Chinese archaeologists have discovered ruins of an ancient city
that are believed to date back to the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220
A.D.) and legions of tombs of the ancient Koguryo kingdom in a
major reservoir on the border shared by China and the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The ruins were spotted during repair work on the Yunfeng
Reservoir situated in the outlying mountainous regions near the
SINO-DPRK border, said Zhang Fuyou, Chairman of the Mount Changbai
Cultural Society of Jilin Province in northeast China.
As a leader of a three-member research team, Zhang has just
concluded a month-long inspection tour of the reservoir, also a
tributary of the Yalu River flowing along the SINO-DPRK border and
built in the 1950s. The water level in the reservoir was lowered by
a depth of 41.13 meters to facilitate the repairing efforts.
The ancient city ruins, now covered by thick mud, are in a
square formation and have a city wall 1.5 meters tall and four
meters wide. There is also evidence of a moat around the city
wall.
The 180-meter-long western side and a six-meter-wide gate on the
western side are still visible, along with the 220-m-long northern
side. The eastern side was buried by housing foundations built in
later years and the southern side was destroyed by water from a
local river.
A dozen tombs were also found inside the city ruins and in an
area to the north.
Judging from the structure and construction style, the city
ruins might have been built during the ancient Han Dynasty,
acknowledged Zhang, who said this could not be confirmed until
further excavation into the ruins had been carried out.
The team also found a sprawling tomb stretch, with 2,360
individual tombs in all, in the same reservoir but some 20 km away
from the location of the ancient city ruins. The massive tombs are
believed to belong to the ancient Koguryo kingdom, which existed
from the first to the fifth centuries A.D.
The reservoir is proximate to Ji'an, a Chinese city on the
SINO-DPRK border that drew global attention in July 2004 when it
was included on the World Heritage List for being home to an even
larger number of tombs, over 6,000, from the ancient Koguryo
kingdom.
Sun Renjie, a noted research worker with the Ji'an Museum, in
Jilin Province, said the discovery is significant for the study
into the history of ethnic minorities in northeast China.
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(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2006)
