Khar Balgas

Khar Balgas, the “black ruins”, marks the site of Ordu-Baliq on the western bank of the Orkhon. Founded by the Uyghurs in 744, it became the capital of their khaganate on a plain that had already served earlier steppe rulers. Its walls enclosed palaces and temples, while merchants and craftsmen worked in the town beyond. In 821 the Samanid envoy Tamim ibn Bahr described a populous city with markets and cultivated villages, dominated by the khagan's golden pavilion.

The Yenisei Kyrgyz destroyed the Uyghur capital in 840. Its ruined walls remained in the Orkhon valley, not far from the later Mongol capital of Karakorum. The two sites recall successive powers that chose this river valley as a centre of rule over the steppe.