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The Ancient City of Jiaohe is situated at Yar Town, 13 km west of Turpan City. It was built on an island at the confluence of two rivers, occupying an area of 230,000 square meters. These ruins are considered to have been the frontier post of the outer Cheshi Kingdom during the Han Dynasty. In the sixth century Jiaohe Prefecture was established with the original Jiaohe City as the seat of the prefectural government.
The Anxi Military Viceroy's Office, which is the highest civil and military administrative organ in the Western Region, was set up here. Between the middle of the eighth and the ninth centuries, the Tibetans occupied the city. At the end of the thirteenth century, it was destroyed in a Mongolian aristocratic rebellion.
Most of the remaining buildings are from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and later times, and they fall into three categories: temples, civilian residences, and administration buildings. What is left of the town indicated three interesting things about it: (1) that its doors and windows did not face the street - a peculiarity of Tang Dynasty architecture: (2) that courtyards and rooms were dug from the earth, like cave dwellings -- a specialty in China's northwest; and (3) that no city walls were necessary because the town was surrounded by cliffs -- a feature decided its peculiar terrain. The fact that Jiaohe's houses have been preserved so well is mainly due to the area's dry climate.
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