Dahe Ancient City

Dahe Tangcheng is a large-scale and well-preserved Tang Dynasty ancient city site in Hami area, so it is called Dahe Tangcheng or Dahe Ancient City. Dahe Tangcheng is located in the central area at the bottom of the Balikun Basin. The famous "big river" originated from the underground spring in the east of the city, so the land is very suitable for farming. This is a good place for the production of military rations in Xubian. Until modern times, it has been the barkun granary that guarantees harvests under drought and flood, and it is one of the eight Balikun scenic spots where "crops are piled up with clouds". The ancient city is rectangular in shape, and there is a wider city wall in the middle that divides the ancient city into two small cities, the main city and the annexed city. The two cities are juxtaposed from east to west. The main city is 210 meters long from north to south and 180 meters wide from east to west. The city wall is nearly 10 meters high and 12 meters wide. There is only one door on the west wall, and the door is 4 meters wide. One horse face is placed at the north end of the city gate, and two horse faces are placed at the south end. The north wall has two horse faces, the better preserved one is 8 meters wide and 9 meters high. There is an enemy station in the middle of Nancheng. The east wall is the west wall of the attached city. There is only one passage leading to the main city. There are three built-in horse faces in the attached city, one at the north end of the doorway, and two at the south end. There are turrets at the four corners of the city wall, and now only the northwest and southwest corners are well preserved. It is 240 meters long from north to south and 177 meters wide from east to west. The city wall is 4-5 meters high and 10 meters wide. Many relics were collected in the city, mainly pottery and bronze, but less iron, including bronze mirrors, coins, copper rods, etc. The building materials were gray lotus floor tiles and lotus-patterned tiles, all of which were typical relics of the Tang Dynasty. Large pottery wastes and large stone millstones are scattered throughout the city. All of these show visitors the grand situation of agricultural production at that time, proving that this place used to be a large-scale grain storage base.