The Miran Ruins, near the Tarim Basin, are home to a lost civilisation.
Here, an ancient temple was once buried for 1,000 years under the sands of Cele County.
Although these lost civilisations of Xinjiang are mysterious and fascinating, they also warn that any civilisation can disappear if the sand is not controlled.
Actually, sand control is not about conquering nature, which is something that both the Cele Sand Control Station staff and the local people are well aware of.
Living in harmony with the sand for many years, they have developed their own wisdom and know how to thrive here.
WATCH: The Enigmatic Miran Ruins
Situated on the southern fringes of the Taklamakan Desert in present-day Xinjiang, China, the Miran Ruins unveil the vestiges of an ancient city that once thrived as a crucial oasis along the Silk Roads.
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Flourishing in the 1st millennium CE, Miran served as a pivotal nexus for cultural and economic interactions between western China, Tibet, and Central Asia.
The archaeological site comprises a sprawling rectangular fort, a monastery, Buddhist monastic complexes, and an intricate irrigation system.
The fort, with its historical significance traced back to the Tibetan Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries AD, has been subject to excavations by various expeditions, including those led by Sir Aurel Stein, the Japanese Otani Mission in the early 1900s, and more recently, the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology.
Among the artifacts unearthed are bows and arrows, stucco images, and intricately carved wooden objects.
Notably, the excavation of the Miran fort has yielded a wealth of military documents dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries, standing as some of the earliest surviving Tibetan manuscripts and providing crucial insights into the early history of Tibet.
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