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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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MARCO POLO 1300K I.
(I859). However, no positive conclusion can be derived from these researches, chiefly in con iequence of the absence of a tolerably correct map of Northern Mongolia."
Abel Rémusat (Ménz. sur GMAT. Asie Centrale, p. 20) made a confusion between Karábalgasun and Karákorum which has misled most writers after him.
Sir Henry Yule says : " The evidence adduced in Abel Rémusat's paper on
Karákorum (Mé;n. de l'Acad. R. des Insc. VII. 288) establishes the site on the north bank of the Orkhon, and about five days' journey above the confluence of the Orkhon and Tula. But as we have only a very loose knowledge of these rivers, it is impossible to assign the geographical position with accuracy. Nor is it likely that ruins exist beyond an outline perhaps of the Kaan's Palace walls."
In the Geo;raplzical Magazine for July, 1874 (p. 137), Sir Henry Yule has been enabled, by the kind aid of Madame Fedtchenko in supplying a translation from the Russian, to give some account of Mr. Paderin's visit to the place, in the summer of 1873, along with a sketch-map.
" The site visited by Mr. Paderin is shown, by the particulars stated in that paper, to be sufficiently identified with Karákorum. It is precisely that which Rémusat indicated, and which bears in the Jesuit maps, as published by D'Anville, the name of Talarizo Ilara Palhassoun (i.e. Kará Balghásun), standing 4 or 5 miles from the left bank of the Orkhon, in lat. (by the Jesuit Tables) 47° 32" 24". It is now known as KaraKhárám (Rampart) or Kara Balghasun (city). The remains consist of a quadrangular rampart of mud and sun-dried brick, of about 50o paces to the side, and now about 9 feet high, with traces of a higher tower, and of an inner rampart parallel to the other. But these remains probably appertain to the city as re-occupied by the descendants of the Yuen in the end of the 14th century, after their expulsion from China."
Dr. Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 123) rightly observes : " It seems, however, that Paderin is mistaken in his supposition. At least it does not agree with the position assigned to the ancient Mongol residence in the Mongol annals Erdelzin eriklze, translated into Russian, in 1883, by Professor Pozdneiev. It is there positively stated (p. I To, note 2) that the monastery of Erdenidsui, founded in 1585, was erected on the ruins of that city, which once had been built by order of Ogotai Khan, and where he had established his residence ; and where, after the expulsion of the Mongols from China, Togontemur again had fixed the Mongol court. This vast monastery still exists, one English mile, or more, east of the Orkhon. It has even been astronomically determined by the Jesuit missionaries, and is marked on our maps .of Mongolia. Pozdneiev, who visited the place in 1877, obligingly informs me that
- . the square earthen wall surrounding the monastery of Erdenidsu, and measuring
y ; about an English mile in circumference, may well be the very wall of ancient
Karákorum."
Recent researches have fully confirmed the belief that the Erdeni Tso, or Eideni Chao, Monastery occupies the site of Karákorum, near the bank of the Orkhon, between this river and the Kokchin (old) Orkhon. (See map in Inscriptions de 'Orkhon, Helsingfors, 1892 ; a plan of the vicinity and of the Erdeni Tso is given (plate 36) in W. Radio"s Atlas der Altertlzümer der 1lloiz olei, St. Pet., 1892.)
According to a work of the 13th century quoted by the late Professor G. Devéria, the distance between the old capital of the Uighúr, Kara Balgasún, on the left bank of the Orkhon, north of Erdeni Tso, and the Ho-lin or Karákorum of the Mongols, would be 7o li (about 3o miles), and such is the space between Erdeni Tso and Kara Balgasún. M. Marcel Monnier (Itinéraires, p. 107) estimates the bird's-eye distance from Erdeni Tso to Kara Balgasún at 33 kilom. (about 2oi miles). " When the brilliant epoch of the power of the Chinghizkhanides," says Professor Axel Heikel, " was at an end, the city of Karákorum fell into oblivion, and towards the year 1590 was founded, in the centre of this historically celebrated region of the Orkhon, the most ancient of Buddhist monasteries of Mongolia, this of Erdeni Tso [Erdeni Chao]. It was built, according to a Mongol chronicle, on the ruins of the town built by Okkodai, son of Chinghiz Khan, that is to say, on the ancient Karákorum."
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