The entire Shahaiwang City is located in the center of the tiankeng, accounting for about one-third of the area of the tiankeng. It is surrounded by underground rivers, forming impact tidal flats. Most of the sand has only traces of low cave plants, which interact with the underground river water. Moisturized by the grass, the sandy soil on the ground is fixed by these low grasses, making the sandy soil form a state similar to compacted soil.
The place where they came down was a slope. From the height of the slope, they could roughly overlook the imperial city.
Song Siyuan took out the photos from the underground palace and carefully compared them with the Tiankeng Royal City they saw. The town under the Tiankeng was exactly the same as the one in the photos of the underground palace. However, after having fallen into the Tiankeng for nearly two thousand years, the overall appearance was gray and somewhat gray. There was a feeling of lost secret realm. On this basis, everyone began to carefully observe the structure of Shahai King City. Xiu Shuzhu
As mentioned earlier, the entire Shahai King City is in the shape of a mandala flower, facing east and back to the west, with the Red and White Mountains as its back. It was built at the foot of the mountain. The Hotan River was introduced into the city, creating a square and oval city. The shape of the city is also very close to Mandala. Among them, the central circular disk became the residence of the royal family, and the outside area was divided into eight-petal mandala flower shapes by lines. These areas were occupied by common people and businessmen.
From a more peripheral perspective, there are towering Buddhist temples, shaped like the four fixed points of the royal city, anchoring the city wall and the river.
In the past, their understanding of the Shahai Royal City was only limited to the murals in the underground palace. Now that they really saw the royal city, they were still shocked by the splendor and extravagance of the royal city.
Strictly speaking, Shahai King City is the last capital of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom. It is more cleverly designed than Loulan City and Milan City. Compared with the Han and Hu mixed-style buildings in the early period of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom, the entire city has completely abandoned the Han Dynasty. The style of rammed earth and civil engineering is completely integrated with the architectural style of pagodas and towers from the Western Regions and even Central Asia.
Such a change in architectural style is completely inseparable from the situation of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom!
In the early days of the Shanshan Kingdom, relying on its status as a transit point for trade on the Silk Road, the ancient Shanshan people absorbed all the power of trade between the north and the south, and created five trading cities and cultural city-states that were a mixture of Han and Hu.
The prosperity of commerce, the integration of culture and the mixed population made the ancient Shanshan Kingdom the most splendid cultural country in the desert. It also became the pearl and emerald of the desert country. It thrived on trade with the East and had the strongest national power. , has been upgraded from Shanshan Kingdom to Shanshan Dynasty.
As the old saying goes, success depends on Xiao He, and failure depends on Xiao He. Shanshan State prospered because of the prosperity of trade and the mixture of Han and Hu, but it will inevitably lose power due to the decline of trade and the conflicts between Han and Hu.
In the later period of Shanshan, the oases degraded and trade shrank. The commercial activities of Shanshan people were also seriously affected. They shifted from the previous incremental market to the stock market. To put it more simply, because of the cut off of trade, business became increasingly difficult to do. , the business income of Chinese people was severely compressed, and they began to turn inward to pursue wealth.
If the money is not enough, it will inevitably bring about a phenomenon, that is, commercial conflicts will begin to appear between merchants and business groups, ethnic conflicts, interest deprivation, and trade barriers will eventually affect the business environment and make the entire business environment continue to deteriorate.
In ancient society, the total amount of social wealth was certain. The wealth of the entire society was like a big cake. Whoever took one more bite would inevitably have one less bite. When the distribution began to be uneven, some groups that enjoyed the benefits would They will start to cling to each other for warmth, squeezing the interest space of other groups.
Shanshanguo is originally a country of mixed Han and Hu people, with Hu people making up the majority. When the interests of its own merchants are harmed, Shanshan State must of course give priority to protecting the interests of the Hu people. When the interests of merchants of other ethnic groups are harmed, they only You can keep looking for other ways out. The worst is to move out and find another way to make a living.
It was also under this circumstance that the five major trading city-states of Shanshan State experienced the exodus of merchant groups. Foreign merchants continued to leave Shanshan State, and commercial crises began to occur.
When this happens, the aristocratic class definitely does not want this to happen. They have tried to ease the conflicts between Han and Hu. The Temple of Prayer in Milan City has many gods of Hu and Han as well as the patron saints of other ethnic groups. It was probably when the ethnic conflicts were eased. The palace was built. xь.
It can be seen that these nobles are not stupid. They try to ease the ethnic conflicts, or even eliminate them completely, by jointly worshiping the gods of various ethnic groups, and return to the era of co-governance by all ethnic groups.
Unfortunately, their efforts completely failed!
The prosperity of the Shanshan Kingdom was entirely due to the prosperity of commerce. With the decline of commerce, all advantageous positions no longer existed, and many ethnic groups would no longer buy into their account.
Generally speaking, most people came to the city-state of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom not for ethnic family ties or cultural integration, but to earn sufficient money. Now that they can't make money, of course they go back to their respective homes. , each looking for his own mother.
From this point of view, the efforts of the nobles of Shanshan State are putting the cart before the horse. Businessmen of various ethnic groups want to settle down and do business in the city-states of Shanshan State because they want to make enough profits. If they gather for profit, they must disperse for profit. They want to ease the situation. The only way to deal with Hu-Han conflicts and ethnic conflicts is to prepare a bigger cake so that all ethnic groups can share the benefits. Only in this way can all ethnic groups continue to maintain national prosperity.
Overemphasis on national integration and forced use of cultural concepts to require merchants not to leave the city-state, but there is no way to bring more benefits to merchants, so failure is understandable.
In the later period of the Shanshan Kingdom, there were not many foreigners in the entire country. By the time Queen Shanshan built the Shahai King City, the Hu people had already mastered most of the rights and interests. They no longer needed to serve other foreigners, and the architectural style was of course just that. Return to Central Asia and even the overall style of the West.
Under this situation, the Shahai King City has a very special urban style compared with other city-states in the Shan Kingdom!
The main colors of the entire city are white and gold. The circular city walls are built with bricks and stones, and the exterior is covered with white stone mud. The overall look is like a completely white towering city wall surrounding the city.
The fortress tower above the city gate is towering, with red brick window lattice, green roof tiles, round helmet top and filigree carvings. The surrounding pagodas completely adopt the structure of Tubo pagodas, with wide base and towering height. The golden dome is shining with complex patterns, and the stacked eaves of the golden pagoda create the most solemn and sacred atmosphere.
Looking inside the royal city, it is mainly divided into the inner city and the outer city!
The inner city is mainly oval in shape. If you think of it as a slightly rounded square, the length and width would be about one mile. It is where the royal family, nobles, officials, big businessmen, and priests live. The building density is not high. From the traces of vegetation in the inner city, we can also see that the entire inner city was covered by prosperous landscape gardens thousands of years ago. Most buildings are dotted in the landscape gardens, and the buildings blend into the scenery.
Outside the inner city is the outer city where ordinary people, merchants, tax collectors, poor people, beggars, craftsmen and other lower classes live. Xiu Shuzhu
The area of the entire outer city is eight times that of the inner city. With the inner city as the center, a "qi" pattern is formed, which is divided into eight different settlement areas.
The settlements are separated by inner city rivers and roads, and the Cao River forms a natural dividing line. No matter how the area is developed or how houses are built, it cannot affect the Cao River, the boundary of the area.
The purpose of dividing the city by the Cao River in this way is mostly to divide the settlement areas, so that each settlement area can be managed separately without confusing the administration. At the same time, it can also take into account the local customs and aesthetics of the town, and prevent people from building indiscriminately, making the entire city chaotic. dirty.
It is precisely because of these canals that the outline between the inner and outer city is always in the shape of an eight-petal mandala flower, making it a veritable mandala mandala.
In specific residential areas, there are not so many rules to abide by. Apart from the fact that the buildings are all two-story buildings and square courtyards, there are no restrictions on the construction of residential buildings, which are generally controlled within the scope of the Western Region style, a bit like they are in The two-dimensional version of Gaotaicheng seen in Moyu County can be seen in the folded town. The atmosphere of urban fireworks can be seen.
Among these eight different areas, the only building that is common is the smaller and smaller golden-domed white pagoda. Most of the hundreds of square meters of space around the white pagoda are built with temples and palaces, and there are scattered chessboards around it. The eight temples and houses are like eight fixed points, echoing and positioning each other with the four tall pagodas on the city wall.
After thousands of years, most of the buildings in these temples have lost their luster. Only the extravagant and precious golden towers are still splendid, extravagant and dazzling. Even after such a long time, you can still feel the exotic and luxurious atmosphere of the former Sand Sea King City.
"So this is what Sand Sea King City looks like."
The Gu Hengxi brothers and sisters have always wanted to see the real Shahai King City. Now their wish has become clear. They are so excited that they can't speak and keep breathing heavily.
She shouted: "Quick! Map out the Sand Sea King's City and use it as material for us to make illusions. If we can restore it to the state it was in a thousand years ago, that would be great."
Song Siyuan knew their excitement and said slowly: "Miss Gu, you don't have to be too anxious. I have already taken the photo with a color camera. When we go back, we can develop the photo. You can always look at the photo. It’s a little more detailed than what I drew myself.”
Only then did Gu Hengxi realize that Song Siyuan had brought a camera, and nodded towards her: "That's right, you have already recorded the photos, so we don't need to draw any more. However, I didn't expect that the Shahai King City would be like this."
"Then what does the Sand Sea King's City in your imagination look like?" Yue Guanchao asked.
Gu Hengxi paused and said with a serious face: "For thousands of years, no one can accurately describe the appearance of Shahai King City. When faced with the description of Shahai King City, they either use the gorgeous palaces with complicated eaves and arches of the Han people, or directly Apply the Western-style dome-shaped treasure building, or just take the current northern and southern Xinjiang buildings and add some luxurious jewelry or make them more gorgeous."
"Everything remains true to its origins, but it is always a bit vulgar and falls into a cliché."
