Yue Guanchao and their position is quite high, you can see the layout of Moyu County at a glance, this Moyu County is divided into two parts, Gaotai Old Town and Moyu Old County, both close to the west bank of the Kashgar River, connecting with each other to form today's Moyu City.

Look closely, the Kashgar River meanders and flows to implicate the distant oasis, and there is a huge earth cliff on the west bank that is tens of meters high and hundreds of meters long, just like a tall embankment formed on the oasis, which rises along the river in a half-moon shape, to say that the height cannot be compared with the Kunlun Mountain peaks on the south bank at all, it is not particularly high, but it is also an excellent commanding height in the flat oasis area.

What is carried on this earth cliff is the Gaotai City of Moyu Old County!

What is Gaotai Castle?

Gaotai City, also called Gaotai Folk House, is a unique residential building developed by the people of Xinjiang according to local conditions, just like the stilted building in the southwest, the Hakka tulou in Lingnan, and the pit courtyard in Shaanxi and Gansu, with very distinctive local signs and geographical characteristics.

Most of these high platform cities are built on earth cliffs or earth platforms, making full use of the characteristics of the high terrain of the cliff earth platform, and the first-story houses are built along the edge of the cliff wall.

A lot of mud and poplar are prepared when it is built, and the mud will be mixed with things like thatch and grass roots, which will not only increase the hardness of the mud, but also allow the mud to dry as quickly as possible.

As for poplar, it acts as a component, and most of the villagers will completely peel off the outer skin of poplar and do simple wood component treatment, so that they can carry a large weight and place it on the wall to form roofs, shed beams, frame wood, balconies, and corridors.

Once completed, the houses are either rammed earth yellow or coated with powdered white, red or grey-blue-orange plaster to protect the walls and prevent rats from burrowing.

Since most of the people are mixed with their ancestors, as the family population continues to increase, they often add additional buildings on the top of the tulou, and so on.

In addition, the whole earth cliff will not be only one family, usually hundreds of families use together, a large number of houses and earth buildings will soon be completely covered with the outer edge of the earth cliff wall, after nearly a hundred years, the houses and buildings on the earth platform are like the wild grass and bamboo shoots attached to the stone, the earth platform is completely occupied, forming the house of stacked houses, buildings connected to buildings, courtyards and courtyards, and the house wonders of the cliff against the cliff.

There is no standard style for these tulou dwellings, the layout and shape are very flexible, and they are all determined according to the needs of the common people's families, neither the architectural concept of the Central Plains that must be square and symmetrical, nor the spatial consciousness of building flat land or feng shui treasure land, and do not pursue any form and beauty in the terrain and space, but only make the best use of things.

Under the concept of extreme freedom, the courtyard buildings are different, the small one only has the courtyard of the bungalow, the middle one is two or three stories high, the big one is four or five stories high, the highest earth building, according to the topography of the earth cliff, four floors are built under the cliff, three floors are built on the cliff, and the upper and lower seven floors of the earth building landscape are formed.

Since this flexible and loose structure pursues freedom, it is destined to lose unity, the house of the whole earth cliff has no rules, the upper and lower drops, the height is staggered, the front and back are connected, the left and right corridors, the cascades are complicated, everywhere are the unique style of the street building, the street building, the cross-street building, the hanging courtyard, the high platform courtyard, the higher the place, the more you can see the courtyard like a pavilion in the air.

If you walk into it, take a look at it casually, the most is the corridor, plank road, laneway, staircase, balcony between the buildings, they extend in all directions, criss-cross, zigzag and loop, up and down sharp turns, and even may have to drill bridges and holes, if it is not for the acquaintance to lead the way, the living people can not completely walk through, it is likely to walk for a few hours, and they are still in circles in place.

At a cursory glance, the houses as a whole are cluttered and look loose and unruly, but since they were built in pursuit of high-rise buildings, they have already been prepared!

These houses are rammed earth, mixed with local unique rock powder, extremely hard, as long as the air is dried and water, even if you use a knife to crush, you can only grind out a lot of broken soil, as long as it is a high-platform village that has been formed, it is often developed for hundreds or even nearly a thousand years, enough to see the durability of these high-rise buildings.

The style of the house building is related to the local natural environment and social environment, and the emergence of this kind of high platform city is inseparable from the environment of the oasis.

The location of Hotan Oasis belongs to the East-West Pass in ancient times, to the west can go to Europe and Central Asia, to the east can go to the Hexi Corridor, and even to the south can also enter Tibet, this unique geographical advantage, so that Hotan Oasis has become the throat of the East-West exchange, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the west gate of the East.

In other words, as long as the Hotan Oasis is controlled, it will also control the gateway of foreign trade in the Western Regions.

The emergence of Gaotai City just met the needs of the people in the oasis area.

First of all, Gaotai City is built on a high place, it can directly overlook the oasis of a horse and a flat river, the most difficult thing to fight in war is to fight high with low, the people use the height of the cliff itself, and then stand on top of the fort, you can easily see the movement and static battle situation in the distance, form a favorable advantage against the down.

Again, the earth cliff can also ensure that the building is not washed away by the water, the oasis area is close to the northern foot of the Kunlun Mountain, the snow-capped mountains are rich in meltwater, in the season when the snow-capped mountains are full of meltwater, the oasis is easy to silt up the flood, when the large lake can no longer carry the water storage, the Kashgar River will rise in a large area, and it is likely to wash away the villages and towns in some oases.

If it is on the earth cliffs, these earth cliffs are at least dozens of meters high, which can completely withstand the usual flooding, and when the oasis floods, it can avoid the loss of life and property.

Generally speaking, the Tutai dwellings are not only a fortress of resistance in times of war, but also a high platform to avoid water in peacetime, which can prevent most of the flood hazards, if you go further, that is, the high platform occupies the highest view of the oasis, standing on the earth cliff, you can overlook both sides of the Kashgar River, the oasis scenery, the snow field and high mountains, and you can take in the panoramic view!

Keli looked at these people and pointed to the northwest direction on the east bank of the Kashgar River: "In the past, the entire Hotan Oasis was the territory of the Khotanese State, and the capital of the King of Khotan was located on the east bank of the Kashgar River. ”

Speaking of this, he paused and continued to explain: "From the perspective of location, the east and west banks of the Kashgar River have a section of hundreds of meters long and dozens of meters high along the river at the same time, which is probably the site of the capital of Khotan thousands of years ago, and the location of the west city includes the current Moyu and Khotan. ”

Later, Khotan was destroyed by the Qarakhanid Dynasty during the Song Dynasty, and it became the province of the Qarakhanid Dynasty, nearly a thousand years have passed, and there are countless small states in the oasis, no matter what ethnic group, as long as you come to the bank of the Kashgar River, you can see that the terrain here is higher than other regions, and it is natural to build a city and build a fortress here.

Speaking of Gaotai City, they focused their attention on Moyu Old County.

The approximate boundary of the county does not exceed the huge earthen platform on the west bank of the Kashgar River, and the county takes the north and south as the apex, implicating a tall city wall that is almost rammed earth yellow, and with the earthen platform shaped like a crescent moon, just forming a square oval city wall form.

On top of this city wall, you can see stomping platforms, high fortresses, towering spires, helmet-topped gates, and horsewalks and watchtowers that extend inwards everywhere.

The residential houses that extend from the earthen platform are mostly rammed earth yellow-brown, the bungalow buildings are the majority, and then there are some two-storey and three-storey stacked earth buildings, limited by the terrain, there are few five- or six-storey high-rise buildings like the earthen platform, only the white tower in the center of the county is relatively tall, and it appears in the low and chaotic tulou dwellings around it in the state of standing out from the crowd.

Moyu County as a whole looks like a flower centered on a towering white tower, and sunshade cloth canopies are erected all over the city, which can be seen colorful silk fluttering in the wind, coupled with the ground holes on the territory of the city walking at will, which is quite exotic.

After the car drove into Moyu County, it shuttled them into the main road, and finally stopped by the giant white tower in the city.

According to Song Siyuan's words, the car transport team she was looking for came to Hotan for two purposes, one was to collect and disperse jade, and the other was to do business with in-demand goods.

They set out from Dunhuang and had to walk nearly 2,000 miles along the promenade to get to the west bank of the desert, and in order not to waste the journey of the convoy, they would also fill the cars with goods in demand, and what the people of Khotanese oasis lacked the most, they would pull what they had, and they could also make a lot of money on the south bank of the desert.

This time to Khotan, these cars are pulled some of the best tea, silk, porcelain, gold and silver utensils, handmade arts, as long as along the Hotan Oasis turn, the goods are all sold, at the same time, you can also take advantage of the fleet to collect the scattered jade from farmers and herdsmen at low prices in nearby towns, as long as they can be transported out of the territory, they can always make a lot of money in the cultural play market by taking advantage of the name of "Hetian jade".

After thanking the car team, they followed Keli east along the White Pagoda to the vicinity of Gaotai City.

Along the way, the surrounding Khotanese people may not have seen so many Han faces, and they frequently peeked sideways, but there was no hostility in their eyes, just like guests at home, full of curiosity and alienation.

Walking around, the market of Khotan is also like a picture scroll stretching in front of you, today's Moyu County is still regarded as a pass between the East and the West, but with the development of maritime trade and the decline of the Silk Road, it is far less prosperous than a thousand years ago, there is a sense of heroic twilight decadence, and there is dust raised everywhere, which seems to be gray and dirty.

However, there is an old saying that a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, even if it is a little declining here, it still maintains the prosperity of southern Xinjiang, you can see shops along the street everywhere, and the market is selling one after another, and the goods from the East and the West are dazzling, which makes people dizzy.

When I walked to a certain street building, the neighborhood had already begun to be congested, and the surroundings were surrounded by water, full of messy faces, and even some people pushed open the windows from the street building, stretched out their heads to look down, looking at this situation, it is estimated that they will not be able to walk for a while.

They decided to stop and see what was happening in the crowd!