Fort Bazhin. “Clay House” Por-Bazhyn: The secret of the lake fortress of Siberia. "Letters from Siberia: Fortress of Solitude" by Heinrich Herke

Por-Bazhyn (Tuvian clay house) is the ancient ruins of an 8th century fortress, which are located on an island in the middle of Lake Khol. The island itself is located in the Tere-Khol region of the Republic of Tyva (Tuva) in the mountains at an altitude of 1300 meters, almost on the border with Mongolia.

Por-Bazhyn fortress - history of construction.

The defensive structure was built by order of Eletmish Bilge Khagan, head of the Uyghur Khaganate, in 750. The territory of Tyva was captured by his army, and in order to gain a foothold on the conquered land, the Por-Bazhyn fortress was erected. Construction was difficult, since all the material, approximately thousands of tons, had to be transported to the island. The entire structure was made of clay and baked bricks. The walls of the fortress were quite high, about 10 meters high. In the center, on a hill, there was a palace that belonged to Eletmish Bilge Kagan. If you look at the ruins from above, you can see a regular rectangle with a whole complex of labyrinths.

The length of the Bor-Bazhin fortress from west to east is about 200 meters, and from north to south – 158 meters. The length of the island is 240 meters. The ruins were discovered at the end of the 19th century in 1891 by museum employee D.A. Klemenets. Only 66 years later, an archaeological expedition was organized under the leadership of S. Vainshten, a professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Economics. For six years, scientists studied the ruins found. Despite the age of the fortress, it is well preserved, due to its inaccessible location and distance from transport routes. To get to the ruins of the Por-Bazhyn fortress, you need a helicopter, but these places can also be reached in the summer by an all-terrain vehicle.

The length of the pile bridge connecting the island and the archaeological camp is 1.3 kilometers. Technical personnel, about 40 people, and auxiliary equipment permanently live in the camp. According to the plan for the cultural development of Tuva, a program was adopted during which it is planned to create a park - the Por-Bazhyn fortress.

Fortress Por-Bazhyn (Bor-Bazhin) - description.

When you look at the ruins of the fortress, you are struck by the architectural complexity of the project. This method of construction resembles a Buddhist or Hindu mandola. According to some assumptions, it is believed that the Chinese took part in the construction. The northern and southern walls are partially destroyed, while the western and eastern walls are better preserved. The walls on the northwestern and southwestern sides suffered the most. In the middle of the eastern wall there is a central gate, flanked by towers, also badly damaged. The entrance ramps parallel to the walls are clearly visible. Along the walls there were 26 square rooms that were tightly adjacent to each other. The height of the walls separating them reached 1.5 meters. In front of the palace building there was a kind of square; most likely, military meetings, training, celebrations and ritual ceremonies were held here. The outer walls are made of mud brick 1 meter thick, on which ornamental frescoes in red and orange can be seen.

Although Por-Bazhyn became a monument federal significance, the fortress was not preserved, and the remains of the structures are being intensively destroyed by erosion.

Why was the Por-Bazhyn fortress empty?

Even now, having arrived on the island and examining the remains of the past defensive structure, you can see that it was built for many centuries. It is also clear that the fortress was abandoned almost instantly. For example, about 100 iron blanks for forging were found in the forge. Neatly stacked Chinese tiles were found in the remains of the room. It is also strange that there are no burials on the territory, although there are plenty of burial grounds in the area. The remains of a single resident of the Por-Bazhyn fortress have not yet been discovered. In some places traces of fires are clearly visible, but archaeologists are almost sure that the fortress did not fall because of them. Traces of the assault were also not found, otherwise evidence would have been found that the fortress had been attacked. Many questions related to the Por-Bazhyn fortress still remain unanswered.

In the Republic of Tyva, near the border of Mongolia, at an altitude of 1300 meters, Lake Tere-Khol is hidden in the mountains. In the 17th century, Semyon Remezov, the famous compiler of maps of Siberia, discovered the ruins of a monumental fortress on an island in the center of the lake, which he wrote down in his papers: “The city is old stone, two walls are intact, two have been destroyed, and we don’t know which city.” . The fortress on the island is called “Por-Bazhyn” by local residents, which means “clay house” in Tuvan.

The first mention of Por-Bazhyn is in the “Drawing Book of Siberia, compiled by the Tobolsk boyar’s son Semyon Remezov in 1701” (published in St. Petersburg in 1882). In 1891, the site was examined by the Russian ethnologist and archaeologist D.A. Klemenets, who filmed his plan and first noticed the similarity with the ruins of the city of Karabalgasun on the Orkhon River in Mongolia. He wrote that the builders of Por-Bazhyn were “neither Mongols nor Chinese, and hardly Khitans or Jurjeni, most likely the same or a people related to the builders of ancient Karakorum.”

For a very long time, Por-Bazhyn did not attract the attention of researchers due to its inaccessibility. Nevertheless, archaeologists sometimes referred to it and even suggested that the site belonged to the period of the Uyghur Kaganate (744-840).

In 1957, Soviet archaeologist S.I. Vainshtein began excavations of the settlement and continued by the Tuva expedition of the Institute of Ethnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Dating and attribution of the fortress were based on the typological similarity of the surviving end ornamented tile discs.

According to the scientist’s description, the remains of the Por-Bazhyn fortress were destroyed walls located in the form of a rectangle consisting of walls oriented along the cardinal points. The height of the walls in some places reached 10 meters. In the middle of the eastern wall there are remains of a gate with well-fortified perverted towers. Inside the fortress, archaeologists also discovered traces of dwellings and service buildings, at the site of which fragments of ceramic and stone dishes, iron nails and other artifacts were found in 1957 and 1963. In the central part of the fortress, two earthen hills up to 2 meters high were discovered, under which were the foundations of two buildings.

The purpose of the Por-Bazhyna fortress remains not entirely clear. Initially, the idea was expressed that the settlement could be a monastery, but very soon scientists abandoned it. If we rely on the information from the Bayan-chor inscription, on the basis of which the date of construction of the fortress was determined, we can say that the fortress was built as the summer residence of the Uyghur Kagan. This is how Bayan-chor tells about his campaign against the Chik tribe:

Then, in the year of the Tiger (750) I went on a campaign against the Chicks. In the second month, on the 14th day, near [the river] I defeated them. In the same year, I ordered the establishment of the Kasar Kordan headquarters in the upper reaches of the Tez [river] (on western slope Otyuken). I ordered walls to be built there and spent the summer there. There I established the boundaries [of my domain]. There I ordered my signs and my letters to be drawn.

Russian Turkologist S.G. Klyashtorny, who clarified these lines, believed that Kasar Kordan (in the Terkhin inscription - Kasar Korug) was the western camp and headquarters of Eletmish Bilge Kagan. He identified Kasar Kordan with the Por-Bazhyn fortress.

Many Tuvan legends are associated with the ruins of Por-Bazhyn. One of them tells about a khan who had big ears, for which he received the name Elchigen-kulak-khan - Donkey Ears. Khan hid his ears from others and killed anyone who saw them. Only one barber managed to see them and tell all the people about it. According to another legend, the fortress was built by a certain khan in the Yenisei valley, where there was no lake yet. The lake was formed from water gushing from a well built in the fortress. Khan, running away from the water that flooded the surroundings of the fortress, looking at the valley, exclaimed in surprise in Mongolian: “Teri-nur bolchi!” (It became a lake!).

Currently, researchers are attracted by the legend that Por-Bazhyn was a palace built by the Uyghur Khagan for a Chinese princess. The Uyghur Eletmish Bilge Kagan actually received the Chinese princess Ningguo as his wife in gratitude for the military assistance he provided to the Tang dynasty in suppressing the An Lushan uprising (755-762). It is known from sources that Princess Ningo went to the Uyghur headquarters in September 758, but six months later the Uyghur Khagan died. The Tang chronicles tell how the Uyghurs wanted to bury the princess with her late husband, but, having met strong objections, they left her alive. A few months after the death of the Kagan, the princess returned to China.

To the Uyghur headquarters, the Tang princess was accompanied by another representative of the imperial house - Xiao Ningguo (Younger Ningguo), the daughter of one of the Chinese princes. Xiao Ningguo remained with the Uighurs and was successively the wife of Bayanchor and his son Byogyu Kagan (759-779). During a palace coup in 779, her two sons born from Byogyu Khagan were killed, and Xiao Ningguo herself “went and lived outside (the capital).” If the assumption that the Por-Bazhyn palace was built in 750-751 is correct, it could not have been built for the Chinese princess, who arrived at the Uyghur headquarters many years after the construction of Por-Bazhyn - in 758 and lived among the Uyghurs for only about one year.

Of course, palaces and cities for princesses were built by the Uyghurs. Among the Uyghur cities in Chinese sources, for example, the “city of the princess” is called “Gongzhu Cheng”. However, they were located much south of the Kagan headquarters. Thus, the legend that the Uyghur palace of Por-Bazhyn was built for a Chinese princess has no basis. The latter, however, does not exclude the possibility that Chinese craftsmen could have taken part in its construction.

For a long time, no one could understand why it was necessary to erect such a massive structure in an almost deserted area and from whom the inhabitants of the fortress were defending themselves. Scientists are now skeptical about the version that the fortress used to be a guard post on the Great Silk Road from China to Europe, since the northernmost branches of the Silk Road ran for about a thousand kilometers south of the place where the fortress stands. There were no military bases, gold deposits or food warehouses near the fortress either.

In addition, scientists for a long time could not understand how the ancient builders managed to build a fortress on an island in the middle of the lake. How were building materials delivered, where were the brick-making workshops located, how could hundreds of builders fit on a small piece of land? The 1957-1963 expedition was also unable to establish why people finally left Por-Bazhyn.

And only comprehensive studies in 2007-2008, conducted under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, were able to slightly reveal the secret of this place. As a result of the work, the appearance was completely restored ancient city, many objects were found confirming the “Uighur trace”, and it was found out why Por-Bazhyn was destroyed.

V.V. Putin and S.K. Shoigu in Por-Bazhyn, August 2007 / Photo: por-bajin.ru

So, what was Por-Bazhyn? The ruins of the fortress occupy almost the entire area of ​​the island and are a regular rectangle, oriented to the cardinal points, with dimensions of 211 by 158 meters. The height of the fortress walls, even in a dilapidated form, reaches 10 meters. On the eastern side there are preserved gates with inverted towers; the remains of entrance ramps lead to the towers.

Inside the fortress walls there is a whole labyrinth of buildings and structures. There are 26 compartments along the western, southern and northern walls, separated by adobe walls up to one and a half meters high. In each of them, a room measuring 7 by 8 meters was built from raw brick - apparently, palace servants, artisans and fortress guards lived in them. In the middle, two palace buildings were discovered, perhaps one of them was a temple.

Both “palaces” were placed on a hill made of compacted earth and clay. Apparently, they were connected to each other by a 6-meter covered walkway. The first building measures 23 by 23 meters, and the second - 15 by 15. Their roof was supported by wooden columns. It is believed that there were 36 of them in the large room, and only 8 in the small room. The roofs were covered with cylindrical tiles. The thickness of the walls in the palaces, apparently, was more than a meter, which is not surprising, because winters in Kungurtug are very harsh, and temperatures of -45°C are the norm here. This thickness of clay and brick was covered with ornamental frescoes in orange and red colors.

What surprised archaeologists most was the extremely thin cultural layer of the settlement. Sheep bones were found in some places (this refuted the version local residents that Por-Bazhyn was a Buddhist monastery, since Buddhist monks do not eat meat), several women’s jewelry and blacksmith’s blanks - that’s all that the residents of this city lost over the several decades of the fortress’s existence. In addition, only one burial was discovered in the vicinity of Por-Bazhyn, and there are none at all on the territory of the fortress.

All this suggests that Por-Bazhyn, apparently, was the summer residence of the Uyghur Khagans or major dignitaries. Apparently, no one lived permanently in this fortress; people appeared there only during the warm period. And it was very pleasant for the Uyghur aristocrats to relax on Kungurtug - clean mountain air, an abundance of wild animals around, a lot of fish in the lake, and healing hydrogen sulfide springs are located a five-minute drive from the fortress. Was it their presence that made the Kagan decide to build a “sanatorium” in this very place?

We managed to find out why the fortress suddenly ended up on the island. Thanks to the research of a group of geomorphologists and soil scientists from Moscow State University. Lomonosov and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to establish that throughout its entire history of existence, Lake Tere-Khol disappeared almost completely several times. This happened as a result of the fact that earthquakes, which in the past occurred quite often in these places, from time to time led to the disappearance of the underground springs feeding this reservoir. Apparently, during one of these periods of “draining” Tere-Khol the fortress was built.

This is also evidenced by the traces of the road found by geologists located at the bottom of the reservoir. But no one builds roads under water, which means that when they built it, there was no lake. Afterwards, during the next earthquake, the springs “opened” again and the Tere-Khol basin was filled with water.

Earthquakes eventually destroyed the fortress itself. Soil scientists on the island discovered traces of characteristic displacements in the occurrence of soil layers, which arise as a result of vibrations of the earth's solid surface. Based on dating, these shifts coincide with the age of traces of the fire of the fortress, found earlier by archaeologists. But the remains of those killed by this natural disaster no people were found. This refuted the previously put forward version of the destruction of the fortress as a result of an assault by enemy armies or an uprising of local residents.

In reality, most likely, an earthquake destroyed the fortress in winter or autumn, when there was no one in it. Apparently, having arrived at the “sanatorium” the following summer and finding a pile of ruins in its place, the Kagan did not want to restore the buildings, since he considered this place dangerous for recreation.

Although, according to the stories of local residents, the Kagan and his warriors still sometimes return to these places. According to them, on dark nights on the island, among the ruins, you can see ghosts on horses, with weapons and in clothes of the 8th century. It is quite possible that the Uyghur nobility liked the holiday in Por-Bazhyn so much that many of its representatives, even after death, continue to visit this wonderful “rest house”.

Por-Bazhyn fortress. City of God. In the east of Tuva, in the remote and inaccessible mountainous region of the Eastern Sayan, on an unnamed island located in the middle of the shallow Lake Tere-Khol, there are the ruins of the ancient Uyghur fortress Por-Bazhyn. Translated from Tuvan it means “clay house”. And this name was not chosen by chance. Local cattle breeders who settled nearby in the village of Kungurtug have long known about this strange place, surrounded by a clay wall. They knew from their legends, and even from local shamans, who claimed that these ruins were nothing more than the northern entrance to the mysterious underground country of Shambhala. This place remained inaccessible for a long time. Back in the 19th century, only a few historians and archaeologists knew about this fortress, and only a few climbed here to explore these ruins. Por-Bazhyn is still one of the most mysterious archaeological sites in the world. The first one tolate XVIcasually mentioned the destroyed fortress at the source of the Yenisei was a Tobolsk boyar Semyon Remezov. For those who don't know, this man was one of the most outstanding cartographers of his time. He was a kind of Siberian Mercator, who collected and preserved the historical heritage of Great Tartaria. Although he was a service man under the royal Siberian order, he was always worried about the tragic events of the annexation of Siberia to Muscovy. According to unconfirmed reports, he secretly participated in the preparation of an uprising to separate Siberia from Russia. And from what we know for sure, Remezov compiled very acceptable maps of many Siberian lands. In his “Drawing Book of Siberia” for 1701, Remezov mentions the remains of an ancient settlement in the upper reaches of the Yenisei. There is a corresponding entry about this place on one of the maps: " - The city is old stone, two walls are intact, two have been destroyed, and we don’t know which city. Like this! There is no information left in the records about who built that fortress and when. And this question was asked much later by another inquisitive archaeologist and ethnographer Dmitry Klements- employee of the Minusinsk Museum. In 1891 he organized the Orkhon expedition, the purpose of which was, among other things, to check the ancient ruins of Lake Teri-Nur. - Having traveled many hundreds of kilometers through the steppes and taiga, overcoming mountain passes, he reached the upper reaches of the Kaa-Khem River (Small Yenisei) and Lake Tere-Khol, where, as they believed then, the Yenisei originates. Coming out to the swampy shores of the lake, he saw the ruins of ancient walls on the island in the distance. Weinstein In his diary, Clementz then wrote that the lake was located at an altitude of 4,000 feet (1,300 meters) and was cut off on three sides by high, cliffy ridges. Local residents from the village of Kungurtug, closest to the lake, told the scientist about an ancient legend according to which the Khun-Taiji Palace existed on the site of the ruins. One day, a high lama predicted to the ruler about the imminent destruction of his palace and advised him to leave there as soon as water began to flow from the nearest well. And such a moment has come. Khun-Taiji and his servants barely escaped, and the palace was very quickly flooded. Khan, running away from the water that flooded the surroundings of the fortress, looking at the valley, exclaimed in surprise in Mongolian “Teri-nur bolchi!” (It became a lake!). Having become interested in this legend, Clements decided to examine the ancient ruins himself.Having reached the island on a raft, since there were no other means of rafting, Clements sketched out a general plan of the ruins. In the expedition report, he wrote that this monument ranks first among antiquities and compared it, based on the coincidence of topography, with the ruins of the Uyghur fortress Khara-Balgasun on the river. Orkhon in Mongolia, which he visited on the same expedition. Trying to understand who built this fortress, Clements wrote that the builders were "not Mongols or Chinese, and hardly Khitans or Jurjenis. Most likely the same or related people to the builders of ancient Karakorum - the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire". However, he understood that the answer to the question of who and when built this fortress could only be given by archaeological excavations, so he limited himself to only diagrams and sketches. Having compiled a detailed description of the ruins, Clements noted that Remezov was somewhat mistaken - all four walls of the structure were intact. Inside, the researcher found the foundations of numerous structures of unknown purpose. By the way, it was Clements who first established that Por-Bazhyn was precisely oriented to the cardinal points (according to scientists, everything that has an error of 20-30 degrees is precisely oriented). Por-Bazhyn is shifted east by 15 degrees.)
Such a “precise” orientation of buildings was not typical of Tuvan architectural structures, but for the Chinese, the “north-south” orientation was the norm. It is not surprising that Clements suspected the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire of having built this fortress. Although in the future his arguments were accepted by subsequent generations of scientists and they began to build on the fact that the fortress was created during the time of the Uyghur Khaganate around the 8th-9th century AD. For a very long time, Por-Bazhyn did not attract the attention of researchers due to its inaccessibility, and only summer 1952 the first reconnaissance expedition of the Tuvan Museum to Lake Tere-Khol was carried out under the leadership of a Soviet archaeologist, Professor of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Seviana Weinstein. Together with a small group, he flew to Tere-Khol by plane to examine the ruins about which Clementz wrote more than half a century ago.WITHHaving described the fortress, Weinstein, following his predecessor Klemenets, substantiated the ownership of the fortress by the Uighurs in an article published in the newspaper “Tuvinskaya Pravda” (09.25.1953). Weinstein began full-scale archaeological work only in 1957. It was then that the first excavations were made on the territory of the fortress. They confirmed that the architects were indeed immigrants from China. This was evidenced by fragments of roofing tiles with Chinese patterns and discs for closing the holes of gutters with the image of a dragon.
But when the foundation and raw bricks from which the walls were made were carefully examined, it turned out that they were made using Sogdian technologies. Sogdiana, a neighboring state of the Uyghur Khaganate, was located on the territory of modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It became clear that the architectural appearance of the fortress was developed by the Chinese, and the construction was carried out by “foreign” workers.

Excavations at Por-Bajin were continued by Weinstein in 1963 as part of the Tuvan expedition of the Institute of Ethnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. As I wrote above, Weinstein also seized on the “Uighur” trace in the history of the fortress. However, simple statements were clearly not enough; it was necessary to find in Uyghur sources a mention of a fortress located in the middle of Lake Teri-Nur. And such records were found. The Uyghur authorship of Por-Bazhyn was indirectly indicated by one runic inscription on a stone, found at the beginning of the 20th century on the Selenga River. The Selenga inscription says that the second ruler of the 3rd Uyghur Khaganate, Moyan-Chur, built a fortress on the Kungurtug Highlands (the so-called mountains where Lake Tere-Khol is located). The inscription talks about Moyan-Chur’s campaign against the Chik tribe: It is not entirely clear whether this refers to the fortress on Tere-Khol or some other fortification. Moyan-Chur built 14 fortresses throughout the territory of present-day Tuva to protect the northern borders of his empire from the Yenisei Kyrgyz tribes hostile to the Uyghurs, and the recording could be about any of them. Weinstein's hypothesis soon became accepted and widely spread among other researchers, despite the fact that it was based only on guesswork. According to Weinstein’s description, the remains of the Por-Bazhin fortress were destroyed walls up to 10 m high, located in the form of a rectangle with dimensions of 211 by 158 meters. In the middle of the eastern wall there are remains of a gate with well-fortified towers and the remains of an access road. Inside the fortress there were traces of dwellings and service buildings, on the site of which in 1957 and 1963. fragments of ceramic and stone dishes, iron nails and other things were found. The central part of the complex was occupied by two earthen hills up to 2 m high, under which were the foundations of two palace buildings.
Inside the fortress walls there is a whole labyrinth of buildings and structures. There are 26 compartments along the western, southern and northern walls, separated by adobe walls up to one and a half meters high.
Both “palaces” were placed on a hill made of compacted earth and clay. Apparently, they were connected to each other by a 6-meter covered walkway. The first building measures 23 by 23 meters, and the second - 15 by 15. Their roof was supported by wooden columns. It is believed that there were 36 of them in the large room, and only 8 in the small room. The roofs were covered with cylindrical tiles. The thickness of the walls in the palaces, apparently, was more than a meter - which is not surprising, because winters in Kungurtug are very severe, temperatures below -40°C are the norm here. This thickness of clay and brick was covered with ornamental frescoes in orange and red colors. Based on the results of two expeditions in 1964, Weinstein published the article “Ancient Por-Bazhin.” By the way, this special archaeological research was not noted in any of the books of the famous archaeologist Kyzlasov, as if such a large-scale ancient monument and there was none at all. Russian anenerbe. Secret place Por-Bazhyn remained for about half a century. It is worth noting a strange feature of this fortress: peaks of research activity alternate with periods of half a century of calm. It seems that the place allows people into its territory with ordinary frequency, and after that, having gained the necessary energy, it closes again. That's what happened this time too. After Weinstein’s last expedition, another half century passed and expeditions set off again to Tere-Khol. However, at that time in the mid-00s, the detonator was the not unknown Russian rescuer Sergei Shoigu. It was he, together with his Ministry of Emergency Situations and the financial power of the state, who decided to save Por-Bazhyn for the sake of Tuva. Scientists have confirmed that we need to act - the water level in Lake Tere-Khol is rising and in a few decades the fortress may completely go under water.
In October 2006, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, came up with a project to restore the ancient structure of the 8th century Por-Bazhyn. Russia's chief rescuer did not hide the fact that restoring the "clay house" is his personal passion. He himself assembled a team, agitated young people, looked for sponsors and dreamed of turning Por-Bazhyn into a Russian Shaolin, where they would teach philosophy, Tibetan medicine, horse riding, and martial arts. Being a patriot of his small homeland, Shoigu dreamed of reviving the ancient fortress-monastery. But these dreams would have remained just dreams if it had not been for joining the political elite of Russia. It was under Shoigu that a new structure of the Ministry was created Emergency Situations- a paramilitary organization that was engaged not only in its direct rescue duties. At that time in Shoigu’s organization: 1. The Ministry of Emergency Situations was a power bloc, 2. The Russian Geographical Society, where the minister was president, united scientists and independent researchers who searched, substantiated and processed information on all “non-standard” places in Russia. 3. Financial support for projects of interest to the system was provided by the state. It is very likely that this organization had its own psychics, groups developing alternative directions such as ufology, groups searching for the sacred heritage of ancient civilizations within the borders of our vast homeland. To understand that the Ministry of Emergency Situations is not just a rescue organization, just look at their abstract coat of arms symbol - a circle in a triangle inside an eight-pointed star. What does this mysterious combination have to do with rescuers, and what does it mean, you need to ask those who created it. Such symbols are very typical for secret societies and are complete nonsense for ordinary people, but for initiates they are a special code that only they can understand. While researching sacred zones, I noticed another strange feature of Shoigu’s department: appearing in the following territories: the Valley of the Kings in Tuva, the Emergency Situations Ministry base in Ergaki, and in 2007 the large Por-Bazhyn project. It is clear that at all these sites the sacred component played a major role, which is why Shoigu took these places of Power into development. Sergei Kuzhugetovich himself had long been close friends with Tuvan shamans, who considered the area near Tere-Khol to be the northern entrance to the underground country of Shambhala. And our state had considerable interest in such secrets, and therefore was ready to invest substantial funds in this project. But even besides these alternative opinions, the first expedition of 2007, organized by the Ministry of Emergency Situations(that’s what was actually stated!), found during excavations of the fortressclay tablets of human feet, faded color drawings on the plaster walls, giant gates, fragments of charred wood and more.
So, in May 2007 A large-scale and unprecedented archaeological project for Russian science was launched to save the cultural heritage site of the same name “Por-Bazhyn Fortress”, within the framework of which Russian university students were taken on summer expeditions to Minister Sergei Shoigu’s native republic. At that time I was just starting to study the places of the Power of Siberia, but I remember well how the propaganda machine ironed the brains of ordinary people with a mega rescue project of the state. System-controlled newspapers and television, through the endless teleconferences between Por-Bazhyn and Russia, raised such “dust” that has not yet settled down soon. The project implementation scheme has already been previously tested using the example of the Scythian burial grounds of the Valley of the Kings in northern Tuva. To finance the excavations, a special fund was created and a Board of Trustees was elected, where, in addition to Shoigu himself, many extremely famous people in our state appeared. From May to September 2007, specialists of various professions from 18 research institutes and students from institutes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk and Kyzyl worked on the island. Over the entire season, three shifts of students totaling about 500 people were brought in. By the end of summerarchaeologists managed to dig up the entire island. To make it easier to get to the fortress, a long pedestrian bridge was even built from the mainland connecting the shore and the two islands. A lot of work was done and many unique finds were found. These are clay masks-amulets of eared dragons - guardians of the fortress, and pieces of unique tiles from the roof of the fortress, pieces of tools and decorations. A special event was Putin’s visit to Tere-Khol in August 2007 together with Prince Albert II of Monaco. The restoration of Por-Bazhyn was proclaimed as an all-Russian matter, therefore the interest on the part of the top officials of the state was generally predictable, and at the same time it was extremely important to show off the finds in Europe. - Scientists, accustomed to low-budget scientific expeditions, were pleasantly surprised by the Internet in tents, washing machines, daily hot showers and other amenities of civilization. Every day a ton of diesel fuel was burned here, several times a day we traveled eight kilometers for water - but all the amenities were provided to the expedition participants. Some tents even had... chests of drawers! And a VIP camp was set up in special white yurts. The president and his guest were brought there. T. Aleshina Archaeologists also encountered Tuvan shamans who, despite their secrecy, went out to the camp and communicated with strangers. Perhaps the reason for this was the great authority of Sergei Shoigu in Tuva. The shamans themselves showed “interesting” places. Near the lake, areas with abnormally cold water were discovered, which could not be boiled, as if the lake was in the highlands.Researchers have also noted failures of electronics. Not only animals, but also birds avoided some places on the banks. And people felt uncomfortable there. Following a tip from local residents, archaeologists managed to excavate a ritual complex located on west coast lakes. These are three vertical slabs of snow-white marble and a free-standing stone, on which two lines are engraved in the Turkic runic language. The words “Buchush-erkin” were carved on the stone. (Buchush is a Uyghur name, Erkin is one of the highest titles among the Uyghurs).Scientists have a theory that this same Buchush was the commandant of the Por-Bazhyn fortress. But to give greater significance to their discovery, this complex was dubbed the “Gate of Genghis Khan.” After the 2007 expedition, Sergei Shoigu summed up its results and announced further plans. In an interview" Rossiyskaya Gazeta"he literally stated the following: - The first stage of studying the fortress is not the largest in terms of its volume of work. We have ahead of us the continuation of archaeological research, work on conservation, restoration and restoration of this monument. The next step is to make Tere-Khol not only a cultural and historical center of the republic, but also an educational one. It is planned that over time a cultural and historical reserve “Por-Bazhyn” will appear on Lake Tere-Khol. ...It was hard to imagine that back in the eighth century such construction technologies as we discovered on the island existed. And tiles, and bricks, and blind areas, and sidewalks, and ramps, quite interesting processing of granite, a peculiar style of building walls in layers - a lot of interesting things. The faces of eared dragons, a silver earring, pieces of tiles, walls, elements of wooden structures, and painted plaster are already in the Kyzyl National Museum. The exhibition is just being prepared. But, I hope, soon the traveling exhibition will be shown in the cities where the expedition participants were from - Krasnoyarsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tatarstan. ...The architects continue their work and should soon present a sketch of the fortress. And we will see what everything really looked like - the pagoda, columns, partitions. We now face a dilemma: either distribute tasks for creating wooden columns for the main palace to schools in Tuva through a competition, or bring materials to Tere-Khol and start sculpting it all on site at the beginning of the next field season. One thing is clear: we will do this. We have already outlined where to get wood of suitable quality - larch, the main thing is that it is not cracked, dry, of high quality. We will also deal with tiles - both end and corner. There is light clay in the Por-Bazhyn area. We need craftsmen who master ancient technology. It is clear who will be working on what next year. ...Of course, after the architectural project is ready, our scientist-architects and restorers will definitely go to China and work on the details of restoring the fortress. Probably, next season we will really need the hands of students from architectural and construction universities. ...We plan to attract students from the world's leading universities. We had already begun to communicate with our colleagues, and it became clear that their desire to participate in the restoration of the fortress was enormous. Foreign scientists also showed interest. Experts from Germany and China have already announced this. The camp will become international. ...Next year we will have three main groups working. The first will include those who were directly involved in excavations - archaeologists. The second group - architects and builders - will begin restoration work on the central building. The third group is alternative medicine specialists from China. We would like to begin training Russian doctors at Tere-Khol in the secrets of Tibetan medicine at the highest level. And for this we need appropriate teachers. Since October 2007, scientific seminars, meetings and organizational exhibitions of finds began in order to popularize the project “Por-Bazhyn Fortress” and attract the attention of both our and foreign public and scientists. Second expedition season 2008 Scientists began with geophysical studies of the soil of the lake basin. In the spring of that year, while there was still snow, they carried out frequency sounding of the Tere-Khol environs. The result of which was the conclusion: - The thickness of the permafrost under the island “Fortress Por-Bazhyn” is 25-30 m. Outside the lake, under the shores, the thickness of the permafrost reaches 170 m.

The results of spring frequency soil probing were confirmed by well drilling, which was carried out that same summer. There was a thick layer of permafrost under the lake! In addition to ice, the instruments showed mysterious voids under the fortress. Some of them were small and came close to the surface, others extended to difficult-to-determine depths and turned out to be very extensive. It should be said thatThe glacier gave settlers a lot of trouble at all times. Suffice it to recall the legend about the rapid flooding of the fortress, which was built at a time when there was no trace of the lake. 30 years after Clemenza’s expedition, some more details surfaced about the flooding of the mysterious fortress. They were discovered to the world by the Polish writer and traveler Ferdinand Osendowski, who fled from the Bolsheviks in the early 20s through the Sayan Mountains to Mongolia. He cited these revelations in his book " And animals, and people, and gods" : - In the evening of the same day we drove up to the muddy yellow lake Teri-Nur. According to the guide, two hundred years ago no lake existed - in its place stood a well-defended Chinese fortress. One day its commandant insulted the old lama, and he cursed the place on which the fortress stood and predicted the imminent destruction of the fortification itself. The very next day, a powerful spring came out of the ground, it flooded the fortress and swallowed its inhabitants into the abyss. To this day, during a storm, the waters of the lake throw ashore the bones of dead soldiers and their horses.Osendovsky According to this story, the lake appeared at the end of the 17th century, and the fortress was not built on an island in the middle of the water. Proof of this was aerial photography that captured underwater the remains of an ancient road and quarry, from where clay and earth were apparently mined. Otherwise, how could tens of tons of it and the same amount of wood be delivered by water?In addition, at the bottom of the lake there are some buildings that were once part of the complex, and then were flooded. Even with all the discrepancies in this legend, the history of the death of the fortress helped researchers answer some questions. So, somehow reluctantly, geophysicists put an end to the dreams of Russia’s main rescuer. Although opinions on the water level are divided. Someone believed that the lake was retreating from the fortress, as in the old days, when Frequent earthquakes regulate the opening and closing of underground springs feeding a given reservoir. MMany were sure that the springs had nothing to do with it, and that the glacier under the island was to blame. Global warming will inevitably lead to its melting and Por-Bazhyn will go under water in the coming decades. And given such an unpredictable situation with the lake, investing millions in the construction of a Tuvan tourist Mecca on the water was considered a big mistake. The second field season began much later - at the beginning of June 2008. However, as if by magic, global construction temple complex it never started. The reports on the research carried out were so dismal that they could not be compared with the plans that were announced by Sergei Shoigu back in September 2007. And the point here is not at all about financing. There was enough money, but something prevented the erection of a majestic Russian Shaolin monastery on the nameless island of Lake Tere-Khol, which would close the entrance to the underground land of the Gods - Shambhala. What caused this, whether it was a glacier or another force majeure, remains unclear. Shoigu never explained to the public for the failure of the Por-Bazhyn Fortress project. If it were a question of the lake’s water level, the location of the future monastery could have been moved much higher. The entrance to Shambhala would not be affected by this. And the future monastery will be connected by energy connections with the ruins of the Uyghur fortress. However, the reasons for the failure of the project were apparently different. The sudden death of the shaman who conducted the consecration of the camp makes it clear that the Owners apparently did not like the initiatives of the Russian anenerbe to create a “cultural and historical center” on Tere-Khol. On September 5, 2008, the official closure of the Por-Bazhyn Fortress camp and the final conservation of the archaeological site took place. - The excavations are completed, but the history of the project continues... - meaningfully read the calendar of events. However, no promised continuation of the project ever materialized. To date (2016), the ruins of the Uyghur fortress-monasterydo not inspire optimism. WITHNow, according to eyewitnesses, the excavations are abandoned, and the exposed parts of the fortress are destroyed by wind and rain.
The wooden bridge connecting the mainland with the island is almost destroyed. And local residents on their boats, as before, take curious tourists to the clay ruins. The place was closed again for some 40 years in anticipation of new seekers of the legendary Shambhala. Versions of the origin of the Por Bazhyn fortress. From the time of the first studies of the mysterious ruins of Tere-Khol to the present day, several assumptions have been made regarding this matter. Below I will list the main ones: 1 . Summer residence of the Uyghur Kagan. Archaeologists of the Por-Bazhyn project 2007-2008. They didn’t come up with anything, and as the main one, they accepted Weinstein’s version about the residence of the Uyghur Khagan Moyan-Chur in the upper reaches of the Yenisei. It was considered summer because no hint of heating was found in the entire complex, so it was harsh winters it was simply not realistic in clay houses. The correctness of the arguments about the residence of the Kagan was supported, as already mentioned, by the Selenga inscription, which spoke about one of Moyan-Chur’s campaigns: - Then, in the year of the Tiger (750), I went on a campaign against the Chicks. In the second month, on the 14th day, near (the river) I defeated them. In the same year, I ordered the establishment of the Kasar Kordan headquarters in the upper reaches (of the river). Then at the spring... there I ordered to build my whitish camp and palace, there I forced the construction of fortress walls, there I spent the summer and there I arranged prayers to the highest deities. Moyan-Chura introduced the ubiquitous radiocarbon into the slender version of the Kagan sanatorium, with the help of which it is now customary to calculate the age of buildings and other antiquities. The results of radiocarbon analysis showed the age of the fortress to be 770-790 AD. Since Moyan-Chur had already died by that time, the Selenga inscription could be attributed to some other place. What about Por-Bazhyn? Scientists immediately replayed the origin story, saying that the fortress could have been built by his son Biagui-Kagan. He declared Manichaeism the state religion, which means he could build Por-Bazhyn as a monastery, which explains its distance from the center of the Uyghur empire. All this is so doubtful and based only on assumptions, but this version of the summer residence of the Uyghur Kagan Moyan-Chur was accepted as the basic one. And radiocarbon can also be wrong! - Por-Bazhin, apparently, was the summer residence of the Uyghur Khagans or major dignitaries. Apparently, no one lived permanently in this fortress; people appeared there only during the warm period. And it was very pleasant for the Uyghur aristocrats to relax on Kungurtug - clean mountain air, an abundance of wild animals around (good hunting), a lot of fish on the lake, and literally a five-minute drive from the fortress there are healing hydrogen sulfide springs. Was it their presence that made the Kagan decide to build a “sanatorium” in this very place? - that's what it said official version adopted by Russian historians. 2. Palace of the Chinese Princess Ningguo. This version seems to have been invented just for variety. Its essence is that Moyan-Chur, owning a powerful nomadic power, helped to the Chinese Emperor cope with the rebelsand in gratitude received the imperial daughter, Princess Ningo, as his wife. Chinese masters built this palace for newlyweds. Regarding this version, it should be noted that the Kungurtuk Highlands have a very harsh climate. In summer temperatures rise to +50 degrees. In addition, the swampy area gives rise to many mosquitoes and midges, and there was no question of proper rest for the royalty. It can also be added here that Tere-Khol was separated from the center of the Kaganate by mountains with their impassable roads. 3 . A fortress that guarded the Great Silk Road. No one seriously considered this version, even among scientists. The northernmost branches of this trade route ran a thousand kilometers to the south. 4. Robbers' Fortress. It was also assumed that the fortress belonged to robbers who robbed merchants. But, firstly, where could the merchants come from there, and secondly, how did the robbers build such a miracle? 5. The fortress itself. It could also have been a purely security structure, created to protect the northern borders of the Uyghur Khaganate from the raids of warlike nomads - the Yenisei Kyrgyz. The version that Por-Bazhyn died in a fire was visited by scientists when they found on the island many burnt logs used in the architecture of buildings.The fire could also have occurred as a result of a military attack. The wooden floors burned down, but the tiles, having collapsed, remained on the ground and have been well preserved to this day.
The question is, why were no traces of the assault or human remains found in the fortress, which almost always remain if a fortified settlement becomes a victim of military aggression? And how can one explain the strange arrangement interior spaces? During a combat alert, the exit of soldiers from their barracks will lead to great pandemonium. All rooms in Por-Bazhyn do not have their own exits, but are alternately connected to each other. XRam in Por-Bazhyn is like two peas in a pod like a Buddhist, and the Uyghurs professed Tengrism. 6. Monastery. In my opinion, this version is the most plausible due to the remoteness and inaccessibility of the place, as well as due to the difficult living conditions in Sayan mountains with their extreme temperatures -50/+50 degrees C. For ordinary people and Uyghur dignitaries, the place is not very good, but for monks who are the keepers of some secret, the place is most suitable.The citadel is a regular rectangle with an intricate labyrinth of buildings reminiscent of a Buddhist mandala. And the stories of shamans about Shambhala also did not arise out of nowhere. The strangest thing is the absence of burials on the territory of the complex, as well as the extremely ascetic cultural layer of the finds. But archaeologists did find one burial in the vicinity of Por-Bazhyn, but what a burial!

WITHThe grave was located on a small island in Lake Tere-Khol. It was discovered by accident: the rock collapsed under the influence of the environment, and part of the burial was exposed. It immediately became clear that this was the grave of a warrior. But neither his weapons nor his bones matched the type of the local population. It is quite obvious to specialists that he was a European. This is evidenced by the shape of the eyes, height and structure of the skeleton. But the weapons - the remains of a shield, a sword and a spear tip - have nothing in common with Asian civilizations. All this could have been forged in Western Europe somewhere in the 13th-14th centuries. Several chain mail rings indicate the same thing. Who was this knight? Templar looking for Shambhala? Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of Tuva State University Nikolai Abaev believes that Por-Bazhyn is a cult place associated with the ancient military cult of the Heavenly Fire-Breathing Serpent - the Dragon, which the ancient Uriankhians and Uyghurs worshiped as the God of War. The walls of the monastery, located on an island in the center of the lake, hid the secrets of the ancient military order from prying eyes. According to all data, it was this information that completely captured the consciousness of Sergei Shoigu, and for many years he cherished the hope of recreating the Russian Shaolin, a school of military skill and secret knowledge, on the site of the mysterious Uyghur fortress. Strange place.

Lake Tere-Khol is a rather strange place even without a medieval fortress. Its surroundings are sparsely populated, not so much because of its remoteness and inaccessibility, but because of all sorts of strange rumors that float around this lake.

In the Republic of Tyva, which is located near the border of Russia and Mongolia, Lake Tere-Khol is hidden in the mountains at an altitude of 1300 meters. In the 17th century, Semyon Remezov, the famous compiler of maps of Siberia, discovered the ruins of a monumental fortress on an island in the center of the lake. This is what he wrote down in his papers: “The city is old stone, two walls are intact, two have been destroyed, and we don’t know which city.” Locals call the fortress on the island “Por-Bazhin” (translated from the Tuvan language this means “clay house”).

Let's find out more about her...

Photo 2.

Let's start with the fact that the study of the Uyghur fortress of Por-Bazhin began a long time ago and has its own history. The ruins of Por-Bazhin became known to Russian geographers since the end of the 17th century: the first mention of it is in the “Drawing Book of Siberia, compiled by the Tobolsk boyar’s son Semyon Remezov in 1701” (published in St. Petersburg in 1882). Mentioning the remains of a settlement on an island located on Lake Tere-Khol, S. Remezov could not and did not try to determine by whom and when it was built. Subsequently, in 1891, the site was examined by the Russian ethnologist and archaeologist D.A. Klemenets, who filmed its plan and first drew attention to its similarity with the ruins of the city of Karabalgasun on the river. Orkhon in Mongolia. He wrote that the builders of Por-Bajin were “neither Mongols nor Chinese, and hardly Khitans or Jurjeni. Most likely the same or related people to the builders of ancient Karakorum.”

For a very long time, Por-Bazhin did not attract the attention of researchers due to its inaccessibility. Nevertheless, archaeologists sometimes referred to it and even, following D. Klemenets, suggested that the settlement belonged to the period of the Uyghur Kaganate (744-840) (for example, G. Sosnovsky, L. Potapov). The conclusion that the fortress belonged to the Uyghurs was made on the basis of the coincidence of the topography of the ruins of Por-Bazhin with the fortress of Khara-Balgas (Karabalgasun) on the Orkhon River, which had already been identified with the capital of the Orkhon Uyghurs - the city of Ordubalyk.

Photo 3.

In 1964, a more detailed study of the settlement was undertaken by the Soviet archaeologist S.I. Vainshtein, who published the article “Ancient Por-Bazhin.” By the way, this special archaeological research was not noted in any of the books of the famous archaeologist L.R. Kyzlasov, author of “History of Tuva in the Middle Ages” (1969) and “Ancient Tuva” (1979). Only in one of his early articles " Medieval cities Tuva" he mentions Por-Bazhin as "another quadrangular settlement surrounded by adobe walls (apparently a monastery), located on the southeastern outskirts of Tuva, on an island in Lake. Tere-Khol."

Meanwhile, it was S.I. Weinstein first made a description of the fortress (1952), following D. Clemens, he substantiated the ownership of the fortress by the Uyghurs in an article published in the newspaper “Tuvinskaya Pravda” (09/25/1953). Excavations at Por-Bazhin were started by him in 1957 and continued by the Tuvan expedition of the Institute of Ethnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Dating and attribution of the fortress were based on the typological similarity of the surviving end ornamented tile discs. “It is known that such ceramic roof decorations can serve as a reliable source for dating architectural monuments of the East. The closest analogues to most of the end discs of the roof of the Por-Bazhin palaces are found in the finds of S.V. Kiselev from Ordu-Balyk,” wrote S.I. Vainstein.

Photo 4.

S.I. Weinstein made an even more specific conclusion that the Por-Bazhin fortress with the palace complex was built by order of the Uyghur Kagan Bayan-chor during a campaign against the Turkic tribe of Chiks, who inhabited the territory of present-day Tuva. This campaign, which took place in 750, is described in a Uyghur runic inscription in honor of Bayan-chor.

According to the description of S.I. Weinstein, the remains of the Por-Bazhin fortress were destroyed walls located in the form of a rectangle consisting of walls oriented along the cardinal points. The height of the walls in some places reached 10 m. In the middle of the eastern wall there are remains of a gate with well-fortified gate towers. Inside the fortress, archaeologists also discovered traces of dwellings and service buildings, on the site of which in 1957 and 1963. fragments of ceramic and stone dishes, iron nails and other things were found. In the central part of the fortress, two earthen hills up to 2 m high were discovered, under which were the foundations of two buildings. From this description of the ruins of Por-Bajin, it is obvious that the Uyghur fortress is mainly an object for archaeological research, in which architectural historians can also take part.

Photo 5.

The purpose of the Por-Bazhin fortress remains completely clear. Initially, the idea was expressed that the settlement could have been a monastery. But very soon scientists abandoned this idea. If we rely on the information from the Bayan-chor inscription, on the basis of which the date of construction of the fortress was determined, we can say that the fortress was built as the summer residence of the Uyghur Kagan. This is how Bayan-chor tells about his campaign against the Chik tribe: “Then, in the year of the Tiger (750), I went on a campaign against the Chik. In the second month, on the 14th day, near (the river) I defeated them. In the same year, I ordered the establishment of the Kasar Kordan headquarters in the upper reaches [of the river] [to cut out my signs and my writings."

S. Klyashtorny, who clarified these lines, believed that the Kasar Kordan mentioned here (in the Tesin inscription - Kasar Korug) was the western camp and headquarters of Eletmish Bilge Kagan. He identified Kasar Kordan/Kasar Korug with the Por-Bazhin fortress. S. Klyashtorny noted that “Kordan, the Turkic name of Khotan, turned out to be transferred to the headquarters of the Uyghur Kagan in Tuva, which indicates long-standing ties of the Uyghurs with East Turkestan.” At the same time, it should be noted that the identification of Kordan with Khotan, proposed by Sir J. Clawson and Sir G. Bailey, is not accepted by all scientists.

Photo 6.

Many Tuvan legends are associated with the ruins of Por-Bazhin. One of them connects the fortress with a khan who had big ears, for which he received the name Elchigen-kulak-khan, i.e. Donkey ears. Khan hid his ears from others and killed anyone who saw them. Only one barber managed to see them and tell all the people about it. According to another legend, the fortress was built by a certain khan in the Yenisei valley, where there was no lake yet. The lake was formed from water gushing from a well built in the fortress. Khan, running away from the water that flooded the surroundings of the fortress, looking at the valley, exclaimed in surprise in Mongolian “Teri-nur bolchi!” (it became a lake!

Photo 7.

Currently, researchers are attracted by another legend that Por-Bazhin was a palace built by the Uyghur Khagan for a Chinese princess. The Uyghur Eletmish Bilge Kagan actually received the Chinese princess Ningguo as his wife in gratitude for the military assistance he provided to the Tang dynasty in suppressing the An Lushan uprising (755-762). It is known from sources that Princess Ningo went to the Uyghur headquarters in September 758, but already in May 759 the Uyghur Khagan died. The Tang chronicles tell how the Uyghurs wanted to bury the princess along with her late husband, but, having met strong objections, they not only left her alive. Immediately after the death of the Kagan, in August-September 759, the princess returned to China.

To the Uyghur headquarters, the Tang princess was accompanied by another representative of the imperial house - Xiao Ningguo (Younger Ningguo), the daughter of one of the Chinese princes. Xiao Ningguo remained with the Uyghurs and was successively the wife of Bayanchor and his son Byogyu Kagan (759-779). During a palace coup in 779, her two sons born from Byogyu Kagan were killed, and Xiao Ningguo herself “went and lived outside (the capital).” If the assumption that the Por-Bajin palace was built in 750-751 is correct, it could not have been built for the Chinese princess, who arrived at the Uyghur headquarters many years after the construction of Por-Bazhin - in 758 and lived among the Uyghurs only about one year. Of course, palaces and cities for princesses were built by the Uyghurs - among the Uyghur cities in Chinese sources, for example, the “city of the princess” is called “Gongzhu Cheng” (Uyg. “Gunchuy Balyk”). However, they were located much south of the Kagan headquarters. Thus, the legend that the Uyghur palace of Por-Bajin was built for a Chinese princess has no basis. The latter, however, does not exclude the possibility that Chinese craftsmen could have taken part in its construction.

Photo 8.

For a long time, no one could understand why it was necessary to erect such a massive structure in an almost deserted area - from whom were the inhabitants of the fortress protected there, from bears, or what? Scientists are now skeptical about the version that the fortress used to be a guard post on the Great Silk Road from China to Europe - the northernmost branches of the Silk Road passed about a thousand kilometers south of the place where the fortress stands. There were no military bases, gold deposits or food warehouses near the fortress either.
In addition, scientists for a long time could not understand how the ancient builders managed to build a fortress on an island in the middle of the lake. How were building materials delivered, where were the brick-making workshops located, and how could hundreds of builders fit on a small piece of land? Expedition 1957-63 I also could not establish for what reason people finally left Por-Bazhin.

And only comprehensive studies in 2007-2008, conducted under the auspices of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, were able to slightly reveal the secret of this place. As a result of the work, the appearance of the ancient city was completely restored, many objects were found confirming the “Uyghur trace”, and it was found out why Por-Bazhin was destroyed

Photo 9.

So, what was Por-Bazhin? The ruins of the fortress occupy almost the entire area of ​​the island and are a regular rectangle, oriented to the cardinal points, with dimensions of 211 by 158 meters. The height of the fortress walls, even in a dilapidated form, reaches 10 meters. On the eastern side there are preserved gates with inverted towers; the remains of entrance ramps lead to the towers.

Inside the fortress walls there is a whole labyrinth of buildings and structures. There are 26 compartments along the western, southern and northern walls, separated by adobe walls up to one and a half meters high. In each of them, a room measuring 7 by 8 meters was built from raw brick - apparently, palace servants, artisans and fortress guards lived in them. In the middle, two palace buildings were discovered (although one of them may have been a temple).

Photo 10.

Both “palaces” were placed on a hill made of compacted earth and clay. Apparently, they were connected to each other by a 6-meter covered walkway. The first building measures 23 by 23 meters, and the second - 15 by 15. Their roof was supported by wooden columns. It is believed that there were 36 of them in the large room, and only 8 in the small room. The roofs were covered with cylindrical tiles. The thickness of the walls in the palaces, apparently, was more than a meter - which is not surprising, because winters in Kungurtug are very severe, with temperatures of -45°C being the norm here.

This thickness of clay and brick was covered with ornamental frescoes in orange and red colors.
What surprised archaeologists most was the extremely thin cultural layer of the settlement. In some places, sheep bones were found (this refuted the version of local residents that Por-Bazhin was a Buddhist monastery, since Buddhist monks do not eat meat), several women's jewelry and blacksmith's blanks - that's all that the residents of this city lost over several years. decades of existence of the fortress. In addition, only one burial was discovered in the vicinity of Por-Bazhin, and there are none at all on the territory of the fortress.

All this suggests that Por-Bazhin, apparently, was the summer residence of the Uyghur Khagans or major dignitaries. Apparently, no one lived permanently in this fortress; people appeared there only during the warm period. And it was very pleasant for the Uyghur aristocrats to relax on Kungurtug - clean mountain air, an abundance of wild animals around (good hunting), a lot of fish on the lake, and literally a five-minute drive from the fortress there are healing hydrogen sulfide springs. Was it their presence that made the Kagan decide to build a “sanatorium” in this very place?

Photo 11.

It was also possible to find out why the fortress suddenly ended up on the island. Thanks to the research of a group of geomorphologists and soil scientists from Moscow State University. Lomonosov and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to establish that throughout its entire history of existence, Lake Tere-Khol disappeared almost completely several times. This happened as a result of the fact that earthquakes, which in the past occurred quite often in these places, from time to time led to the disappearance of the underground springs feeding this reservoir. Apparently, during one of these periods of “draining” Tere-Khol the fortress was built.

Photo 12.

This is also evidenced by the traces of the road found by geologists located at the bottom of the reservoir. But no one builds roads under water, which means that when they built it, there was no lake. Afterwards, during the next earthquake, the springs “opened” again and the Tere-Khol basin was filled with water again.

Earthquakes eventually destroyed the fortress itself. Soil scientists on the island discovered traces of characteristic displacements in the occurrence of soil layers - this occurs as a result of vibrations of the earth's solid surface. Based on dating, these shifts coincide with the age of traces of the fire of the fortress, found earlier by archaeologists. But the remains of people who died from this natural disaster were not found (this refuted the previously put forward version that the fortress was destroyed as a result of an assault by enemy armies or during an uprising of local residents).

Photo 13.

It turns out that the story of the destruction of Por-Bazhin somewhat contradicts the local Tuvan legend. According to it, one day a fountain of water began to gush from a well outside the walls of the fortress (this happens during earthquakes), and the Kagan, fearing flooding, hastily left Por-Bazhyn with his entire retinue to take refuge in the mountains. And the water kept rising until Lake Tere-Khol was formed.

In reality, most likely, the earthquake destroyed the fortress in winter or autumn, when there was no one in it (otherwise it would hardly have been possible to carry out the evacuation in record time without any casualties; someone would definitely have been killed). Apparently, having arrived at the “sanatorium” the following summer and finding a pile of ruins on the site, the Kagan did not want to restore it, because he considered this place dangerous for recreation.

Photo 14.

Although, according to the stories of local residents, the Kagan and his warriors still sometimes return to these places. According to them, on dark nights on the island you can see ghosts on horses, with weapons and in clothes of the 8th century, who slowly prance among the ruins. It is quite possible that the Uyghur nobility liked the holiday in Por-Bajin so much that many of its representatives, even after death, do not continue to visit this wonderful “rest house”...

It should be said that in addition to Por-Bazhin, scientists have discovered and studied the remains of many other Uyghur settlements on the territory of Tuva. L.R. Kyzlasov in 1969 described fifteen Uyghur settlements and one observation stronghold. All settlements were quadrangles surrounded by adobe or brick walls, with ditches filled with water on the outside. The size of the internal area of ​​the settlements varied from 0.6 to 5 hectares. All fifteen settlements were located in a chain in the valley of the Khemchik River. The largest of them were Eldeg-Kezhig (12.5 hectares) on the river. Barlyk and Bazhin-Alak (18.2 hectares) on the Chadan River. L.R. Kyzlasov studied in most detail a group of 5 settlements located in the area of ​​the city of Shagonar (Shagonar settlements). The location of the settlements and their features testified to their defensive purpose, although over time they became centers of agriculture and handicrafts. The settlements on the territory of Tuva were created as a chain of fortifications to repel an enemy attack from the north, which became especially relevant at the beginning of the 9th century due to the strengthening of the Yenisei Kyrgyz. As is known, it was in the last decades of the existence of the Uyghur Khaganate that the long-term Uyghur-Kyrgyz wars began, which in 840 ended with the elimination of Uyghur rule in the steppe.

Photo 15.

The study of Uyghur settlements in Tuva shows that urban planning in the Uyghur Khaganate developed under the great influence of the Central Asian-East Turkestan (Iranian) tradition. The role of Sogdians in the society of the Turks and Uyghurs is well known, and the Uyghur monument especially notes the involvement of Sogdians and Chinese in the construction of the city of Bai-balyk. The influence of the Central Asian urban planning tradition can be seen in the layout and remains of the Uyghur fortress of Por-Bazhin.

What is the significance of Por-Bazhin for history? As can be seen from the above, Por-Bazhin is not the only monument of the Uyghur era on the territory of Tuva. A large number of other settlements built by the Uyghurs have been discovered here. The difference between Por-Bazhin and other similar monuments lies 1) in the fact that this is so far the only fortress in Southern Siberia, built during the period of establishment of Uyghur rule in Central Asia and the expansion of the borders of the Uyghur empire, while all other similar structures belong to the beginning of the 9th century, and 2) it was not a fortification structure designed to repel an enemy attack.

It was during the reign of the Uyghur Eletmish-Bilge Kagan/Bayan-chor (747-759) that a series of aggressive campaigns were carried out, during which the Uyghurs established their power over the vast territory of Inner Asia. The Uyghur campaigns of this time are narrated in two inscriptions created in honor of Eletmish Bilge Kagan - the Terkhin inscription (c. 753) and the Bayanchor (Moyunchur) inscription, known as the Selenga stone (759-760). These inscriptions are not only a source of information about the heroic deeds of the Uyghur Kagan, but they themselves are valuable as monuments of the material culture of the Uyghurs. Such cultural monuments, close to the inscriptions in time, include the Uyghur fortress of Por-Bazhin.

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The project to study Por-Bazhyn shows the great interest of the Russian government and Tuvan authorities in the study of Uyghur antiquities. This interest is not only academic in nature. The fact is that the Uyghur period left its traces in the history of Tuva: there is still among the Tuvans the “Uyghur” clan (Ondar-Uyghur), considered the descendants of the ancient Uyghurs who remained on the territory of Tuva. Back in 1889, the famous Turkologist and ethnographer N.F. Katanov recorded a Tuvan legend, according to which “the Uyghurs formerly lived along the river. Bom-kemchik and Ulu-kemu” and recorded the Tuvan “Uyghur” clan who lived on the river. Khemchik. It is obvious that the ancient Uyghurs who remained in the territory of Southern Siberia took part in the formation of the modern Tuvan people. In this regard, Por-Bazhin is one of the bright pages of the historical past of Tuva, associated with the power of the Uyghur Empire, the northern periphery of which was its territory.

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The ethnic connection between the Tuvans and the ancient Uyghurs is connected with the question of the relationship between ancient and modern peoples. All large tribal unions that existed in the past in Central Asia, such as the Oguzes, Kipchaks, Karluks, and ancient Uyghurs, took part in the formation of not one, but many modern peoples. For example, the Oghuz, on the one hand, formed the basis for the formation of modern Turks, Turkmens, and Azerbaijanis, but at the same time, Oghuz elements are found in many other modern ethnic groups, including Uzbeks. In exactly the same way, “shards” of the ancient Uyghurs can be found in many modern ethnic groups. The ancient Uyghurs participated in the formation of the modern Uyghurs of East Turkestan and the Yellow Uyghurs of Gansu, but at the same time the clan subdivision "Uyghurs" can be found among many Turkic peoples, including the Tuvans.

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Por-Bazhyn fortress

Por-Bazhyn is the ruins of a fortress on an island in the middle of Lake Tere-Khol in the Tere-Kholsky kozhuun of the Republic of Tyva (Russian Federation).

The fortress, built in the 8th century, is a regular rectangle and has a clear internal layout, which includes a central structure and a system of courtyards with small buildings in the center along the inner perimeter of the walls. In the center of the eastern wall there was a gate with fortified towers. The fortress stretches from west to east for 211 meters, from north to south - for 158 meters, total area fortress - 3.3 hectares, wall height - up to 8 meters. The fortress is relatively well preserved due to its inaccessible location and distance from transport routes. You can get to the fortress area only by air or in the dry season by all-terrain vehicle.

This story began 116 years ago. Traveling along the southern tip of the territory that is now called the Republic of Tyva, an employee of the Minusinsk Museum Dmitry Aleksandrovich Klements discovered in close proximity with the border of Mongolia there is a picturesque lake with an island in the middle. What he saw on the island itself became a sensation. In the Republic of Tyva, almost on the very border with Mongolia, in the mountains at an altitude of 1300 meters above sea level, Lake Tere-Khol is located. A mountain reservoir, of which there are thousands in Russia. But it is unique in that in the middle of it on the island there are preserved ruins of an ancient fortress Por-Bazhyn.

It is believed that the Por-Bazhyn fortress (in Tuvan - “clay house”) on Lake Tere-Khol was built in the middle of the 8th century by order of the head of the Uyghur Kagan, Eletmish Bilge Kagan. In 750, he came with troops to the territory of present-day Tuva with the aim of capturing it. In order to gain a foothold in the conquered territory, he built a fortress. Its walls reached a height of ten meters. The central palace, which stood on a high platform, belonged to Eletmish Bilge Kagan himself.

Back in the 50s of the 20th century, members of an archaeological expedition discovered on the island fragments of a water pipeline - perhaps one of the most ancient on the planet. The walls of complex fortifications were dotted with intricate signs, which, as was later established, had an important esoteric meaning and were in many ways similar to the symbols discovered in the ancient cities of the Mayan civilization. At the beginning of this millennium, Irkutsk researcher Igor Vladislavovich Berdnikov suggested that the buildings of the Por-Bazhyn temple complex reproduced a map of the starry sky, accurately imitating the outlines of the zodiac constellations. This led the scientist to believe that there was once an ancient observatory on the island.

It is with the Por-Bazhyn fortress that the local population associates legend about underground tunnels, which you can walk around the entire Earth and in which, allegedly, the countless treasures of the rulers - the founders of the once powerful Uyghur Kaganate - are hidden. Indeed, back in the last century, when studying mysterious island archaeologists have more than once come across littered and dilapidated entrances to dungeons, which no one has yet managed to get into. According to scientists, the fortress was destroyed as a result of an enemy raid in the middle of the 18th century, and its inhabitants, shortly before their death, managed to hide their wealth in underground hiding places.

The archaeological field camp and the island on which the fortress is located are connected by a pile bridge. Its length is 1.3 kilometers. The square in front of the palace building, where ceremonial and ritual ceremonies could be held. In the depths of the square there was once a luxurious palace complex- two buildings connected to each other on a platform made of baked gray clay. The roof of the building was once supported by wooden columns. A few later expeditions discovered that the mysterious fortress was destroyed by fire. The inhabitants who once inhabited it can be judged by the found remains of an unusually tall warrior with a presumably Caucasian face type. Later, another sensational assumption was made: the fortress was built in a valley, which was later artificially flooded. This is how a lake was formed, called Tere-Khol.

Por-Bazhyn became a monument of federal significance thanks to the efforts of Sergei Shoigu.