Kharkhorin

KHARKHORIN

Kharkhorin, the 13th century capital of Mongolia lies about 400 km to the southwest of Ulaanbaatar.The city built by skilled artists and masters of the antiquity was later moved to Beijing by Khubilai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan as the capital of the Yuan Dynasty.. At the time the sophisticated hub of the Central Asian civilization was a bustling city that got completely destroyed in the fierce battles of the internecine war. The surprising discovery of a 14th century burial of a Mongolian woman corresponding to the discovery of two Egyptian masks, a wooden comb, and a bronze mirror in a silk casing dating to the same period shows ancient relationship between the nations. In 1586, Erdene-Zuu,  the first Buddhist monastery was built on the ruins of Kharkhorin by the initiative of Abtai Sain Khan – the most influential Prince of that time in Mongolia. The stone blocks and other building materials from the ruins of Kharkhorin were reused in the construction of the monastery. The three sacred temples surrounded by a stone wall with 108 stupas of Erdene-Zuu monastery is a sancturary of marvelous works of XVII-XIX century Mongolian artists, painters, cutters, sculptors, embroiders, and craftsmen.