Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Loulan desert eye

Loulan desert eye

When the ancient city of Loulan is mentioned, people will think of the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, because he first announced the existence of the ancient city of Loulan in 190 1.

On March 28th, 1900, Swedish explorer Sven Hedin was inspecting the Rob Desert. He hired Eldik, a donkey worker and guide, and a Uighur farmer who lost his tools. On his way to Lop Nur, he came across an ancient site. When Sven Hedin heard about it, he immediately followed Eldik to this place and found that this ancient place was littered with beautiful wood carvings, fabrics and coins.

Sven Hedin had to return for lack of drinking water. After a year's preparation, Sven Hedin made a special trip to this site on March 3, 2008, and conducted a week-long excavation. After sorting out and analyzing, He Ding named this relic Loulan according to the word Loulan in the unearthed documents. This great discovery shocked the world and won great honor for Sven Hedin.

Later, Stein in Britain and Orange Ruichao in Japan found the Loulan site along the road map of Heding. Their excavation work is more thorough and meticulous, but it is also destructive and predatory. These works have become an important geographical basis for Loulan's future exploration.

Although it is difficult to recognize Loulan City from the landforms of Gobi and Ya Dan, scientists have found from a large number of data and investigations that Loulan City, as an important town on the Silk Road, was abandoned for 1500 years and was once brilliant. According to experts' analysis, Loulan remains have a history of 1800 years. After being looted by the wind and sand, only the broken Populus euphratica wooden frame and several reed walls are left. Judging from the size and building materials of the house, the housing conditions of ordinary people were relatively simple at that time, but a large number of exquisite wooden products and ancient coins left in the ruins reminded people that there were also many wealthy families in Loulan City. Experts believe that there has been a polarization between the rich and the poor in Loulan City. At the same time, these wooden products showed us the exquisite craftsmanship of carpentry at that time and the prosperity of Loulan economy. Experts found that there are dozens of houses like this, which are concentrated in the west of the city to form residential areas, while the east of the city has administrative and military areas. The city has complete functions, clear layout and obvious awareness of urban planning and development.

For a detailed description, please visit:

/Article/ShowArticle.asp? ArticleID= 1449