Por bajin. Places of Power of Siberia
Fortress Por-Bajin
Por-Bazhyn - the ruins of a fortress on an island in the middle of Lake Tere-Khol in the Tere-Kholsky kozhuun of the Republic of Tuva (Russian Federation).
The fortress, built in the 8th century, is a regular rectangle, 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 were gates with fortified towers. The fortress stretches from west to east for 211 meters, from north to south - for 158 meters, the total area of the fortress is 3.3 hectares, the height of the walls is up to 8 meters. The fortress is relatively well preserved due to its inaccessible location and remoteness from transport routes. You can get to the fortress area only by air or during the dry period by off-road vehicle.
This story began 116 years ago. Traveling along the southern tip of the territory, which is now called the Republic of Tuva, an employee of the Minusinsk Museum, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Klements, discovered a picturesque lake with an island in the middle in close proximity to the border of Mongolia. What he saw on the island itself was a sensation. In the Republic of Tuva, 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, ruins of an ancient fortress Por-Bazhyn.
It is believed that the fortress of Por-Bazhyn (in Tuvan - "clay house") on Lake Tere-Khol was built in the middle of the VIII century by order of the head of the Uighur Khagan 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. Central Palace, which stood on a high platform, belonged to Eletmish Bilge-kagan himself.
Back in the 50s of the XX century, members of an archaeological expedition discovered on the island fragments of a water pipe - 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 in many ways resembled the symbols found in the ancient cities of the Mayan civilization. At the beginning of this millennium, Irkutsk researcher Igor Vladislavovich Berdnikov suggested that the buildings temple complex Por-Bazhyn reproduced a map of the starry sky, accurately imitating the outlines of the zodiac constellations. This led the scientist to the idea that an ancient observatory was once located on the island.
It is with the fortress of Por-Bazhyn that the local population is associated legend of underground tunnels, on which you can go around the whole Earth and in which, as if, countless treasures of the rulers, the founders of the once powerful Uyghur Khaganate, are hidden. Indeed, even in the last century, when studying mysterious island archaeologists have more than once stumbled upon littered and dilapidated entrances to the dungeons, which no one has yet been able to get into. According to scientists, the fortress died as a result of an enemy raid in the middle of the 18th century, and its inhabitants managed to hide wealth in underground caches shortly before their death.
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. Square in front palace building where solemn 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 of baked gray clay. The roof of the building was once supported by wooden columns. A few later expeditions discovered that the mysterious fortress had perished in a fire. The inhabitants who once inhabited it can be judged by the found remains of a warrior of unusually tall stature with a presumably Caucasoid type of face. Later, another sensational assumption was made: the fortress was built in a valley, which was later artificially flooded. Thus, a lake was formed, which received the name Tere-Khol.
Por-Bazhyn became a monument of federal significance thanks to the efforts of Sergei Shoigu.
The ruins of a clay fortress on the island of Por-Bazhyn (translated from the Tuvan language means "clay house") in the middle of Lake Tere-Khol in the Tere-Kholsky kozhuun of the Republic of Tyva have been of interest to scientists for hundreds of years.
The fortress is an almost regular rectangle with dimensions of 211 by 158 meters and a total area of 3.3 hectares. The intricate labyrinth of the fortress buildings resembles a Buddhist mandala (a sacred schematic image or design used in Buddhist and Hindu religious practices). The citadel has a clear internal layout, including a central structure and a system of courtyards with small buildings in the center and along the inner perimeter of the walls, in places reaching up to 10 meters. In the middle of the eastern wall, a gate with well-fortified towers has been preserved. Inside the fortress, archaeologists also found traces of dwellings and outbuildings.
Due to the inaccessibility and remoteness from transport routes, this monument ancient architecture preserved to this day quite well.
The dates of construction and destruction of the fortress are not precisely established. Scientists believe that the fortress was built in the 8th century by the Uighurs, who at that time annexed the south of Tuva and the territory of the Sayano-Altai to their Khaganate. However, this is practically all that historians and archaeologists have been able to establish for certain. The purpose of the architectural buildings preserved on the island is still a subject of controversy, because these structures can be equally attributed to both a defensive structure and a palace or temple complex. Based on the fact that the walls of the fortifications were covered with intricate signs, which are believed to have an important esoteric meaning and in many ways resembled the symbols found in the ancient cities of the Maya civilization, Irkutsk researcher I.V. Berdnikov suggested that the buildings of the temple complex Por-Bazhyn reproduced a map of the starry sky, accurately imitating the outlines of the zodiac constellations. This led the scientist to the idea that an ancient observatory was once located on the island.
The ruins of Por-Bazhin have been known to Russian geographers since the end of the 17th century. The first written mention of the fortress is contained in the "Drawing Book of Siberia" published in St. Petersburg in 1882 by the Tobolsk boyar Semyon Remezov, but it was compiled back in 1699-1701. It should be noted that, mentioning the remains of an ancient settlement on an island in the middle of Lake Tere-Khol, Remezov did not even try to determine by whom, when and for what it was built.
In 1891, the settlement was explored by the Russian archaeologist D.A. Klements, who drew up its plan and first drew attention to the similarity with the ruins of the Khara-Balgas (Karabalgasun) fortress on the Orkhon River in Mongolia, where, as established, the capital of the Orkhon Uighurs was located. He wrote that the builders of Por-Bazhin were "not the Mongols and not the Chinese, and hardly the Khitan or Jurgeni, most likely the same or related people to the builders of the ancient Karakorum." Then, for many years, Por-Bazhin seemed to be forgotten by researchers who did not show interest in it due to its inaccessibility. However, archaeologists, for example, G. Sosnovsky and L. Potapov, sometimes nevertheless mentioned Por-Bazhin and even, following Klemenets, agreed with his assumption that the settlement belongs to the period of the Uighur Khaganate (744-840).
A detailed study of the settlement was undertaken by the Soviet archaeologist S.I. Vainshtein, who published the article "Ancient Por-Bazhin" in 1964. It is noteworthy that this archaeological research by S.I. Vainshtein was not noted by the famous archaeologist L.R. Kyzlasov either in "History of Tuva in the Middle Ages" (1969), or in " 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 (obviously a monastery), located on the southeastern outskirts of Tuva, on an island in Lake Tere-Khol".
It was S. I. Weinstein, following D. Clemens, who substantiated the belonging of the fortress to the Uighurs. The excavations of Por-Bazhin were started by him in 1957 and continued by the Tuva expedition of the Institute of Ethnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The dating and attribution of the fortress were based on the typological similarity of the surviving ornamented tile discs. "It is known that such ceramic roof decorations can serve as a reliable source for dating architectural monuments East. The closest analogues to most of the end disks of the roofs of the Por-Bazhin palaces are found in the finds of S.V. Kiselev from Ordu-Balyk,” wrote S.I. Vainshtein.
Moreover, S.I. Vainshtein made a specific conclusion that the Por-Bazhin fortress with the palace complex was built on the orders of the Uyghur kagan Bayan-chor during a campaign against the Turkic tribesmen who inhabited the territory of modern Tuva. This campaign, described in the Uighur runic inscription in honor of Bayan-chor, took place in 750.
Based on the information from the Bayan-chora inscription, on the basis of which the exact date of the construction of the fortress was determined, S.I. Vainshtein suggested that the fortress was built as a summer residence of the Uyghur kagan. Bayan-chor says in the mentioned inscription about his campaign against the Chik tribe: "In the year of the Tiger (750) I went on a campaign against the Chiks... In the same year I ordered the establishment of the headquarters of Kasar-Kordan...". Following Weinstein, S. Klyashtorny believed that the mentioned Kasar-Kordan was the western camp and headquarters of Eletmish Bilge Khagan, correlating Kasar-Kordan (Kasar-Korug) with the Por-Bazhin fortress.
It is with the fortress of Por-Bazhyn that the local population is associated with a legend about underground tunnels, through which you can go around the whole Earth and in which, as if, countless treasures of the rulers - the founders of the once powerful Uighur Khaganate are hidden. Indeed, back in the last century, when studying the mysterious island, archaeologists more than once stumbled upon littered and dilapidated entrances to the dungeons, which no one has yet been able to get into. According to scientists, the fortress died as a result of an enemy raid in the middle of the 18th century, and its inhabitants managed to hide wealth in underground caches shortly before their death.
In 2004, the government of Tuva adopted a program for the development of culture in Tuva for 2005-2010, within the framework of which it is planned to create a park-fortress "Por-Bazhyn". On June 1, 2007, under the auspices of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, an archaeological expedition began work in Por-Bazhyn, which attempted to restore the temple building. In addition to archaeologists and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, students of various Russian universities take part in the expedition. It should also be noted that it was thanks to the efforts of Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu that Por-Bazhyn became a monument of federal significance.
In one of the articles of the whistleblowers of the "official history" on "Kramol", they write about this fortress as follows:
"There are monuments recently discovered, and therefore not fully studied: the repeatedly mentioned Arkaim and the Country of Cities, which includes more than twenty settlements similar to Arkaim and built according to the same plan. There are objects not explored at all, For example, ruins of the Por-Bajin fortress(50°37’00” N; 97°24’00” E), located on an island in the middle of the artificial lake Teryo-Khol in Tuva. Moreover, pundits tore their throats, proving to each other what Por-Bazhyn really was - a Uighur fortress of the XIII century or a Buddhist temple of the IX - stubbornly ignoring its obvious similarities with the same Arkaim (they even died the same way, burned own inhabitants who have gone into obscurity). Although, I’m lying, I read recently that one of the researchers nevertheless had a brilliant insight and, choking on the boldness of his own guess, he said that, de, it must be admitted that the architecture of Por-Bazhyn is “completely not typical for ordinary nomads.”
Well, let's begin to get acquainted with the fortress and with the ideas of scientists about it.
"In 2007-2008, on the initiative of the Minister of Civil Defense and Emergency S.K. Shoigu, a large-scale expedition was carried out to scientifically study the ancient Uyghur fortress Por-Bazhyn, in which specialists from the IEA RAS, IIMC RAS, the Museum of the History of the Peoples of the East, TIGI and others took part scientific institutions. In the spring of 2011, as part of the Russian-Mongolian joint archaeological expedition, the author took part in the survey of the settlements of central and western Tuva. Already in the autumn of 2011, his own archaeological exploration of a number of settlements was carried out. The collected materials made it possible to identify the most promising fortification sites for archaeological research .
The most interesting from the point of view of archeology and architecture is the ancient Uighur fortress Por-Bazhyn, located on the lake. Tere-Khol in the south-east of the Republic in the upper reaches of the Small Yenisei. Por-Bazhyn almost completely occupies an island with an area of 6 hectares on the lake. Tere-Khol. In plan, it is subrectangular and oriented by the walls to the cardinal points, its long axis runs from west to east. The adobe walls of the fortress, about 211 m long and about 158 m wide, surrounded the remains of 27 dwellings and outbuildings (average dimensions 7*8 m). Excavations 2007-2008 made it possible to fix the main design features fortresses. The fortress and inner walls were built of adobe layers 12-14 cm thick, reinforced every 5-6 layers with larch trunks up to 20 cm in diameter - according to the ancient Chinese "hantu" technology. The base of the central structure was decorated with bricks of the Tang format (26*13*6 cm). The roofs of the buildings were covered with a thick layer of clay and fired tiles with Tang end discs. The closest analogies were found in the finds of S.V. Kiseleva on Ordu-Balyk (Kara-Bolgas), built by the Uyghur Khagan Bayan-chor (Moyun-chur) in 751-752. in Mongolia on the river. Orkhon.
Excavations of the monument during two field seasons did not allow determining the functional purpose of the Por-Bazhyn fortress - about 20% of the territory was studied. It was revealed that the general construction of the monument corresponds to the typology of the fortification- the presence of fortified gates, a massive defensive wall up to 14 m high with 11 ledges-pylons that played the role of buttresses. The internal layout of the monument assumed a palace-temple character, but the monument did not reveal a cultural layer, both everyday and cultural and religious. Nevertheless, there are traces of multiple repairs of the interior premises, as well as walls (layers of plaster, areas of covering up cracks after earthquakes, etc.). This allowed us to assume that the monument is a memorial complex, but this was not confirmed due to the lack of an object of commemoration (burial or image of the deceased).
This makes it urgent to complete the study of the fortress in the near future due to the threat of its complete destruction. Under the influence of permafrost processes, there is a progressive coastal abrasion that threatens the safety of, first of all, the fortress walls. Por-Bazhyn is located on an island formed above a column of permafrost, which thaws every year under the influence of lake waters, and the shores of the island gradually fall into the water ...
Literature:
2. Tulush D.K. Archaeological reconnaissance of the fortifications of Tuva (preliminary results of the field season in 2011) // Archeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. Research and hypotheses: mater. report 52nd reg. (VIII All-Russian with international participation) arch.-ethnogr. conf. students and young scientists, devoted. To the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Humanities of the Novosibirsk State University / Novosib. state un-t, IAET SB RAS. Novosibirsk, 2012, pp. 238-239.
3. Kiselev S.V. Ancient cities of Mongolia // Soviet archeology. 1957. No. 2. pp. 91-106.
4. Koshurnikov A.V., Zykov Yu.D., Panin A.V. Study of the frozen foundation of the archaeological site "Por-Bazhyn Fortress" // Inzhenernye issledovanija. 2008. No. 6.
5. Tulush D. K. Some problems and prospects for the preservation of the ancient Uyghur settlements on the territory of the Republic of Tyva // Actual problems of the study of ethno-ecological and ethno-cultural traditions of the peoples of the Sayano-Altai: mater. II Interreg. conf. with international participation. Kyzyl, 2010.S. 64-67.
As you can see, it is somehow impossible to say that the object "is not studied at all". It is also impossible to assert that Por-Bazhyn is an analogue of Arkaim. Vladimir Orlov is either not aware of this (why is he writing then?), Or he is lying.
Foreigners also participated in the study. I quote
"Letters from Siberia: Fortress of Solitude" by Heinrich Hercke
Russia's most enigmatic archaeological site dominates a small island in the middle of a remote lake, high in the mountains of southern Siberia. Here, just 20 miles from the Mongolian border, the outer walls of the medieval ruins of Por-Bajin still rise 40 feet high, enclosing an area of about seven acres, more than 30 building remains criss-crossing in a maze.
Por-Bazhin ("Clay House" in Tuvan) has long been considered a fortress built by the Uighurs, a nomadic Turkic-speaking people who once ruled an empire that spanned Mongolia and southern Siberia, and whose modern-day descendants now live mostly in western China. Archaeologists conducted limited and inconclusive excavations at the site in the 1950s and 1960s, but Irina Arzhantseva of the Russian Academy of Sciences is now excavating the site so that the Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation will know when the complex was built and why. Several artefacts found at the site appear to be from the mid-8th century AD. During this period, Por-Bazhyn was on the periphery of the Uighur Empire, which lasted from 742 to 848 and was held together by a force of warriors on horseback.
A tile from Por-Bajin in the shape of a protector spirit, possibly a dragon or bat, showing Chinese influence (left). Silver male earring (right). Roof tiles and finishing detail. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)
Were there some of those warriors who once garrisoned Por Bajin? The Uighurs may also have built a site on the island for reasons other than defense. Perhaps the island was the site of a palace or a memorial for a ruler. The unique layout of Por-Bazhin, more elaborate than other Uighur fortresses of the time, has led some scholars to speculate that it may have had a ritual role..
States ruled by nomadic peoples often had symbiotic relationships with neighboring civilizations.. China has had a strong influence on Uighur culture. In the end, the Uyghurs even adopted Manichaeism, a religion popular in China at that time, which combined elements of Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, a Persian religion based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. The object is very reminiscent of the Chinese ritual architecture of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), so it is possible that Por-Bazhin had something to do with the Manichaean rites.
Determining how an object was used can also help archaeologists understand why it was abandoned. There is some evidence of a large fire at Por Bajin, but there may be other reasons why the Uyghurs ended up leaving.
These issues are central to the work of the Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation. During the second excavation season in 2008, my students and I were fortunate to join Arzhantseva's team of about 200 students, archaeologists and local workers.
Thanks to Sergei Shoigu, Russia's Minister of Emergency Situations and the only Tuvan native in the country's cabinet, excavations at Por-Bazhyn are being carried out on a scale almost unheard of in modern archeology. . As a young man, he worked at the excavations in Altai mountains, west of Por-Bajin. Since then, he dreamed of excavating a major site in his native republic, so in 2007 he founded the Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation to fund the work of archaeologists, geologists, geographers and other professionals at the site.
The paramilitary forces of his ministry provided comprehensive support for the excavations, building the infrastructure for the excavation camp and building bridges linking the site to the lake shore. They even provide archaeologists with helicopter transport. Arzhantseva believes that this may be only the second time in history when the military army was involved on this scale in archaeological work, the first being Napoleon's sponsored archaeological explorations, in Egypt from 1798 to 1801. During the first field season in Por-Bajin, Vladimir Putin, then President Russian Federation, even interrupted a hunting trip to Tuva with Monaco Prince Monaco to visit this site. Apparently, the organization that supports such a large enterprise made on him great impression.
Small courtyards (left) running along the walls of Por-Bazhin had a building in the center. A digital reconstruction (right) based on excavations shows that each building could have functioned as a dwelling, perhaps for monks, had the site been a monastery. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)
As an archaeologist, I was struck by both the scale of the excavations and the site itself. During my first assignment at Por-Bajin, I worked in a trench cut through the outer perimeter wall, which rises on either side of the excavated area almost to its original height of four stories. The wall at its base is 40 feet thick. If Por-Bajin was a fortress, these ruins suggest it would have been nearly impregnable.
In the trench, I worked with a small team of Russian students, gathering wood samples for dendrochronological dating, which may prove to be key in the final interpretation of the site. The wood we quarried was from a framework supporting a compacted clay wall fabric - a Chinese building technique called hangtu. When I met her, I wondered if the Chinese architects and builders were directly involved in the construction of this complex. Arzhantseva says it's possible, but hangtu isn't necessarily the strongest evidence for it. Instead, she points to the site's Chinese layout, and the wooden remnants of a Chinese roof structure called dou-gun, as even stronger indicators of Chinese influence. I found myself surprised at how widespread this influence is.
When I joined the excavation at the compound's main gate walls, I was surprised a second time to find permafrost less than three feet from the current surface. I should have expected frozen ground here at 7,000 feet in the Siberian mountains, but I just didn't think about it as I sweated in the summer heat. Although I had never encountered permafrost before excavating, it is easy to recognize: it is very similar to the overlying soil, but has a bone-hard mass and quickly frosts over when exposed to warm air. We had to repeatedly break open the surface of the permafrost and then let it thaw for a couple of hours before we could go deeper.
Just like permafrost, lake water can be non-heating, which means that the permafrost periodically thaws. This causes gradual erosion of the island's banks. Project geologists and geomorphologists led by scientists from Moscow State University Igor Modin and Andrey Panin believe that if erosion coastline continue at the current rate, the main walls will collapse in about 150 years. This makes the work at Por-Bajin even more important.
Artist Yelena Kurkina (right) draws a floor plan of a room in Por-Bazhyn, while conservator Galina Veresotskaya (kneeling) stabilizes wall painting fragments in place. (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)
Minister for Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu (right) and then President Vladimir Putin (second from right) listen to archaeologist Olga Inevatkina (center) explain the layout of Por-Bazhyn. On the right is Prince Albert of Monaco (wearing sunglasses). (Copyright Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation)
One of the keys to this work is the research led by Modin and Panin. They showed that permafrost is near the lake and under the island, but not under the lake itself. In other words, the complex stands on permafrost. But whether it was built on an island or whether a lake appeared around Por-Bazhyn later remains an open question. Geologists now tend to think that the lake existed when Por-Bazhyn was built, despite the logistical problems that would have created for the builders. The depth of the lake around the island is less than two feet. If Por-Bazhyn was a fortress, the lake would not play a big role in its defense.
Excavations of the site's central complex may be key to answering questions about how the site was used and why it was abandoned. Archaeologist Olga Inevatkina from the Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, works here, and I joined the last couple of weeks of my stay in Por-Bazhyn.
The central square consists of two large courtyards surrounded by a series of small courtyards along the walls. In one of the large courtyards there is a complex consisting of two pavilions. The larger pavilion was most likely used for ceremonial purposes, while the smaller one is a private residence. Each of the smaller courtyards, in turn, has a building at its center, a model that was typical of Chinese religious or ritual sites of the period.
When we dug, I was puzzled that we could not find a cultural layer or level that contained artifacts that date back to the actual use of Por-Bajin. In fact, the lack of artifacts was unexpected. The only finds thus far in two seasons were a stone vessel, an iron dagger, one silver earring (probably male), several iron tools, iron balls from a warrior's chain, many iron nails, and a handful of a turtle from the site's main gate. During my stay there, I was unable to add to that number by cleaning three rooms in the complex. But I discovered the debris of destruction left by the fire and helped restore the sequence of construction and destruction of the building.
In the Republic of Tuva, 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, the ruins of an ancient fortress have been preserved.
The fortress of Por-Bazhyn (in Tuvan - "clay house") on Lake Tere-Khol was built in the middle of the 8th century by order of the head of the Uighur Khagan, 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. The ancient builders had to bring in thousands of tons of clay and baked bricks.
The monument has a complex architecture - inside the correct rectangle there is a whole labyrinth of buildings resembling a Buddhist or Hindu mandala.
At that time, a whole system of fortresses appeared in the valley of the Khemchik River - a total of 17 such structures. But the Por-Bazhyn fortress is very different in design from all known ones. It clearly indicates the influence of Sogdian culture. It is quite possible that Sogdians, immigrants from China, who traded with the entire nomadic world of Central Asia, took part in the construction of the fortress.
Origin History
Today we might call this building summer residence, teeming with game and fish, in a place hard to reach for enemies. Until that moment, the kagan had its own capital - Kara-Balgasun or Ordu-Balyk. Now its ruins are located on the territory of Mongolia - about two days of the steppe way from Por-Bazhyn.
D. A. Klements in 1891 first explored Kara-Balgasun and discovered an amazing similarity between the two fortresses: Por-Bazhyn was a miniature copy of the Uighur capital. This is especially evident from the plan drawn by scientists more than a hundred years ago.
Apparently, when building a fortress, clay was taken out of the ditch around the building, then in the swampy valley this ditch was quite easy to dam. In addition, local residents say that the lake has been increasing over the years. Therefore, it is possible that in ancient times there were several small lakes in the valley, which could be artificially connected together by the fortifiers of Por-Bazhyn. It is interesting that later legends, apparently dating back to the Mongol period, say that the lake appeared suddenly: a certain khan, having caught a fish in a well, in alarm led his people up the mountain and, looking back, saw a valley flooded with water. . “Tere nur! "Here's the lake!" - he said. This is how the name Tere-Khol appeared (nur - in Mongolian, khol - in Turkic means lake).
Perhaps those ancestral tamgas and inscriptions in the vicinity of the valley of Lake Tere-Khol, about which the kagan narrates in his inscription, will help lift the veil of this mystery. They are to be found and read in the summer when examining the valley and the sacred mountains surrounding it.
Architecture
The monument has a complex architecture - inside the correct rectangle there is a whole labyrinth of buildings resembling a Buddhist or Hindu mandala. The walls form a regular rectangle measuring 211x158 m.
The southern and northern walls are partially destroyed, the western and eastern ones are relatively well preserved. The greatest destruction of the walls is observed in the northwestern and southwestern corners. In the middle of the eastern wall there are gates with heavily destroyed perverse towers, on which entrance ramps rise parallel to the walls from the inner sides.
There are 26 rectangular rooms along the northern, western and southern walls. The walls of the premises are heavily turfed and slumped. The rooms are adjacent to each other. The premises are separated by an adobe wall with a height of 0.7 to 1.5 m.
Continuous adobe walls run parallel to the fortress walls, and the transverse ones have passages in a checkerboard pattern. The dimensions of all such compartments are almost the same - 26x16 m. Inside each compartment there are square structures made of mud bricks, 7x8 m in size.
The territory in front of the eastern wall is a kind of square in front of the palace building, where military training, training or solemn, including ritual, ceremonies could be held.
The palace complex consists of two buildings connected by a lintel and erected on a stylobate - a platform of carefully compacted clay and earth lined with well-fired gray clay bricks. The buildings were square in shape - 23x23 m and 15x15 m and were connected by a covered passage 6 m long. From the east side, two wide front eight-step stairs made of slabs and bricks led to them. In the center of each staircase there was a ramp of slabs.
Access ramps adjoined the eastern part of the building from the northern and southern sides. The roof of the building was supported by wooden columns (36 in the large and 8 in the small room) resting on granite bases. It was covered with grayish-white cylindrical tiles and decorated along the edge with ornamented end disks.
The outer walls of the building, made of mud brick, were over 1 m thick and covered with ornamental frescoes in red and orange. During the excavations, traces of a fire were recorded. Buildings that impress with their magnificent architecture, completely uncharacteristic of ordinary nomads, perished in the fire. According to S.I. Vainshtein, it was the palace complex of the Uighur kagan or governor. During the excavations, fragments of ceramics were found that can be attributed to the Uyghurs, and a treasure of 101 iron blacksmith blanks, on which a brand was applied.
Until now, the Por-Bazhyn fortress has not revealed its secrets... Why was it built? Who lived outside its walls? Are the innumerable treasures hidden in the dungeons of Por-Bazhyn, which are mentioned in local legends? Why the remains of at least one person, a resident of Por-Bazhyn, have not yet been discovered.
The Well of History and the Ears of the Khan
About the fortress and the lake Tere-Khol local residents There is a legend: “Earlier than early, older than ancient in ancient times, when there was no lake in these places, which is now called Tere-Khol, Elchigen Khan (Khan Osel) lived here. From birth, Khan had ears like a donkey, which is why he was called that. One morning he saw that water was gushing from a well outside the walls of the fortress. There was so much of it that there was a threat of flooding the fortress. Khan was frightened and quickly ran away to the mountains with his servants. From the height of the nearest mountain, everyone saw that the fortress was surrounded big lake. Khan stood up, waved his hand towards the lake and cried out in alarm: "Ter khol, Ter khol!" "Ter" in Mongolian - "this", "khol" in Tuvan - "lake". Today, this legend is confirmed in scientific research. With the help of space monitoring, geologists were able to see the road at the bottom of the lake.
