Khara-Balgas

(also Karabalgasun), the ruins of the city of Ordy-Balyk, which was the capital (eighth and ninth centuries) of the Uighur Kaganate and was destroyed by the Enisei Kyrgyz in 840. The ruins are situated on the left bank of the Orkhon River, 15 km north of the Erdeni-dzu Monastery (Mongolian People’s Republic). The ruins were described by N. M. Iadrintsev (1889) and V. V. Radlov (1891) and were investigated in 1949 by a Soviet-Mongolian historical and ethnographic expedition led by S. V. Kiselev. The remains of suburbs, farmsteads, and canals and traces of tilled fields were found outside Khara-Balgas. The city has a well-defined layout. The central part was surrounded by earthen banks; mud-brick walls, the citadel donjon, and fortress were partially preserved. Researchers also found the remains of a palace, a temple complex, an artisan workshop, and a granite stela, crowned with a dragon and bearing inscriptions honoring the ninth-century kagans.