress of Siberia. Why was the Por-Bazhyn fortress empty?

In one of the articles by the whistleblowers of “official history” on “Sedition”, they write about this fortress like this:

“There are monuments that have recently been discovered, and therefore not fully studied: Arkaim, mentioned repeatedly, and the Country of Cities, which includes more than twenty settlements similar to Arkaim and built according to the same plan. There are objects not studied at all, For example, ruins of the Por-Bazhyn fortress(50°37’00” N; 97°24’00” E), located on an island in the middle of the artificial lake Teryo-Khol in Tuva. Moreover, pundits tore their throats off, proving to each other what Por-Bazhyn really was - a Uyghur fortress of the 13th century or a Buddhist temple of the 9th century - stubbornly not noticing its obvious similarities with the same Arkaim (they even died in the same way, burned own inhabitants, gone into the unknown). Although, I’m lying – I read recently that one of the researchers finally had a brilliant insight and, choking on the boldness of his own guess, he said that, yes, we must admit that the architecture of Por-Bazhyn is “completely uncharacteristic of simple nomads.”

Well, let’s begin to get acquainted with the fortress and scientists’ ideas about it.

"In 2007-2008, on the initiative of the Minister of Civil Defense and Emergency Situations S.K. Shoigu, a large-scale expedition was carried out for the scientific study of the ancient Uyghur fortress of Por-Bazhyn, in which specialists from the IEA RAS, IHMC RAS, the Museum of the History of Oriental Peoples, TIGI and others took part scientific institutions. In the spring of 2011, as part of the Russian-Mongolian joint archaeological expedition, the author took part in the examination of the fortifications of central and western Tuva. Already in the fall of 2011, our own archaeological exploration of a number of fortifications was carried out. The collected materials made it possible to identify the most promising fortification monuments. .

The most interesting from the point of view of archeology and architecture remains the ancient Uyghur fortress Por-Bazhyn, located on lake. Tere-Khol in the southeast of the Republic in the upper reaches of the Small Yenisei. Por-Bazhyn almost completely occupies an island with an area of ​​6 hectares on the lake. Tere-Khol. In plan it is subrectangular and its walls are oriented along the cardinal points, its long axis runs from west to east. The adobe walls of the fortress, about 211 m long and about 158 ​​m wide, surrounded the remains of 27 dwellings and service buildings (average dimensions 7 * 8 m). Excavations 2007-2008 allowed us to record the main design features of the fortress. The fortress and internal walls were built from adobe layers 12-14 cm thick, reinforced every 5-6 layers with larch trunks up to 20 cm in diameter - according to the ancient Chinese “hantu” technology. The base of the central structure was decorated with Tang format bricks (26*13*6 cm). The roofs of the buildings were covered with a thick layer of clay and fired tiles with Tang end discs. The closest analogies were found in the finds of S.V. Kiselev on Ordu-Balyk (Kara-Bolgas), built by the Uyghur Khagan Bayan-chor (Moyun-chur) in 751-752. in Mongolia on the river. Orkhon.

Excavations of the monument over two field seasons did not allow us to determine the functional purpose of the Por-Bazhyn fortress - about 20% of the territory was studied. It was revealed that the general design of the monument corresponds to the typology of the fortress structure- the presence of fortified gates, a massive defensive wall up to 14 m high with 11 pylons that played the role of buttresses. The internal layout of the monument assumed a palace-temple character, but the cultural layer, both everyday life and cultural-religious, was not identified on the monument. Nevertheless, there are traces of multiple repairs to the interior, as well as to the walls (layers of plaster, areas of covering up cracks after earthquakes, etc.). This allowed us to assume that the monument is a memorial complex, but this was not confirmed due to the absence of an object of commemoration (burial or image of the deceased).

This makes it urgent to complete the study of the fortress in the near future due to the threat of its complete destruction. Under the influence of permafrost processes, progressive coastal abrasion occurs, threatening the safety, first of all, of the fortress walls. Por-Bazhyn is located on an island formed above a column of permafrost, which thaws annually under the influence of lake waters, and the shores of the island gradually collapse into the water...

Literature:

2. Tulush D.K. Archaeological exploration of fortifications of Tuva (preliminary results of the 2011 field season) // Archeology, ethnology and anthropology of Eurasia. Research and hypotheses: material. report 52nd reg. (VIII All-Russian with international participation) arch.-ethnogr. conf. students and young scientists, dedicated. 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Humanities of Novosibirsk State University / Novosibirsk. state University, IAET SB RAS. Novosibirsk, 2012. pp. 238-239.

3. Kiselev S.V. Ancient cities of Mongolia // Soviet archeology. 1957. No. 2. pp. 91-106.

4. Koshurnikov A.V., Zykov Yu.D., Panin A.V. and others. Study of the frozen foundation of the archaeological monument “Por-Bazhyn Fortress” // Engineering surveys. 2008. No. 6.

5. Tulush D.K. Some problems and prospects for the preservation of ancient Uyghur settlements on the territory of the Republic of Tyva // Current problems in the study of ethno-ecological and ethno-cultural traditions of the peoples of Sayano-Altai: material. II interreg. conf. with international participation. Kyzyl, 2010.P. 64-67.

As we see, it is somehow impossible to say that an object has not been studied at all. It is also impossible to say that Por-Bazhyn is an analogue of Arkaim. Vladimir Orlov is either not aware of this (why is he writing then?) or is lying.

Foreigners also participated in the study. I quote

"Letters from Siberia: Fortress of Solitude" by Heinrich Herke

Russia's most mysterious archaeological site dominates a small island in the center of a remote lake, high in the mountains of southern Siberia. Here, just 20 miles from the Mongolian border, the outer walls of the medieval ruins of Por Bajin still rise 40 feet high, enclosing an area of ​​about seven acres, more than 30 remains of buildings intersecting in a labyrinthine manner.

Por Bazhin (“Clay House” in Tuvan) has long been thought to be a fortress built by the Uyghurs, the nomadic Turkic-speaking people who once ruled an empire that spanned Mongolia and southern Siberia, and whose modern descendants now live mostly in western China. Archaeologists conducted limited and inconclusive excavations at the site in the 1950s and 1960s, but Irina Arzhantseva of the Russian Academy of Sciences is now excavating the site so that the Por-Bazhin Cultural Foundation will know when the complex was built and why. Several artifacts discovered at the site appear to date back to the mid-eighth century AD. During this period, Por-Bazhyn was on the periphery of the Uyghur Empire, which lasted from 742 to 848 and was held together by a force of mounted warriors.

A tile from Por Bajin in the shape of a protective spirit, perhaps a dragon or a bat, shows Chinese influence (left). Silver men's earring (right). Roof shingles and finishing detail. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

Were some of those warriors who once garrisoned Por Bajin? The Uyghurs may also have built a site on the island for reasons other than defense. The island may have been the site of a palace or memorial for a ruler. Por Bajin's unique layout, more complex than other Uyghur fortresses of the time, has led some scholars to speculate that it may have had a ritual role.

States ruled by nomadic peoples often had symbiotic relationships with neighboring civilizations. China has had a strong influence on Uyghur culture. Eventually, the Uighurs even adopted Manichaeism, a popular religion in China at the time that combined elements of Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, a Persian religion based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. The object is very reminiscent of Chinese ritual architecture of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), so it is possible that Por-Bajin had something to do with Manichaean rites.

Determining how an object was used can also help archaeologists understand why it was abandoned. There is some evidence of a large fire at Por Bajin, but there may be other reasons why the Uighurs eventually left.

These questions occupy central place in the work of the Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation. During the second season of excavations in 2008, my students and I were lucky enough to join Arzhantseva’s team, which included about 200 students, archaeologists and local workers.

Thanks to Sergei Shoigu, Russia's Minister of Emergency Situations and the only Tuvan native in the country's cabinet, excavations at Por-Bazhyn are being carried out on a scale almost unheard of in modern archaeology. . In his youth he worked on excavations in Altai mountains, west of Por-Bajin. Since then, he has dreamed of excavating a major site in his home republic, so in 2007 he founded the Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation to fund the work of archaeologists, geologists, geographers and other specialists at the site.

His ministry's paramilitary forces provided full support for the excavation, building the excavation camp infrastructure and bridges linking the site to the lakeshore. They even provide helicopter transport for archaeologists. Arzhantseva believes this may be only the second time in history that military personnel have been involved on this scale in archaeological work, the first being Napoleon's sponsored archaeological research in Egypt from 1798 to 1801. During the first field season in Por-Bajin, Vladimir Putin, then president Russian Federation, even interrupted a hunting trip to Tuva with Prince Monaco of Monaco to visit this site. Apparently, an organization supporting such a large enterprise made a great impression on him.

The small courtyards (left) running along the walls of Por-Bajin had a building in the center. A digital reconstruction (right), based on excavations, shows that each building would have functioned as a dwelling, perhaps for monks, if the site were a monastery. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

As an archaeologist, I was amazed by both the scale of the excavations and the site itself. On my first assignment at Por Bajin, I worked in a trench cut through the outer perimeter wall, which rises on either side of the excavated area to almost its original four-story height. The wall at its base is 40 feet thick. If Por-Bajin was a fortress, these ruins suggest that it would have been nearly impregnable.

In the trench I worked with a small team of Russian students collecting wood samples for dendrochronological dating, which may be key to the final interpretation of the site. The wood we extracted was from a frame supporting a compacted clay wall fabric - a Chinese construction technique called hangtu. When I met her, I wondered if Chinese architects and builders were directly involved in the construction of this complex. Arzhantseva says it's possible, but hangtu isn't necessarily the most compelling evidence for it. Instead, she points to the site's Chinese layout, and the wooden remains of a Chinese roof structure called dou-gun, as even stronger indicators of Chinese influence. I found myself amazed at how widespread this influence is.

When I joined the excavation at the walls of the main gate of the complex, I was surprised for the second time to find permafrost less than three feet below the current surface. I should have expected frozen ground here at 7,000 feet in Siberian mountains, but I just didn't think about it as I sweated in the summer heat. Although I had never encountered permafrost before before excavating, it is easy to recognize: it is very similar to the overlying soil, but has a bone-hard mass and quickly becomes frosted when exposed to warm air. We had to repeatedly break the surface of the permafrost and then let it thaw for a couple of hours before we could go deeper.

Just like permafrost, lake water can remain unheated, meaning that permafrost periodically thaws. This is causing gradual erosion of the island's banks. Project geologists and geomorphologists led by Moscow State University scientists Igor Modin and Andrey Panin believe that if erosion coastline continues at the current rate, the main walls will collapse in about 150 years. This makes the work in Por-Bazhyn even more important.

Artist Elena Kurkina (right) draws the plan of a room in Por-Bazhyn, while conservator Galina Veresotskaya (kneeling) stabilizes fragments of wall painting in place. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu (right) and then President Vladimir Putin (second from right) listen to archaeologist Olga Inevatkina (center) explaining the layout of Por-Bazhyn. Standing at right is Prince Albert of Monaco (wearing sunglasses). (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)

One of the keys to this work is the research led by Modin and Panin. They showed that permafrost is located near the lake and under the island, but not under the lake itself. In other words, the complex stands on permafrost. But whether it was built on an island or whether the lake appeared around Por-Bazhyn later remains an open question. Geologists now tend to think that the lake existed when Por-Bazhyn was built, despite the logistical problems it would have created for the builders. The lake around the island is less than two feet deep. If Por-Bazhyn was a fortress, the lake would not have played a big role in its defense.

Excavation of the site's central complex may be key to answering questions about how the site was used and why it was abandoned. Working here is archaeologist Olga Inevatkina from the Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, whom I joined during the last couple of weeks of my stay in Por-Bazhyn.

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

When we dug, I was puzzled that we could not find a cultural layer or level that contained artifacts that dated back to the actual use of Por-Bazhyn. In fact, the lack of artifacts was unexpected. The only finds by this time in two seasons were a stone vessel, an iron dagger, one silver earring (probably a man's), several iron tools, iron balls from a warrior's chain, many iron nails and a handful of turtles from the main gate of the site. During my stay there I was unable to add to this number by cleaning three rooms in the complex. But I discovered the debris left behind by the fire and helped reconstruct the sequence of construction and destruction of the building.

In the Republic of Tyva, located in the Siberian Federal District, on an island in the middle of a lake, there is an amazing building, which is more than 1250 years old. Scholars disagree about who built Por-Bazhyn fortress, a building comparable in cultural significance to the famous one. It amazes not only with its geometrically correct proportions, but also because it lies far from ancient centers and roads. Historians are puzzling over the mystery: who built such a serious fortification and why. And the size of the building with its nine-meter thick walls is amazing.

Por-Bazhyn, fortress of the Uyghur Khagan

The ruins of Por-Bazhyn, or “clay house” translated from the Tuvan language, are located on an island in the middle of Lake Tere-Khol, which is located in the southeast of Tyva, in the Tere-Khol tectonic basin. The lake is relatively large - about 40 km2, but shallow.

Por-Bazhyn is the remains of a fortification from the period of the Uyghur Khaganate. Built, presumably, by order of the Uyghur Khagan Moyun-Chur (Moyun-Chura), who ruled from 746 to 759.

The Uyghur Khaganate existed from the 8th to the 9th centuries. and died after a 20-year war with the Yenisei Kirghiz in 840. The site of Por-Bazhyn is obviously one of the first signs of settled life of the Uighurs, who already combined cattle breeding with agriculture and crafts. The reign of Kagan Moyun-Chur was a period of endless internecine wars with pretenders to the throne and many external enemies: Karluks, Tatars, Khitans, Chiks, Kirghiz, Turgeshs, Basmals. Por-Bazhyn was not the only settlement of that era: the Kagan built himself palace-fortresses, but did not like to sit behind their walls, spending all his time on campaigns. Despite the apparent plausibility of this version, the purpose of Por-Bazhyn, built in the wild, remains largely a mystery today.

The historical ruins were discovered in 1891 by the first explorer of the ancient cities of Tuva, Russian ethnographer, archaeologist and geographer Dmitry Klements (1848-1914). While exploring the islands of Lake Tere-Khol, he found a settlement of 26 dwellings located along the inner perimeter of the wall, forming a rectangle stretched from west to east. Even in its destroyed state, the wall reaches a height of 9.5 m and the same thickness.

The layout of the fort is characterized by simplicity of lines and at the same time precise observance of proportions. It is interesting that the living quarters lined up along the perimeter of the wall are comparable in area to those located in the center and called the palace.

The mystery of the lake fortress Por-Bazhyn

To date, the number of versions regarding the appointment of Por-Bazhyn is approaching three dozen. None has yet received irrefutable evidence.

In the center of the Por-Bazhyn settlement there are two buildings - a large one and a smaller one, separated from other dwellings by a wall. On the east side of the buildings there are two wide grand brick staircases. The excellent quality of the building material is noteworthy: the brick is perfectly preserved. Both buildings were under roofs that rested, respectively, on 36 and 8 massive columns, standing on granite slabs, which have also survived to this day.

In the middle of the eastern wall there was a gate, on both sides of it there were fortified towers on the outer side. They could be climbed from the inside of the fort along ramps located parallel to the wall.

The mystery of Por-Bazhyn is that it has not been conclusively proven who built it in this wilderness and why. The places are wild, Tuvans have always avoided them, and the mounds around were left by nomads from the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. Legends only attribute the complex to the Uyghur Khagan Moyun-Chur, but researchers have found similarities between the fortress and North Chinese buildings of the Tang Dynasty (7th-10th centuries), and the bricks were made using the technologies of Central Asian Sogdiana. It could have been a temple complex: the layout resembles Buddhist monastery. The settlement could also have been built by people of the Andronovo, Afanasyevskaya, Okunevskaya or Tagarskaya cultures, who were not nomads.

There are also absolutely fantastic versions about the tomb of Genghis Khan, the entrance to Shambhala and the construction of a fortress by the Sumerians. It is known that the residents abandoned Por-Bazhyn suddenly, but it is not clear why. The real cause could have been a fire or an assault on the fort: a breach was discovered in the north-eastern corner of the wall.

In 1995, the settlement received the status of a monument of federal significance under the name “Ancient Uyghur fortress Por-Bazhyn, VIII-IX centuries.”

Curious facts

• During the excavations of Por-Bazhyn in the 1950s. Fragments of Buddhist religious sculpture, Chinese patterned tiles, fragments of pottery and, most importantly, the remains of frescoes were found. Unfortunately, it was not possible to save them.
• The bottom of the valley in which Lake Tere-Khol is located is an ancient glacier. The water level in it fluctuates noticeably, due to which the area of ​​the island is now increasing. Aerial photography revealed an ancient road and quarry at the bottom of the lake, where builders took clay, as well as buildings that were once part of the complex. Probably, earlier the island was a hill, on top of which a fortress was built, and later the lowland was filled with water from underground springs.
• Dmitry Klements, who discovered the Por-Bazhyn settlement to the world, is known not only as an outstanding scientist, but also as a revolutionary populist. While studying at St. Petersburg University, he joined a circle of populists, was friends with the then young Peter Kropotkin, and was an active revolutionary propagandist and supporter of the idea of ​​“going to the people.” Arrested in 1879, he served his sentence first in Peter and Paul Fortress, and then exiled and ended up in Minusinsk, Yenisei province. Here he participated in geographical expeditions. After serving his term of hard labor, he remained in Siberia and then opened Por-Bazhyn. The scientist’s merits turned out to be so great that, having moved to St. Petersburg, in 1902, despite his revolutionary past, he received the position of curator of the Academic Ethnographic Museum of Emperor Alexander III.
• The conclusion about the possible ownership of the fortress by the Uighurs was made on the basis of the coincidence of the ruins of Por-Bazhyn with the layout of the Khara-Balgas fortress, or Karabalgasun (“black city”), also known as Ordu-Balyk, the ancient capital of the Uyghur Khaganate in the 8th-9th centuries.

Por-Bazhyn fortress. City of God. In the east of Tuva, in the remote and inaccessible mountainous region of the Eastern Sayan, on an unnamed island located in the middle of the shallow Lake Tere-Khol, there are the ruins of the ancient Uyghur fortress Por-Bazhyn. Translated from Tuvan it means “clay house”. And this name was not chosen by chance. Local cattle breeders who settled nearby in the village of Kungurtug have long known about this strange place, surrounded by a clay wall. They knew from their legends, and even from local shamans, who claimed that these ruins were nothing more than the northern entrance to the mysterious underground country of Shambhala. This place remained inaccessible for a long time. Back in the 19th century, only a few historians and archaeologists knew about this fortress, and only a few climbed here to explore these ruins. Por-Bazhyn is still one of the most mysterious archaeological sites in the world. The first one tolate XVIcasually mentioned the destroyed fortress at the source of the Yenisei was a Tobolsk boyar Semyon Remezov. For those who don't know, this man was one of the most outstanding cartographers of his time. He was a kind of Siberian Mercator, who collected and preserved historical heritage Great Tartary. Although he was a service man under the royal Siberian order, he was always worried about the tragic events of the annexation of Siberia to Muscovy. According to unconfirmed reports, he secretly participated in the preparation of an uprising to separate Siberia from Russia. And from what we know for sure, Remezov compiled very acceptable maps of many Siberian lands. In his “Drawing Book of Siberia” for 1701, Remezov mentions the remains of an ancient settlement in the upper reaches of the Yenisei. There is a corresponding entry about this place on one of the maps: " - The city is old stone, two walls are intact, two have been destroyed, and we don’t know which city. Like this! There is no information left in the records about who built that fortress and when. And this question was asked much later by another inquisitive archaeologist and ethnographer Dmitry Klements- employee of the Minusinsk Museum. In 1891 he organized the Orkhon expedition, the purpose of which was, among other things, to check the ancient ruins of Lake Teri-Nur. - Having traveled many hundreds of kilometers across the steppes and taiga, overcoming mountain passes, he reached the upper reaches of the Kaa-Khem River (Small Yenisei) and Lake Tere-Khol, where, as they believed then, the Yenisei originates. Coming out to the swampy shores of the lake, he saw the ruins of ancient walls on the island in the distance. Weinstein In his diary, Clements then wrote that the lake was located at an altitude of 4,000 feet (1,300 meters) and was cut off on three sides by high, cliffy ridges. Local residents from the village of Kungurtug, closest to the lake, told the scientist about an ancient legend according to which the Khun-Taiji Palace existed on the site of the ruins. One day, a high lama predicted to the ruler about the imminent destruction of his palace and advised him to leave there as soon as water began to flow from the nearest well. And such a moment has come. Khun-Taiji and his servants barely escaped, and the palace was very quickly flooded.Khan, running away from the water that flooded the surroundings of the fortress, looking at the valley, exclaimed in surprise in Mongolian “Teri-nur bolchi!” (It became a lake!). Having become interested in this legend, Clements decided to examine the ancient ruins himself. ruins In the expedition report, he wrote that this monument ranks first among antiquities and compared it based on the coincidence of topography with the ruins of the Uyghur fortress Khara-Balgasun on the river. Orkhon in Mongolia, which he visited on the same expedition. Trying to understand who built this fortress, Clements wrote that the builders were "not Mongols or Chinese, and hardly Khitans or Jurjenis. Most likely the same or related people to the builders of ancient Karakorum - the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire". However, he understood that the answer to the question of who built this fortress and when could only be given by archaeological excavations, so he limited himself to only diagrams and sketches. Having compiled a detailed description of the ruins, Clements noted that Remezov was somewhat mistaken - all four walls of the structure were intact. Inside, the researcher found the foundations of numerous structures of unknown purpose. By the way, it was Clements who first established that Por-Bazhyn was precisely oriented to the cardinal points (according to scientists, everything that has an error of 20-30 degrees is precisely oriented).
Por-Bazhyn is shifted east by 15 degrees.) Such a “precise” orientation of buildings was not typical of Tuvan architectural structures, but for the Chinese, the “north-south” orientation was the norm. It is not surprising that Clements suspected the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire of having built this fortress. Although in the future his arguments were accepted by subsequent generations of scientists and they began to build on the fact that the fortress was created during the time of the Uyghur Khaganate around the 8th-9th century AD. For a very long time, Por-Bazhyn did not attract the attention of researchers due to its inaccessibility, and only summer 1952 the first reconnaissance expedition of the Tuvan Museum to Lake Tere-Khol was carried out under the leadership of a Soviet archaeologist, Professor of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Seviana Weinstein.Together with a small group, he flew to Tere-Khol by plane to inspect the ruins about which Clementz wrote more than half a century ago.WITH doing description of the fortress , Weinstein, following his predecessor Klemenets, justified the ownership of the fortress by the Uyghurs in an article published in the newspaper “Tuvinskaya Pravda” (09/25/1953). Weinstein began full-scale archaeological work only It was then that the first excavations were made on the territory of the fortress. They confirmed that the architects were indeed immigrants from China. This was evidenced by fragments of roofing tiles with Chinese patterns and discs for covering the holes of gutters with the image of a dragon.
But when the foundation and raw bricks from which the walls were made were carefully examined, it turned out that they were made using Sogdian technologies. Sogdiana, a neighboring state of the Uyghur Khaganate, was located on the territory of modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It became clear that the architectural appearance of the fortress was developed by the Chinese, and the construction was carried out by “foreign” workers.

Excavations at Por-Bajin were continued by Weinstein in 1963 as part of the Tuvan expedition of the Institute of Ethnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. As I wrote above, Weinstein also seized on the “Uighur” trace in the history of the fortress. However, simple statements were clearly not enough; it was necessary to find in Uyghur sources a mention of a fortress located in the middle of Lake Teri-Nur. And such records were found. The Uyghur authorship of Por-Bazhyn was indirectly indicated by one runic inscription on a stone, found at the beginning of the 20th century on the Selenga River. The Selenga inscription says that the second ruler of the 3rd Uyghur Khaganate, Moyan-Chur, built a fortress on the Kungurtug Highlands (the so-called mountains where Lake Tere-Khol is located). The inscription talks about Moyan-Chur’s campaign against the Chik tribe: It is not entirely clear whether this refers to the fortress on Tere-Khol or some other fortification. Moyan-Chur built 14 fortresses throughout the territory of present-day Tuva to protect the northern borders of his empire from the Yenisei Kyrgyz tribes hostile to the Uyghurs, and the recording could be about any of them. Weinstein's hypothesis soon became accepted and widely spread among other researchers, despite the fact that it was based only on guesswork. According to Weinstein’s description, the remains of the Por-Bazhin fortress were destroyed walls up to 10 m high, located in the form of a rectangle with dimensions of 211 by 158 meters. In the middle of the eastern wall there are remains of a gate with well-fortified towers and the remains of an access road. Inside the fortress there were traces of dwellings and service buildings, on the site of which in 1957 and 1963. fragments of ceramic and stone dishes, iron nails and other things were found. Central part
Inside the fortress walls there is a whole labyrinth of buildings and structures. There are 26 compartments along the western, southern and northern walls, separated by adobe walls up to one and a half meters high.
Both “palaces” were placed on a hill made of compacted earth and clay. Apparently, they were connected to each other by a 6-meter covered walkway. The first building measures 23 by 23 meters, and the second - 15 by 15. Their roof was supported by wooden columns. It is believed that there were 36 of them in the large room, and only 8 in the small room. The roofs were covered with cylindrical tiles. The thickness of the walls in the palaces, apparently, was more than a meter - which is not surprising, because winters in Kungurtug are very severe, temperatures below -40°C are the norm here. This thickness of clay and brick was covered with ornamental frescoes in orange and red colors. Based on the results of two expeditions in 1964, Weinstein published the article “Ancient Por-Bazhin.” By the way, this special archaeological research was not noted in any of the books of the famous archaeologist Kyzlasov, as if such a large-scale ancient monument and there was none at all. Russian anenerbe. Por-Bazhyn remained a secret place for about half a century. It is worth noting a strange feature of this fortress: peaks of research activity alternate with periods of half a century of calm. It seems that the place with ordinary frequency allows people into its territory, and after that, having gained the necessary energy, it closes again.
In October 2006, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, came up with a project to restore the ancient structure of the 8th century Por-Bazhyn. Russia's chief rescuer did not hide the fact that restoring the "clay house" is his personal passion. He himself assembled a team, agitated young people, looked for sponsors and dreamed of turning Por-Bazhyn into a Russian Shaolin, where they would teach philosophy, Tibetan medicine, horse riding, and martial arts. Being a patriot of his small homeland, Shoigu dreamed of reviving the ancient fortress-monastery. But these dreams would have remained just dreams if it had not been for joining the political elite of Russia. It was under Shoigu that a new structure of the Ministry of Emergency Situations was created - a paramilitary organization that was engaged not only in its direct rescue duties. At that time in Shoigu’s organization: 1. The Ministry of Emergency Situations was a power bloc, 2. Russian Geographical Society, where the minister was president, brought together scientists and independent researchers who were engaged in searching, substantiating and processing information on all “non-standard” places in Russia. 3. Financial support for projects of interest to the system was provided by the state. It is very likely that this organization had its own psychics, groups developing alternative directions such as ufology, groups searching for the sacred heritage of ancient civilizations within the borders of our vast homeland. To understand that the Ministry of Emergency Situations is not just a rescue organization, just look at their abstract coat of arms symbol - a circle in a triangle inside an eight-pointed star. What does this mysterious combination have to do with rescuers, and what does it mean, you need to ask those who created it. Such symbols are very typical for secret societies and are complete nonsense for ordinary people, but for initiates they are a special code that only they can understand. It is clear that at all these sites the sacred component played a major role, which is why Shoigu took these places of Power into development. Sergei Kuzhugetovich himself had long been close friends with Tuvan shamans, who considered the area near Tere-Khol to be the northern entrance to the underground country of Shambhala. And our state had considerable interest in such secrets, and therefore was ready to invest substantial funds in this project. But even besides these alternative opinions, the first expedition of 2007, organized by the Ministry of Emergency Situations(that’s what was actually stated!), found during excavations of the fortressclay tablets of human feet, faded color drawings on the plaster walls, giant gates, fragments of charred wood and more.
So, in May 2007 A large-scale and unprecedented archaeological project for Russian science was launched to save the cultural heritage site of the same name “Por-Bazhyn Fortress”, within the framework of which Russian university students were taken on summer expeditions to Minister Sergei Shoigu’s native republic. At that time I was just starting to study the places of the Power of Siberia, but I remember well how the propaganda machine ironed the brains of ordinary people with a mega rescue project of the state. System-controlled newspapers and television, through the endless teleconferences between Por-Bazhyn and Russia, raised such “dust” that has not yet settled down soon. The project implementation scheme has already been previously tested using the example of the Scythian burial grounds of the Valley of the Kings in northern Tuva. To finance the excavations, a special fund was created and a Board of Trustees was elected, where, in addition to Shoigu himself, many extremely famous people in our state appeared. From May to September 2007, specialists of various professions from 18 research institutes and students from institutes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk and Kyzyl worked on the island. Over the entire season, three shifts of students totaling about 500 people were brought in.By the end of summer archaeologists managed to dig up the entire island. To make it easier to get to the fortress, a long pedestrian bridge was even built from the mainland connecting the shore and the two islands. A lot of work was done and many unique finds were found. These are clay masks-amulets of eared dragons - guardians of the fortress, A special event was Putin’s visit to Tere-Khol in August 2007 together with Prince Albert II of Monaco. The restoration of Por-Bazhyn was proclaimed as an all-Russian matter, therefore the interest on the part of the top officials of the state was generally predictable, and at the same time it was extremely important to show off the finds in Europe. - Scientists, accustomed to low-budget scientific expeditions, were pleasantly surprised by the Internet in tents, washing machines, daily hot showers and other amenities of civilization. Every day a ton of diesel fuel was burned here, several times a day we traveled eight kilometers for water - but all the amenities were provided to the expedition participants. Some tents even had... chests of drawers! And a VIP camp was set up in special white yurts. The president and his guest were brought there. T. AleshinaArchaeologists also encountered Tuvan shamans who, despite their secrecy, went out to the camp and communicated with strangers. Perhaps the reason for this was the great authority of Sergei Shoigu in Tuva. The shamans themselves showed “interesting” places. Near the lake, areas with abnormally cold water were discovered, which could not be boiled, as if the lake was in the highlands. Researchers have also noted failures of electronics. Not only animals, but also birds avoided some places on the banks. And people felt uncomfortable there. Following a tip from local residents, archaeologists managed to excavate a ritual complex located onwest coast lakes. These are three vertical slabs of snow-white marble and a free-standing stone, on which two lines are engraved in the Turkic runic language. The words “Buchush-erkin” were carved on the stone. (Buchush is a Uyghur name, Erkin is one of the highest titles among the Uyghurs). ...It was hard to imagine that back in the eighth century such construction technologies as we discovered on the island existed. And tiles, and bricks, and blind areas, and sidewalks, and ramps, quite interesting processing of granite, a peculiar style of building walls in layers - a lot of interesting things. Masks of eared dragons, a silver earring, pieces of tiles, walls, elements of wooden structures, painted plaster are already in Kyzyl national museum. The exhibition is just being prepared. But, I hope, soon the traveling exhibition will be shown in the cities where the expedition participants were from - Krasnoyarsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tatarstan. ...The architects continue their work and should soon present a sketch of the fortress. And we will see what everything really looked like - the pagoda, columns, partitions. We now face a dilemma: either distribute tasks for creating wooden columns for the main palace to schools in Tuva through a competition, or bring materials to Tere-Khol and start sculpting it all on site at the beginning of the next field season. One thing is clear: we will do this. We have already outlined where to get wood of suitable quality - larch, the main thing is that it is not cracked, dry, of high quality. We will also deal with tiles - both end and corner. There is light clay in the Por-Bazhyn area. We need craftsmen who master ancient technology. It is clear who will be working on what next year. ...Of course, after the architectural project is ready, our academic architects and restorers will definitely go to China and work on the details of restoring the fortress. Probably, next season we will really need the hands of students from architectural and construction universities. ...We plan to attract students from the world's leading universities. We had already begun to communicate with our colleagues, and it became clear that their desire to participate in the restoration of the fortress was enormous. Since October 2007, scientific seminars, meetings and organizational exhibitions of finds began in order to popularize the project “Por-Bazhyn Fortress” and attract the attention of both our and foreign public and scientists. Second expedition season 2008 Scientists began with geophysical studies of the soil of the lake basin. In the spring of that year, while there was still snow, they carried out frequency sounding of the Tere-Khol environs. The result of which was the conclusion: - The thickness of permafrost under the island “Fortress Por-Bazhyn” is 25-30 m. Outside the lake, under the shores, the thickness of the permafrost reaches 170 m.

The results of spring frequency sounding of the soil were confirmed by well drilling, which was carried out that same summer. There was a thick layer of permafrost under the lake! In addition to ice, the instruments showed mysterious voids under the fortress. Some of them were small and came close to the surface, others extended to difficult-to-determine depths and turned out to be very extensive. It should be said thatThe glacier gave settlers a lot of trouble at all times. Suffice it to recall the legend about the rapid flooding of the fortress, which was built at a time when there was no trace of the lake. 30 years after Clemenza’s expedition, some more details surfaced about the flooding of the mysterious fortress. They were discovered to the world by the Polish writer and traveler Ferdinand Osendowski, who fled from the Bolsheviks in the early 20s through the Sayan Mountains to Mongolia. He cited these revelations in his book "" : And animals, and people, and gods - In the evening of the same day we drove up to the muddy yellow lake Teri-Nur. According to the guide, two hundred years ago no lake existed - in its place stood a well-protected Chinese fortress. One day its commandant insulted the old lama, and he cursed the place where the fortress stood and predicted the imminent destruction of the fortification itself. The very next day, a powerful spring came out of the ground, it flooded the fortress and swallowed its inhabitants into the abyss. To this day, during a storm, the waters of the lake throw ashore the bones of dead soldiers and their horses. OsendovskyIn addition, at the bottom of the lake there are some buildings that were once part of the complex, and then found themselves flooded. Even with all the discrepancies in this legend, the history of the death of the fortress helped researchers answer some questions. So, somehow reluctantly, geophysicists put an end to the dreams of Russia’s main rescuer. Although opinions on the water level are divided. Someone believed that the lake was retreating from the fortress, as in the old days, when Frequent earthquakes regulate the opening and closing of underground springs feeding a given reservoir. MMany were sure that the springs had nothing to do with it, and that the glacier under the island was to blame. Global warming will inevitably lead to its melting and Por-Bazhyn will go under water in the coming decades. And given such an unpredictable situation with the lake, investing millions in the construction of a Tuvan tourist Mecca on the water was considered a big mistake. The second field season began much later - at the beginning of June 2008. However, as if by magic, global construction temple complex it never started. The reports on the research carried out were so dismal that they could not be compared with the plans that were announced by Sergei Shoigu back in September 2007. And the point here is not at all about financing. There was enough money, but something prevented the erection of a majestic Russian Shaolin monastery on an unnamed island in Lake Tere-Khol, which would close the entrance to the underground land of the Gods - Shambhala. - What caused this, whether it was a glacier or another force majeure, remains unclear. Shoigu never explained to the public for the failure of the Por-Bazhyn Fortress project. If it were a question of the lake’s water level, the location of the future monastery could have been moved much higher. The entrance to Shambhala would not be affected by this. And the future monastery will be connected by energy connections with the ruins of the Uyghur fortress. However, the reasons for the failure of the project were apparently different. The sudden death of the shaman who conducted the consecration of the camp makes it clear that the Owners apparently did not like the initiatives of the Russian anenerbe to create a “cultural and historical center” on Tere-Khol. On September 5, 2008, the official closure of the Por-Bazhyn Fortress camp and the final conservation of the archaeological site took place. The excavations are completed, but the history of the project continues... - However, no promised continuation of the project ever materialized. To date (2016), the ruins of the Uyghur fortress-monasterydo not inspire optimism. WITHNow, according to eyewitnesses, the excavations are abandoned, and the exposed parts of the fortress are destroyed by wind and rain.
Wooden bridge connecting mainland with the island almost destroyed. And local residents on their boats, as before, take curious tourists to the clay ruins. The place was closed again for some 40 years in anticipation of new seekers of the legendary Shambhala. Versions of the origin of the Por Bazhyn fortress. From the time of the first studies of the mysterious ruins of Tere-Khol to the present day, several assumptions have been made regarding this matter. Below I will list the main ones: 1 . Summer residence of the Uyghur Kagan. Archaeologists of the Por-Bazhyn project 2007-2008. They didn’t come up with anything, and as the main one, they accepted Weinstein’s version about the residence of the Uyghur Khagan Moyan-Chur in the upper reaches of the Yenisei. It was considered a summer house because no hint of heating was found in the entire complex, so living in clay houses during harsh winters was simply not realistic. The correctness of the arguments about the residence of the Kagan was supported, as already mentioned, by the Selenga inscription, which spoke about one of Moyan-Chur’s campaigns: - Then, in the year of the Tiger (750), I went on a campaign against the Chicks. In the second month, on the 14th day, near (the river) I defeated them. In the same year, I ordered the establishment of the Kasar Kordan headquarters in the upper reaches (of the river). Then at the spring... there I ordered to build my whitish camp and palace, there I forced the construction of fortress walls, there I spent the summer and there I arranged prayers to the highest deities. Moyan-Chura introduced the ubiquitous radiocarbon into the slender version of the Kagan sanatorium, with the help of which it is now customary to calculate the age of buildings and other antiquities. The results of radiocarbon analysis showed the age of the fortress to be 770-790 AD. Since Moyan-Chur had already died by that time, the Selenga inscription could be attributed to some other place. What about Por-Bazhyn? Scientists immediately replayed the origin story, saying that the fortress could have been built by his son Biagui-Kagan. He declared Manichaeism the state religion, which means he could build Por-Bazhyn as a monastery, which explains its distance from the center of the Uyghur empire. All this is so doubtful and based only on assumptions, but this version of the summer residence of the Uyghur Kagan Moyan-Chur was accepted as the basic one. And radiocarbon can also be wrong! - - Por-Bazhin, apparently, was the summer residence of the Uyghur Khagans or major dignitaries. Apparently, no one lived permanently in this fortress; people appeared there only during the warm period. And it was very pleasant for the Uyghur aristocrats to relax on Kungurtug - clean mountain air, an abundance of wild animals around (good hunting), a lot of fish on the lake, and literally a five-minute drive from the fortress there are healing hydrogen sulfide springs. Was it their presence that made the Kagan decide to build a “sanatorium” in this very place? This was the official version adopted by Russian historians. 2. Palace of the Chinese Princess Ningguo.This version seems to have been invented just for variety. Its essence is that Moyan-Chur, owning a powerful nomadic power, helped the Chinese emperor cope with the rebels and in gratitude received the imperial daughter, Princess Ningo, as his wife. 3 . Chinese masters built this palace for the newlyweds. Regarding this version, it should be noted that the Kungurtuk Highlands have a very harsh climate. In summer temperatures rise to +50 degrees. In addition, the swampy area gives rise to many mosquitoes and midges, and there was no question of proper rest for the royalty. It can also be added here that Tere-Khol was separated from the center of the Kaganate by mountains with their impassable roads. A fortress that guarded the Great Silk Road. It was also assumed that the fortress belonged to robbers who robbed merchants. But, firstly, where could the merchants come from there, and secondly, how did the robbers build such a miracle? 5. The fortress itself.It could also have been a purely security structure, created to protect the northern borders of the Uyghur Khaganate from the raids of warlike nomads - the Yenisei Kyrgyz. The version that Por-Bazhyn died in a fire was visited by scientists when they found on the island many burnt logs used in the architecture of buildings.
The fire could also have occurred as a result of a military attack. The wooden floors burned down, but the tiles, having collapsed, remained on the ground and have been well preserved to this day.The question is, why were no traces of the assault or human remains found in the fortress, which almost always remain if a fortified settlement becomes a victim of military aggression? And how can you explain the strange arrangement of the interior? During a combat alert, the exit of soldiers from their barracks will lead to great pandemonium. All rooms in Por-Bazhyn do not have their own exits, but are alternately connected to each other. X Ram in Por-Bazhyn is like two peas in a pod like a Buddhist, and the Uyghurs professed Tengrism.6. Monastery.In my opinion, this version is the most plausible due to the remoteness and inaccessibility of the place, as well as due to the difficult living conditions in the Sayan Mountains with their extreme temperatures -50/+50 degrees C. For ordinary people and Uyghur dignitaries, the place is not very good, but this is the most suitable place for monks who are keepers of some secret.

Together with a small group, he flew to Tere-Khol by plane to inspect the ruins about which Clementz wrote more than half a century ago.The citadel is a regular rectangle with an intricate labyrinth of buildings reminiscent of a Buddhist mandala . And the stories of shamans about Shambhala also did not arise out of nowhere. The strangest thing is the absence of burials on the territory of the complex, as well as the extremely ascetic cultural layer of the finds. But archaeologists did find one burial in the vicinity of Por-Bazhyn, but what a burial! The grave was located on a small island in Lake Tere-Khol. It was discovered by accident: the rock collapsed under the influence. It is quite obvious to specialists that he was a European. This is evidenced by the shape of the eyes, height and structure of the skeleton. But the weapons - the remains of a shield, a sword and a spear tip - have nothing in common with Asian civilizations. All this could have been forged in Western Europe somewhere in the XIII-XIV centuries. Several chain mail rings indicate the same thing. Who was this knight? Templar looking for Shambhala? Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of Tuva State University Nikolai Abaev believes that Por-Bazhyn is a cult place associated with the ancient military cult of the Heavenly Fire-Breathing Serpent - the Dragon, which the ancient Uriankhians and Uyghurs worshiped as the God of War. The walls of the monastery, located on an island in the center of the lake, hid the secrets of the ancient military order from prying eyes. According to all data, it was this information that completely captured the consciousness of Sergei Shoigu, and for many years he cherished the hope of recreating the Russian Shaolin - a school of military skill and secret knowledge - on the site of the mysterious Uyghur fortress.

Strange place. Lake Tere-Khol – pretty strange place

Materials

The ruins of a clay fortress on the island of Por-Bazhyn (translated from the Tuvan language this means “clay house”) in the middle of Lake Tere-Khol in the Tere-Kholsky kozhuun of the Republic of Tyva have been attracting the interest of scientists for hundreds of years. The fortress is an almost regular rectangle measuring 211 by 158 meters and 3.3 hectares. The intricate labyrinth of buildings in the fort resembles a Buddhist mandala (a sacred diagram or design used in Buddhist and Hindu religious practices). The citadel has a clear internal layout, including a central structure and a system of courtyards with small buildings in the center and along the inner perimeter of the walls, in some places reaching up to 10 meters. In the middle of the eastern wall there is a gate with well-fortified towers. Inside the fortress, archaeologists also discovered traces of dwellings and service buildings.

Due to inaccessibility and distance from transport routes This monument of ancient architecture has been preserved quite well to this day.

The dates of construction and destruction of the fortress are not precisely established. Scientists believe that the fortress was built in the 8th century by the Uighurs, who at that time annexed the south of Tyva and the territory of Sayan-Altai to their Khaganate. However, this is practically all that historians and archaeologists have been able to establish for certain. The purpose of the architectural buildings preserved on the island remains a subject of debate, because these structures can equally be attributed to both a defensive structure and a palace or temple complex. Based on the fact that the walls of the fortifications were dotted with intricate signs, which are believed to have an important esoteric meaning and were in many ways similar to the symbols discovered in the ancient cities of the Mayan civilization, Irkutsk researcher I.V. Berdnikov put forward the assumption that the buildings of the temple complex Por-Bazhyn reproduced a map of the starry sky, accurately imitating the outlines of the zodiac constellations. This led the scientist to believe that there was once an ancient observatory on the island.

The ruins of Por-Bazhin have been known to Russian geographers since the end of the 17th century. The first written mention of the fortress is contained in the “Drawing Book of Siberia” published in St. Petersburg in 1882 by the Tobolsk boyar Semyon Remezov, but it was compiled back in 1699-1701. It should be noted that, when mentioning the remains of an ancient settlement on an island in the middle of Lake Tere-Khol, Remezov did not even try to determine by whom, when and why it was built.

In 1891, the site was explored by the Russian archaeologist D.A. Klemenets, who drew up its plan and first drew attention to the similarity with the ruins of the Khara-Balgas (Karabalgasun) fortress on the Orkhon River in Mongolia, where, as it was established, the capital of the Orkhon Uyghurs was located. He wrote that the builders of Por-Bazhin were “neither Mongols nor Chinese, and hardly Khitans or Jurjeni, most likely the same or related people to the builders of ancient Karakorum.” Then, for many years, Por-Bazhin was seemingly forgotten by researchers who showed no interest in it due to its inaccessibility. However, archaeologists, for example, G. Sosnovsky and L. Potapov, sometimes still mentioned Por-Bazhin and even, following Klemenets, agreed with his assumption that the settlement dates back to the period of the Uyghur Kaganate (744-840).

A detailed study of the settlement was undertaken by the Soviet archaeologist S.I. Vainshtein, who published the article “Ancient Por-Bazhin” in 1964. It is noteworthy that this archaeological research by S.I. Weinstein was not noted by the famous archaeologist L.R. Kyzlasov either in “The History of Tuva in the Middle Ages” (1969) or in “Ancient Tuva” (1979). Only in one of his early articles, “Medieval Cities of Tuva,” does he mention Por-Bazhin as “another quadrangular settlement surrounded by adobe walls (obviously a monastery), located on the southeastern outskirts of Tuva, on an island in Lake Tere-Khol.”

It was S.I. Weinstein, following D. Clemens, who substantiated the ownership of the fortress by the Uyghurs. Excavations at Por-Bazhin were started by him in 1957 and continued by the Tuvan expedition of the Institute of Ethnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The dating and attribution of the fortress were based on the typological similarity of the surviving ornamented tile discs. “It is known that such ceramic roof decorations can serve as a reliable source for dating architectural monuments East. The closest analogues to most of the end discs of the roof of the Por-Bazhin palaces are found in the finds of S.V. Kiselev from Ordu-Balyk,” wrote S.I. Vainshtein.

Moreover, S.I. Vainstein made a specific conclusion that the Por-Bazhin fortress with palace complex was built by order of the Uyghur Kagan Bayan-chor during a campaign against the Turkic tribe of Chiks, who inhabited the territory of modern Tyva. This campaign, described in a Uyghur runic inscription in honor of Bayan-chor, took place in 750.

Based on information from the Bayan-chor inscription, on the basis of which the exact date of construction of the fortress was determined, S.I. Vainstein suggested that the fortress was built as summer residence Uyghur Khagan. Bayan-chor says in the mentioned inscription about his campaign against the Chik tribe: “In the year of the Tiger (750) I went on a campaign against the Chiks... In the same year I ordered the establishment of the Kasar-Kordan headquarters...”. Following Weinstein, S. Klyashtorny believed that the mentioned Kasar-Kordan was the western camp and headquarters of Eletmish Bilge Kagan, correlating Kasar-Kordan (Kasar-Korug) with the Por-Bazhin fortress.

It is with the Por-Bazhyn fortress that the local population associates a legend about underground tunnels through which you can go around the entire Earth and in which the untold treasures of the rulers - the founders of the once powerful Uyghur Kaganate - are supposedly hidden. Indeed, back in the last century, when studying mysterious island archaeologists have more than once come across littered and dilapidated entrances to dungeons, which no one has yet managed to get into. According to scientists, the fortress was destroyed as a result of an enemy raid in the middle of the 18th century, and its inhabitants, shortly before their death, managed to hide their wealth in underground hiding places.

In 2004, the government of Tuva adopted a program for the development of Tuva culture for 2005-2010, within the framework of which it is planned to create the Por-Bazhyn park-fortress. On June 1, 2007, under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, an archaeological expedition began work in Por-Bazhyn, which attempted to restore the temple building. In addition to archaeologists and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, students from various Russian universities are taking part in the expedition. It should also be noted that it was thanks to the efforts of Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu that Por-Bazhyn became a monument of federal significance.

In the Republic of Tyva, not far from the Mongolian border, there is a shallow mountain lake Tere-Khol with several small islands. On one of these islands is located medieval monument – Por-Bazhyn fortress(from Tuvan - clay house).

The Por-Bazhyn fortress was discovered in XVII century the famous compiler of Siberian maps Semyon Remezov. It was not possible to establish for many years what era the settlement belongs to and what people it belongs to. Only in the 20th century did scientists find out that the Por-Bazhyn fortress was built in the 8th century, i.e. during the Uyghur Khaganate. His head Eletmish Bilge Kagan in 750 he captured the lands of modern Tuva. To gain a foothold in the conquered lands, he gave the order to build a fortress.

One of the islands was chosen as a place for settlement Lake Tere-Khol, located at an altitude of 1300 meters above sea level. The fortress was built in the shape of a regular rectangle (211x158 meters). The height of the fortress walls reaches 10 meters. In the center of Por-Bazhyn, two square-shaped palaces measuring 23x23 and 15x15 meters were discovered, located on artificial platforms made of compacted clay and earth. The palace buildings were connected to each other by a six-meter covered passage. The more spacious palace apparently belonged to the Uyghur Kagan himself. The thickness of the walls of this palace is over one meter. On the eastern side of the fortress, gates with towers have been preserved. Judging by the scale of the fortress, it can be judged that several thousand tons of baked brick and clay were spent on its construction.

Inside the Por-Bazhyn fortress There is a whole labyrinth of houses and buildings. Along all the fortress walls (except for the eastern one) there are 26 compartments, separated from each other by adobe partitions up to 1.5 meters high. In each of the compartments a mud-brick room 7x8 meters was built. In addition to various buildings, during excavations of the settlement, ceramic fragments, remains of frescoes, fragments of Chinese pottery and a cache of 101 forge iron blanks were found. The most amazing thing is that to date the remains of not a single person have been discovered. Thus, scientists have so far managed to answer two main questions. Why did the nomads create such a colossal fortress? Was the fortress some kind of religious building?

Among the local population, legends about grandiose treasures hidden in Uyghur settlement Por-Bazhyn, and about Elchigen Khan, who lived in this fortress, but not in the middle of the lake. Allegedly, one day a powerful source of water began to flow outside the fortress. Frightened by the flooding of Por-Bazhyn, the khan and his people left the fortress and climbed higher into the mountains. From there, the khan watched as the Por-Bazhyn fortress was completely surrounded by water. Scientists conducted space monitoring of the lake and actually discovered an ancient road at its bottom, which ultimately only raised new questions about the origin of the Por-Bazhyn fortress.

Photos of the Por-Bazhyn fortress