Khara Khoto

Khara-Khoto, the “Black City”, stands near the lower reaches of the Ejin River on the edge of the Gobi. Founded in 1032, it prospered as a trading centre of the Tangut Western Xia. Genghis Khan took the city in 1226, but it continued to flourish under Mongol rule and expanded considerably under Kublai Khan. Its position linked the roads to Karakorum, Shangdu and Kumul; it has been identified with the city of Etzina described in Marco Polo's travels.

After the fall of the Yuan, Khara-Khoto became a Northern Yuan stronghold. A local legend tells of a Ming siege in 1372 in which the attackers diverted the river to deny the defenders water. The city was subsequently abandoned, leaving its walls and surviving manuscripts testify to a frontier town in which Tangut, Chinese, Mongolian and other languages were used.