Day 1: Meet you at your hotel and visit Mt. Flaming, Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Ancient City of Gaochang, Ancient Astana Tombs and Mazar Aldi.
Program:
Your private tour guide and vehichle will meet you at your hotel, we will drive from downtown Turpan to Shanshan County for Silk Road Ancient Ruins and Flaming Mountain which is famous for the story "Journey to the West".
First, we will visit
Ancient City of Gaochang. It was built in the first century B.C.(in West Han Dynasty), it used to be a garrison city and later became a key point along the ancient Silk Road. The city was burnt down around the 14th century. The ruins originally consisted of three parts: the inner and outer cities, and a palace complex. Nine city gates were built on cardinal points, three in the south and two in each other three directions respectively.
And then we go to
Ancient Astana Tombs.This Tang-dynasty burial ground known as the "Underground Museum" attracts stream of archaeologists both at home and abroad Astana means "capital" in Uigur and Karakhoja is the name of a legendary hero of the ancient Uigur Kingdom who expelled the evils by killing a vicious dragon.
The next program will visit
Flaming Mountains and Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. Flaming Mountains is lying in the middle of the Turpan Depression and running from east to west for about 100 kilometers. The golden and red mountain look like flaming.
In the Uigur language Bezeklik means "place where there are paintings" It used to be an important center for Buddhist worship under the Xizhou Huigu government of Gaochang Kindom, which built the royal temple of the King of Huigu at this site. The caves are well hidden and rest on a long ridge overlooking a valley where the monastery was located. Among 83 numbered grottoes, about 40 of them have rich remains of murals.
Before we drive back to downtown Turpan, we will visit the oldest Uighur village -
Mazar Aldi in Tuyog town to discover more about Uighur history and culture.
Meals: Lunch
Day 2: Today's program include Emin Minaret, Grape Valley, Turpan Museum, Ancient Karez System and Ancinet City of Jiaohe.
Program:
After meet you at you hotel, we star our today's program. We will visit
Emin Minaret first. It consists of both a mosque and a minaret tower built in 1778 by the local Muslim ruler, Emin Hoja. Also known as Sugong Tower after Emin´s Chinese name, the minaret was built in a simple Islamic style. It is circular, 44 meters in height, and 10 meters in diameter at the base.
After that we will visit
Grape Valley and Ancient Karez System. Here we will visit morden Uighur people and their grape fields and raisins dry rooms. Ancient Karez system is comprised of a series of wells and linking underground channels that uses gravity to bring ground water to the surface, usually far from the source. The history of Karez can be traced back to the Han dynasty. Most of karezes existing today were built in the Qing dynasty.
In the afternoon, we will go to
Turpan Museum. It is the 2nd largest museum in Xinjiang Province show you the excavations in Turpan and around, help you to learn more about silk road boom and history.
The last but not the least, we will visit
Ancinet City of Jiaohe (Yargul Kadimki Xahiri), which is the largest, oldest and well-protected ancient soil building city. It is on a island platform and river run circle the city; the ancient residents farming outside the city on the river valley and staying in the platform city to protect themselves. The city story could date back to Cheshi Kingdom 2000 years ago. And in Han and Tang Dynasty, the highest military and political institutions of Western Region were set here to protect the safty of Silk Road.
After all program, drive you back to your hotel. End of service.
Meals: Lunch
