Ⅰ. Basic Location（地理位置）
Official English Name: Astana-Karakhoja Ancient Tombs / Astana Cemetery
Address: Gaochang District, Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Geographical position: About 40 km southeast of downtown Turpan, roughly 6 km north of the Gaochang Ancient City, on the northern Gobi of ancient Gaochang, south foot of the Flaming Mountains.
Scale: Covers an area of 10 km², stretching 5 km east-west and 2 km north-south, with more than 1,000 tombs discovered and nearly 500 tombs excavated so far.
Etymology: Astana means “capital” in Uyghur language; Karakhoja is a legendary local national hero in Uyghur folklore.
Ⅱ. How to Get There（交通出行方式）
There is no direct public bus to the tomb site; chartered vehicle is the mainstream way.
Chartered Car / Taxi (Most Recommended)
One-way fare: around CNY 50 per vehicle; round trip: CNY 80–100 for small cars. The driving time from Turpan urban area is about 50–60 minutes. Most tourists book a one-day charter covering Gaochang Ruins, Astana Tombs and Bezeklik Caves together for higher cost performance.
Public Bus + Local Transfer
Take long-distance bus from Turpan Bus Station to Shengjinkou Town, then take local tricycles or shared vans to the scenic spot; this route is time-consuming and inconvenient for independent travelers.
Group Tour Bus
Most Turpan local day tours include Astana Tombs as a standard attraction, with door-to-door pick-up service, the easiest option for foreign tourists.
Practical Parameters
Highway mileage: Turpan urban → Astana Tombs: ~40 km (asphalt rural road, smooth driving)
Opening Hours:
Peak season (Apr 21 – Oct 20): 08:00 – 21:00
Low season (Oct 21 – Apr 20 next year): 10:00 – 18:30
Single ticket price: CNY 40 per person; combined ticket with Gaochang Ruins is more cost-effective
Ⅲ. Full English Introduction（景区英文简介）
Known as the Underground Museum of Gaochang, Astana-Karakhoja Tombs is the largest imperial and civilian public cemetery of the ancient Gaochang Kingdom, continuously used from the Western Jin Dynasty (4th century) to the mid-Tang Dynasty (8th century), with a burial history spanning over 500 years. People of multiple ethnic groups including Han, Turkic, Sogdian, Xiongnu and Cheshi were buried here, dominated by Han immigrants who settled in Gaochang.
Tomb Structure
Most tombs adopt the Chinese traditional Jia-shaped (甲字形) layout: a long sloping tomb passage leads to an earthen cave chamber. The underground chamber is 2 meters or higher with flat or domed ceilings. The deceased were mostly laid on earthen beds without coffins, following Central Plains burial rituals such as chicken-head pillows, face covering silk fabrics and hand-held wooden pieces. Tombs were divided by family clans marked with gravel piles on the ground, showing complete patriarchal burial customs inherited from inland China.
Core Cultural Value & Unearthed Relics
Benefiting from Turpan’s extremely arid, rainless and sterile desert climate, organic relics are naturally well-preserved without artificial anticorrosion treatment. A huge number of precious cultural relics have been unearthed:
Natural mummies: Well-preserved corpses with intact skin, hair and nails, precious physical specimens for studying ancient ethnic groups on the ancient Silk Road.
Historical documents: More than 2,700 pieces of official files, private letters, contracts and almanacs, known as “living archives of Gaochang history”.
Silk fabrics, tomb murals, clay figurines, pottery, food relics (dumplings, cakes, grapes), reflecting the real daily life, diet, costume and art of people along the Silk Road.
At present, only 3 underground tombs are open to tourists. Visitors can view complete ancient mummies in one tomb and authentic Tang-style tomb murals in the other two. Photography and touching murals inside burial chambers are strictly prohibited for cultural relic protection.
Cultural Significance
Astana Tombs vividly records the long-term cultural communication and ethnic integration between inland Central Plains and the Western Regions on the ancient Silk Road. It proves that Xinjiang has been an inseparable part of Chinese territory since ancient times, and bears important archaeological, historical and world cultural research value.
Ⅳ. Travel Tips
Wear sun-proof clothes, hats and sunscreen; the Gobi area has strong ultraviolet radiation and large temperature difference between day and night.
Visit together with Gaochang Ancient City to save travel time; the two sites are only 6 km apart.
Mobile signals are weak in the tomb area; download offline maps in advance.
No smoking or littering inside the tomb zone to protect the fragile underground relic environment.
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