Bars-Hot or Kherlen Bars was a city built by the

Khitan people The Khitan people (Khitan small script: ; ) were a historical nomadic people from Northeast Asia who, from the 4th century, inhabited an area corresponding to parts of modern Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East. As a people desce ...

in the basin of the

Kherlen River Kherlen River (also known as Kern or Kerülen; ; ) is a 1,254 km river in Mongolia and China. Course The river originates in the south slopes of the Khentii mountains, near the Burkhan Khaldun mountain in the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected ...

Eastern Mongolia Eastern Mongols may refer to: * Buryats, Khalkhas and Inner Mongolians settling in Eastern Greater Mongolia (as opposed to Oirats (= Western Mongols)) *Khorchin and Kharchin Mongols who mainly settle in south-western Manchuria as farmers and herd ...

. During the

Liao dynasty The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...

it was called Hedong City (). It occupied an area of 1.6 by 1.8 kilometres and was surrounded with mud walls, which are today 4 metres thick and 1.5–2 metres high.

Bars-Hot Pagoda

A ruined octagonal brick

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

(sometimes referred to as a

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...

or a

watchtower A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to ...

) dating to the 11th century is located near the city walls. It originally comprised seven stories, but its top section is now missing. There were originally a pair of pagodas at this site, but in the 1940s the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

garrison used cannon fire to destroy the smaller pagoda. Although the remaining pagoda is missing its top section, at in height it is the tallest surviving pre-modern structure in Mongolia. In June 2014 a team of Mongolian and Japanese scientists surveyed the ruins of the pagoda, and made measurements and 3D scans of it. They found that the external brick wall was thick, with an external diameter of and an internal diameter of at the base. They found traces of coloured plaster on the surface of the internal wall, which they considered to be remains of a mural painting. The pagoda was extensively restored and reconstructed between 2014 and 2016 and now belongs to several attractions related to the Khitan in eastern Mongolia.

Footnotes

{{coords, 48, 3, 13, N, 113, 22, 0, E, display=title Archaeological sites in Mongolia Former populated places in Mongolia Liao dynasty architecture