Loulan is located on the west bank of Lop Nur. In the past, the Tarim River and the Peacock River flowed out of the desert from west to east, and flowed into Lop Nur through Loulan. The river nourished the people of Loulan.

The ancient history of Loulan Kingdom is still unclear.

The first record of it is found in "Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Dayuan". Around the 3rd century BC, the Loulan people established a country and were ruled by the Yuezhi at that time. From 177 BC to 176 BC, the Xiongnu defeated the Yuezhi, and Loulan was under the jurisdiction of the Xiongnu.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions and opened the Silk Road. In the early Han Dynasty, there were two routes. Loulan guarded the throats of the north and south roads. Camel bells were lingering, green grass was everywhere, people were everywhere, merchants were endless, and there were a prosperous scene.

However, around 330 AD, due to the change of the Peacock River and the Tarim River flowing out, the water source in the lower reaches of the Loulan area was exhausted, causing extinction of people. In 400 AD, the monk Faxian traveled west to obtain scriptures and passed through this place. In "Records of the Buddha Kingdom", he said that this place was "no birds above and no beasts below, and it was everywhere, but the dead bones of dead people were used as markers."

According to the tombs unearthed in Loulan, about 4,000 years and about 2,000 years ago, archaeological experts revealed to people the history of Loulan: a period of time that was about 4,000 years ago, a primitive European race lived here, who left a few mummies and left mysteriously.

In the next 2,000 years, Loulan could not find any traces, and there was no trace of ink in history books.

During the Jin Dynasty, Mongols appeared in the Loulan area. At this time, Loulan interpreted agricultural civilization, and due to its important geographical location on the Silk Road, it conveyed Eastern and Western civilizations. In the centuries after the Jin Dynasty, Loulan disappeared without a trace again.

Until more than 100 years ago, Sven Heding, a world-renowned Swedish explorer, accidentally discovered this ancient city buried by yellow sand for thousands of years on the eastern edge of the Taklamakan Desert.

On March 28, 1900, Sven Heding inspected the Lop Nur Desert. His shovel was lost, so he asked the hired donkey worker and guide, the Uyghur farmer Eldick, to search. As a result, Eldick encountered the strong wind in the desert and accidentally discovered an ancient castle under the sand. He told Sven Heding about this discovery. After hearing this, he immediately followed Eldick to this ruin on the northwest shore of Lop Nur and found that the ancient ruins were scattered with wood carvings, fabrics, and coins. A year later, Sven Heding made a special trip to this mysterious ruin and carried out a week of excavation. The ancient Loulan City finally floated out of the sand sea...

In the academic world, some people say that from the geographical point of view, the wood carving site that Eldick broke into in 1900 could not be the ancient city of Loulan.

British archaeologist Olir Stein once numbered the monuments in the Rob Wasteland, from L.A. to L.T. in a total of 20 places.

The ancient city of Loulan is L.A..

On March 28, 1900, the site discovered by Sven Heding's expedition was L.B.

L.B. consists of several adjacent ruins, including temples, government offices, residential houses, etc. On March 28, 1900, Sven Heding's expedition passed by one of the relatively independent buildings, perhaps the inn. They are all part of L.B. The wood carvings brought back by Ordek did not belong to the ancient city of Loulan.

Take a look at the distribution map of the Lob Wasteland monuments and you can see at a glance: L.A. is not on the route of the expedition team of Sven Heding. Their camping site on the evening of March 28, 1900 was about 20 kilometers south of L.B., while L.A. is more than ten kilometers east of the camp.

Sven Heding brought the most advanced measuring instruments at that time, and Eldick was also a guide with a strong sense of direction. When he left the camp, the desert wind had not yet blown, which only started to blow two or three hours after he left. Sven Heding still hoped that he would return to the camp before the wind blew.

Eldick could not have gone wrong as soon as he set out. He should have gone north, but ran to west, twisted 90 degrees. Even if he lost his way at the beginning, he ran to L.A., the ancient city of Loulan, east of the camp, then he would never have been able to travel through the complex terrain and return to L.B. that night, when he was unable to see his fingers, he successfully retrieved the shovel thrown on the ground and caught up with the expedition. With just a horse, even in the daytime, he could not have been able to hold a GPS...

If the ancient Loulan Kingdom was not discovered by Sven Heding, then who discovered it?

Perhaps, it has been sleeping under the sea of ​​sand for thousands of years, and finally it is unwilling to be lonely, so it slowly crawls out of itself...

In 1979, the Sino-Japanese joint-filmed TV documentary "Silk Road", a tomb of an ancient Loulan man was discovered, and a complete ancient Loulan female corpse was excavated. She was placed in two hollowed-out coffins, with a thin face, pointed nose, deep concave eye sockets, and brown shawl hair. She was wrapped in a thick wool blanket, a sheepskin on the lower body, wearing a pair of over-fur shoes, wearing a felt hat, and the top of the felt hat was colorfully feathered, with red velvet brimmings and fur fur around her neck, which was both beautiful and warm... It was determined that she was an ancient corpse 3,800 years ago and was a bride. For a time, the title of "Loulan Beauty" was heard all over the world...

who is she?

No one knows.

Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries... Lop Nur is full of "mysteries".

Baisha replaced me and drove.

After more than an hour, our car slowly approached the huge and mysterious ruins.

If this is the ancient Loulan Kingdom, then our current location should be on the west coast of Lop Nur. Walk 220 kilometers southwest to get out of Lop Nur...

Two or three miles away from the site, the car could not move forward, so Baisha and I got off.

The car spoon and Dawu then drove over and got out of the car.

Scoop asked: "If you don't look for a camp, why are you here for a trip?"

I said, "There may be the ruins of the ancient Loulan Kingdom in front. Don't you want to see it?"

Shaozi looked forward and said, "You are still in the mood to visit? It's so fucking dark!"

I walked up to him and said, "If we make sure this is the Loulan site, we will know our current coordinates. Moreover, we will definitely find the permanent protection personnel."

The spoon stopped talking.

Baisha and I walked in front, and he and Dawu followed.

This is the Yadan landform, high and low, deep and shallow, with raised high slopes, sudden deep trenches, and dry and hard ancient rivers. The road under our feet seems to be covered with shell craters, and vehicles cannot walk at all.

We walked, it was just as difficult and the speed was very slow.

For some reason, I had a strong premonition - An Chunhong was waiting for us in front. This strange ruin is the end of my life.

After entering the wall of the site, the sky had become dark. We did not see the legendary barbed wire.

Looking around, the panoramic view is at least 100 square kilometers, with ruins made of soil and sand everywhere, standing alone, solemn, lifeless, desolate and tragic.

Between the walls, you can occasionally see scattered poplar trees, all of which are dry and cracked. You can also see a few animal remains and ancient porcelain pieces.

There is no figure.

There is no sound except the wind.

I walked slowly in, feeling faint.

This place used to be crowded with people, once the merchants were prosperous, once had children, and once had singing and singing every night... Now, those people disappeared without a trace in a blink of an eye.

It's like an office building. During the day, people come and go, busy. At night, all people are gone and become dead silent. There are countless footprints printed on the corridors, large and small, layer by layer...

I seemed to feel that there were countless footprints and hoof prints buried in this yellow sand.

I never saw the famous "Sanjianfang". "Sanjianfang" was the highest-level building in the Loulan ruins, and it was suspected to be the official yard at that time.

I became increasingly suspicious that this place was not Loulan. Could it be that I became the second Eldick and discovered another ancient ruins?

The spoon stopped, sat on a sand dune, took off his travel shoes and rubbed his feet.

He said: "My feet are blistered and I won't leave anymore. I can't walk this ghost place for a day."

Baisha looked at me, I looked around and shouted loudly, "Hey! Is anyone?"

How I wish someone would come out of some corner. He rode a motorcycle to us and shouted loudly: "What are you shouting! This is the ruins reserve, who lets you in!"

No one responded.

I shouted again: "Hi! Is there anyone here?"

Still no one responded.

Baisha suddenly pulled me.

I turned to look at him, he stared at the front of the left and whispered, "Listen..."

I looked over and saw about a few dozen meters away from the front left, there were two relatively intact walls, which were in the shape of "L".

I said, "What did you hear?"

Baisha said: "It seems like there is a woman's voice..."

I immediately shouted again: "Hey! Is anyone here?"

The spoon had put on his shoes. He stood up, strode over, muttering, "You'll know if you look!"

We followed.

The two walls had a little high terrain and needed to go up a slope. The spoon climbed up in just a few seconds. He looked around the two walls and came down again: "There is a rotten wood."

Baisha was unwilling to give up, so she turned her body and listened again.

The spoon said, "If you don't leave, we'll leave. A big thing!"

Dawu said: "Oh."

The spoon said, "Follow me!"

Baisha said: "Wait!"

The spoon and the big stuff stopped.

Baisha looked at the right side. There was a wall there, which was said to be a wall, but it was actually no different from a mound of soil. It was bare, and the desert wind grind away all its edges and corners.

Baisha slowly walked over.

At this time, I also heard a woman's moan!

In an instant, I seemed to return to that dream: a large area of ​​water, surrounded by golden sand, there was a woman wearing golden flowers, standing in the middle of the water, smiling and hooking at me...

She is indeed here!

My heart was beating wildly, and I felt that we were approaching the answer!

How many days and nights of life and death struggles, how many times of hope and despair... Today, I finally got to know each other! I didn’t know whether I was excited or afraid, so I took a deep breath and followed.

Baisha walked around the other side of the wall, stared at the ground, and widened his eyes.

I said, "Who?"

Baisha didn't answer, and still stared at the earthen wall, as if he was stunned.

I walked over and looked stunned. In the dark twilight, the white-haired An Chunhong leaned half on the base of the earthen wall, her eyes closed slightly, her face pale, and she seemed to be dying. Her hair, clothes, and feet were covered with thick dust. It can be seen that she had not stood up for a long time. Next to her, her canvas backpack was buried in sand at the bottom.

How did she become like this?
Chapter completed!