Ordu-Baliq (Karabalgasun)

When the Uyghurs replaced the Göktürk Khaganate in 744, they founded a new capital on the Orkhon river, in the Göktürks' sacred land of Ötüken. Sogdian and Chinese craftsmen built the city: a high-walled palace citadel at its centre, surrounded by quarters, markets and fields.

The Arab traveller Tamim ibn Bahr, who saw it in the early 9th century, writes that the city had twelve iron gates, a dense population and busy markets. In 840 the Kyrgyz took and burned Ordu-Baliq, and the Uyghur Khaganate fell apart. Its ruins, known today as Karabalgasun in Mongolia, are part of the Orkhon Valley World Heritage site.