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Kharakhoto - meaning 'Black City' was a Tangut city in the Etsin-gol delta, Gansu Province. The city walls are an approximate rectangle nearly orientated. They measure about 466 yards on the north side and 381 yards on the west. The walls are built of stamped clay and reinforced by a wooden framework of which the big rafters could be traced in three rows all around the inside face of the wall. The walls are about 38 yards thick at the base but with a considerable inward slope so that the wall at the top, about 30 feet from the ground, is only 12 feet. The width is increased at the northwestern corner where the top is crowned by stupas. Gates, 18 feet wide, lead through the western and eastern wall faces, each protected by a rectangular outwork built as massively as the walls themselves. There are large circular bastions at the four corners and rectangular bastions along the side.

Excavation history : Kozlov, Stein May 1914 (IA 437-453). The Stein site number indicates those items found among debris and refuse tips within the town walls. Items with K.K.I. were found inside the city walls, often in rubbish heaps, and included numerous and varied specimens of glazed pottery, beads of jade, cornelian and agate, iron implements, lacquered wooden tablet and silk. Many items were found in a Buddhist stupa or suburgan outside the city walls (K.K.II.), most of which are now in St. Petersburg with some in London.

Short description : Tangut city with Buddhist stupas.