Kumul Necropolis, China

Mysteries of the ancient Kumul Necropolis

Hami or Kumul in the days gone by was considered one of the most important transportation hubs on the Silk Road. It is a city with a thousand-year-old history, which fact is confirmed by an ancient burial complex - necropolis, located 100 km south from the city.

According to the archaeologists the necropolis is over 3 thousand years old. It occupies the territory of 10,000 m2. One of the characteristic features of the necropolis is the sacrificial altar, rather unusual for China. Moreover, all the graves are located in close proximity to each other. Up to date about 150 tombs out of them have been discovered, and this only the start, since the excavations are still underway.

Inside the tombs, there are many artifacts. They are household items made of wood and iron, ornaments of stone, bronze and bone; some of the tombs contained weapons, which give us an idea of the people, buried there a few thousand years ago.

Even now we can say that this necropolis dates back to a hitherto unknown culture of the early Iron Age, existed in China in the first millennium BC. This is confirmed both by the way of burial and by funeral traditions, untypical for the Chinese culture.

Kumul Necropolis is a really unique place. Nowhere else in China you can find such burial ground, which in terms of its scope and grandeur looks more like the city of the dead.