gaochang – untold stories on the silk road, originally uploaded by Xuan Rosemaninovich.

Gaochang is an oasis city on the Silk Road. Built in the 1st century BC, it enjoyed long time prosperity as an important stop and trading center along the road. Over the years it witnessed all the glory and misery of this road. Genghis Khan’s army once passed by these walls to conquer the rest of the world. Generals marched and beheaded under its gates. Buddhism monks, Sufis and Christians all tried to establish their influence here. Merchants brought goods none have ever seen, and kings and whores laid down, waked up beneath the same sky.

The city was bound to the destiny of the Silk Road, and eventually they became one. In 640 AD Gaochang was captured and annexed by the Tang Dynasty of China, but it struggled to hang on and was not until 14th century AD when it was finally burnt down in wars and abandoned. The last of the survivors fled, few words is written down on the history of the city, and the ruined wall remained as the sole narrator to all the stories of glory and misery.