732. The grapes of Turpan are ripe

In the area of Lop Nur, the Khitan army has been swept away and is marching to the northwest. What will we see along the way? The route traveled by the knights can be seen here.

Tuyugou Thousand Buddha Cave: about 40 kilometers west of Shanshan County, Xinjiang. In the era of its creation, the earliest cave seems to be before the establishment of Gaochang County. There are nearly 100 caves, but most of them have collapsed, and some caves still have murals. It can be divided into two areas: the fourth cave in the east area, the top of the cave is painted with a lotus flower, the banner is painted all around, and the Buddha statue is painted in the banner. Thousands of Buddhas are painted in the four corners outside the dome roof, and the murals on the left, right and back walls are divided into three layers: the upper layer paints a thousand Buddhas; The middle layer paints the story of the Buddha, with a Chinese inscription on the picture; The second, third, and fourth third caves in the western area also have simple murals, and the theme is slightly the same as that of the caves, but the lower seat of the Buddha statue is a bed of Hu, which is not seen in other caves.

Yategiz Ancient Tombs: In the poor coolie township of Lianmuqin District, Shanshan County, Xinjiang. It is the burial site from Gaochang to the Tang Dynasty. The cemetery is bounded by gravel rows and divided into groups of gravels. There is gravel piled on the top of the tomb and on the side of the tomb. It is the same as the tombs near the ancient city of Gaochang and Jiaohe in Turpan.

Turpan, which means "land of abundance and abundance" in Turkic language, is located in the 70,000 square kilometers of land directly west of Hami (honey) city, between the Tianshan Mountains and the Taklamakan Desert, and contains all the classics of the Western Regions.

There are dry and silent deserts, fragrant orchards, dense forests and meadows; There are both the scorching flame mountains and the clear snow of the Tianshan Mountains; There are dotted with ancient cities, beacons, cave temples, ancient petroglyphs, mysterious tombs, ancient silk roads that have been annihilated in smoke, vines, and oblivion, as well as numerous fossil mountains and petrified wood groups; There are also singing and dancing people, fragrant wines, quaint villages, vineyards as far as the eye can see, and a different kind of life for people under the crescent moon in mosques.

It is also a paradise of wild animals and plants, with antelopes and wild camels running on the Gobi Desert and snowdrops blooming on the snow line......

Lukeqin Ancient Cemetery: In the north of Lukeqin Town, Shanshan County, Xinjiang. In the range of 5 kilometers from east to west and nearly 2 kilometers from north to south, tombs are distributed. The upper part of each tomb chamber has a tall sealed soil, up to 2~3 meters, and the front part of the sealed mound is seen in the tomb road. Each family cemetery is surrounded by gravel in the shape of a "A" to form a group of tombs. In the field, they are buried in order of their ancestors. It is the remains of tombs from the Gaochang Kingdom to the Tang Dynasty. Excavations were carried out in 1978, and a large number of cultural relics and Chinese epitaphs were unearthed, indicating that they were the burial places of residents of Liuzhong County and Tiandi County of Tangxi Prefecture of the Gaochang Kingdom. The style of the cultural relics is the same as that excavated from the Astana cemetery in Turpan. It is a precious material for studying the history of the Turpan region.

Baizi Creek Thousand Buddha Cave: about 50 kilometers northeast of Turpan City, Xinjiang. There are 64 caves. Its characteristic is that some caves adopt the architectural form of digging stone cliffs and adobe masonry, which is not seen in the caves west of Yinshan. It is mainly a horizontal top straight hole, and there are also middle pillar holes, square double sets of holes and domed square holes. Most of the murals have been destroyed, and the remaining part of the content is mainly the Great Standing Buddha, with Western Pure Land Change, Manjushri, etc., and the colors are still bright as new. The princes of the countries in Cave 39 hold up pictures of mourning, and from the faces of their headdresses, it can be seen that they have the characteristics of various peoples in the Western Regions. On the north wall of Cave No. 37, there is a standing statue of the Bodhisattva, wearing a bright red dress and a green jewel, which is obviously the physiognomy of the people of the Western Regions. Images of Uighur and Mongol donors can also be seen in other caves. In addition, most of the Buddha statues, monks, and offering figures on the murals are written in both Chinese and Uighur scripts, which shows the Buddhist beliefs during the Uighur period and the close relationship between the Uighur and Han Chinese fraternal peoples at that time. The cave was built during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and ended in the Yuan Dynasty. It is the best preserved and richest grotto in the ancient Gaochang area.

It is located in the wood ditch of the Flame Mountain Canyon slightly north to the east of Turpan, about 48 kilometers away from the urban area, and was named "Ningrong Cave" in the Tang Dynasty. Now there are 77 numbered grottoes, of which there are more than 40 remaining residual murals, the total area of murals is about 1,200 square meters, it is the largest number of existing caves in Turpan, and the building forms are diverse, and the mural content is the most abundant a grotto group.

The earliest caves in the cave group were built in the Gaochang period of the Ju family, and then went through the Tang Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty until the 13th century, which has been the holy place of Buddhism in the Turpan area, and the most prosperous time, when it was the Uighur period in Xizhou, when it was the royal monastery of the Uighur king, and most of the existing caves were expanded or rebuilt at that time.

The remnants of the "Disciple Mourning Picture" and "Bhikshu Mourning Picture" on the back wall of Cave 33 show the inner feelings of the characters, the image is vivid, full of personality, and is a rare artistic masterpiece. The image of the ancient musical instrument "Xiao Hu Lei" in the "Trick Le Tu" in Cave 16 and the mural painting of "Hell Change" in Cave 17 are rare in Chinese Buddhist caves. In 1982, it was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

The Thousand Buddha Caves of Baizi Creek have experienced the process of formation-prosperity-decline, the Thousand Buddha Caves of Baizi Creek were destroyed in the conflict between people and religions, and the eyes of the mural characters were all dug out, and at the beginning of this century, they were robbed and destroyed by Russia, Germany, Britain, Japan and other powers, and the Thousand Buddha Caves of Baizi Creek were even worse, and they were unrecognizable. Although it was severely damaged, the remnants of the Buddha seat are exquisite, and the remaining murals are rich in content and bright and dazzling in color. The Thousand Buddha Caves of Baizi Creek are still a treasure trove of culture and art on a grand scale. In 1982, it was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Shengjinkou Thousand Buddha Cave: about 40 kilometers northeast of Turpan City, Xinjiang. It is the site of the Buddhist temple from the Tang Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty. There are four of them: two on the mountainside and two at the foot of the mountain. There are ten caves, which are made of adobe masonry, and there are murals in the caves. The top of the cave is painted with lotus flowers, dead wood jackdaws, grape branches, weeping willows and thousands of Buddha statues. Most of them have Uighur inscriptions. In one of the caves, there are Uighur scriptures written on the walls. In addition, in the courtyard at the foot of the mountain, there are large halls and squatters, where Brahmi scripts, Sanskrit and Chinese Buddhist scriptures, and Tang "Kaiyuan Tongbao" coins have been found.

Flaming Mountain, in the middle of the Turpan Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is 100 kilometers long from east to west, about 10 kilometers wide from north to south, and is 500 meters above sea level, with the highest peak near Shengjinkou at 851 meters above sea level. Shengjinkou Canyon, layers of mountains and mountains, hanging rocks such as cutting, the situation is dangerous. From the Gaochang Kingdom to the Tang Dynasty, this is called the Xinxing Valley, and the pass is guarded, which is a pass into Gaochang City. Due to the weathering of the mountain rocks and the strange shape, people walk in it, as if entering a fairy tale world.

"Journey to the West" writes the story of Sun Wukong crossing the Flaming Mountain and fighting the iron fan princess, which is based on this. The Flaming Mountains are a series of anticline structures formed by the transverse fold movement of the earth's crust. The outcropping strata are dominated by Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary conglomerate formations and red mudstone. The summer sun shines on the twists and turns of the red rocks, the red light flickers, and the clouds and smoke are like flames.

Tang Shicen Shen described the sentence "The volcano is abrupt and Chitingkou, the volcano is thick in May, the fire clouds are full of mountains and have not opened, and the birds dare not come for thousands of miles". The forests in the valley are shaded by the sun, and the countryside is verdant, like a winding green jade belt inlaid in the flaming mountain. Although this place is a flaming mountain, she is rich in grapes and fruits, "The grapes in Turpan are ripe, and they are very delicious!" "This is the richest area in the Turpan Basin.

From ancient times to the present, "the grapes of Turpan" have long been world-famous. In a ravine in the western section of the Flaming Mountain, the famous "Grape Ditch" lies drunk. It is crisscrossed by canals, dense trees, humid air, and a cool and pleasant climate, making it a summer resort. This ditch is rich in grapes, most notably seedless white grapes. It is said that the "grape wine" in the Tang poem "Grape Wine Luminous Cup" is brewed by the "grapes of Turpan" and spread on the Hexi Corridor and the Gobi Desert. In the vicinity of this grape ditch, there is a grotto, which unfortunately has been destroyed. There are two or three ancient temple ruins in its west 5 miles, which have collapsed, and there are Buddhist scripture remnants unearthed.

It is also said that the Flaming Mountain is located on the northern edge of the Turpan Basin. The ancient book calls it "Red Stone Mountain", and the Uygur language calls it "Kiziltag" [meaning red mountain], which is composed of red sandstone, starting from the Liusha River of Langan in Shanshan County in the east, and reaching Taoergou in Turpan in the west, forming a red dragon, which runs from east to west, lies horizontally in the Turpan Basin, with a total length of 98 kilometers and a width of 9 kilometers from north to south. The general height is about 500 meters, and the highest peak is near Tuyugou in Shanshan County, with an altitude of 831.7 meters.

The Flaming Mountains are short folds in the foremountain belt of the Bogda slopes in the eastern part of the Tianshan Mountains, formed during the Himalayan movement. The prototype of the mountain range was formed 140 million years ago, and the basic geomorphological pattern was formed 141 million years ago, which has experienced a long geological time, spanning several geological epochs of the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. The Flame Mountain is barren and bald, and there is no grass. Whenever in the middle of summer, the fire flows in July, the red sun is at the head, the earth is steaming, the flame clouds are swirling, the ochre red mountain is shaped like a flying fire dragon, it is very spectacular.

Flaming Mountain is the hottest place in the country, with a maximum temperature of 47.8 degrees in summer and a maximum surface temperature of more than 70 degrees. Due to the crustal movement fracture and river water cutting, there are still many valleys left in the belly of the mountain, mainly grape ditch, Taoer ditch, wood ditch, Tuyu ditch, Lianmuqin ditch, Subo ditch and so on. In these valleys, the green shade covers the sun, the scenery is beautiful, the water is murmuring, and the melons and fruits are fragrant. Sure enough, it is a deep valley orchid, which is extraordinary. Heroes can give it a try.

The famous mythological novel "Journey to the West" by the Ming man Wu Chengen is famous all over the world for the story of the four Tang monks and apprentices learning scriptures from the West. The fifty-ninth and sixtieth chapters write the story of "Tang Sanzang Road Blocking the Flame Mountain, Sun Xingzhi Three-tone Banana Fan", which makes the Flame Mountain covered with a layer of mysterious colors and becomes a strange mountain. The Rakshasa Girl is called the "Iron Fan Fairy" or "Iron Fan Princess" but the banana fan she uses is different, although it is made of plantain, but it is extremely hard and unfortunate, so it is called an iron fan, not made of iron.

"Journey to the West" wrote: "There is a country of Sihari on the western road, which is the place where the sun sets, commonly known as 'the end of the sky'. There is a flame mountain here, there is no spring and no autumn, it is hot all seasons, the flame mountain has 800 miles of flames, and there is no grass around it. If you pass the mountain, even if you have a copper head and an iron body, you will also turn into juice! This passage is obviously exaggerated, but the basic characteristics of high temperature and lack of grass are completely consistent with the actual situation of the Flame Mountain, and are not made up out of thin air.