戈壁滩下的珍宝库——吐鲁番阿斯塔那古墓群

TREATURE HOUSE UNDER GOBI DESERT

到新疆的客人不论日程多么紧,大都要到吐鲁番一游,而到了吐鲁番,又必然要去高昌故城探访一番.往返高昌故城的外地游客通常都要穿过阿斯塔那.阿斯塔那(又名"三堡")是个村镇,村北的古墓群即因此而得名.在哈萨克语里,阿斯塔那意为"首府"(哈萨克斯坦的新首都就叫Astana),她的得名大概与毗邻高昌故城有关,从5世纪中至13世纪初,高昌城曾先后是北凉、高昌国、西州回鹘的都城.阿斯塔那古墓地(包括今哈拉和单村东的古墓区)则是3世纪末到8世纪末高昌城内外居民的埋葬地.

The Astana ancient tomb comples, not far from Turpan City, hailed as a treasure house was deeply buried under the Gobi Desert outside the ruins of the ancient city of Gaochang. In the early 20th century, a large number of explorers from Europe came here for treasure rush. Later on, many excavations brought a lot of cultural relics to light, which attracted more attention of Chinese and foreign scholars. The unearthed ancient artefacts include a variety of documents, silk fabrics of bright colors, exquisite paintings and pottery figurines, most of which were identified as objects produced in the Han and Tang dynasties. Amazingly, the unearthed cakes made some years ago look as fresh as they were. Those rarely seen treasures remind viewers of the prosterity on the ancient Silk Road.