page_title: Karakorum
section_title: Excavations
hierarchical_section_title: Karakorum / Excavations
caption_attribution_description: English: Model of the Khan Palace in Karakorum in the National Museum of Mongolian History in Ulan Bator
context_page_description: Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 and of the Northern Yuan in the 14–15th centuries. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu Monastery, the probable earliest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. They are part of the upper part of the World Heritage site Orkhon Valley.
context_section_description: The Erdene Zuu Monastery stands near Karakorum. Various construction materials were taken from the ruin to build this monastery.
  The actual location of Karakorum was long unclear. First hints that Karakorum was located at Erdene Zuu were already known in the 18th century, but until the 20th century there was a dispute whether or not the ruins of Karabalgasun, or Ordu-Baliq, were in fact those of Karakorum. In 1889, the site was conclusively identified as the former Mongol capital by Nikolai Yadrintsev, who discovered examples of the Orkhon script during the same expedition. Yadrintsev's conclusions were confirmed by Wilhelm Radloff.
  The first excavations took place in 1933–34 under D. Bukinich. After his Soviet-Mongolian excavations of 1948–49, Sergei Kiselyov concluded that he had found the remains of Ögödei's palace. However, this conclusion has been put into doubt by the findings of the 2000–2004 German-Mongolian excavations, which seem to identify them as belonging to the great stupa temple rather than to Ögödei's palace.
  Excavation findings include paved roads, some brick and many adobe buildings, floor heating systems, bed-stoves, evidence for the processing of copper, gold, silver, iron (including iron wheel naves), glass, jewels, bones, and birch bark, as well as ceramics and coins from China and Central Asia. Four kilns have also been unearthed.
caption: Model of the Khan Palace called Tumen Amgalan Ord, Wanangong (萬安宫) in Chinese
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