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NW China's Suoyang City Ruins home to intact ancient military defense, irrigation systems

(People's Daily) 15:37, December 09, 2021

Located in Guazhou county, northwest China's Gansu Province, the Suoyang City Ruins are home to an intact military defense system and agricultural irrigation system dating back to ancient China.

Photo shows an ancient trunk canal in the east of Suoyang City Ruins. (People's Daily/Lei Sheng)

Covering an area of 15,788.6 hectares and a buffer area of 23,484.66 hectares, the archaeological site integrates features of ancient city sites, ancient Buddhist temples, ancient canal systems, ancient reclamation areas, tombs and other relics.

The area about 60 square kilometers around the site is dotted with what remains of an ancient canal system and ancient reclamation area, with a well-preserved ancient irrigation network.

The ancient irrigation network is composed of five trunk canals and more than 100 branch canals and sub-canals. The total length of the trunk canal is about 26.6 km, and the length of its branch canals and sub-canals is about 69.4 km.

Photo shows an ancient trunk canal in the east of Suoyang City Ruins. (People's Daily/Lei Sheng)

As a landmark building of Suoyang City, the corner pier is part of a warning system for ancient military sentry stations. The pier allows soldiers to send messages through beacon flames when an enemy is spotted.

According to the preliminary archaeological survey, the development of the Suoyang City Ruins can be traced back to about the 7th-13th century.

In 1996, the Suoyang City Ruins were listed by the State Council as one of the fourth batch of national key units protected as cultural relics. In 2010, they were listed by the National Cultural Heritage Administration on the project approval list of the first batch of national archaeological parks. Four years later, the site was added to the World Heritage list at the 38th session of the World Heritage Committee at the Qatar National Convention Center, Doha.