MalikeAwat Ancient City

Meaning of Melike is a name of one Uyghur man. Awat means prosperous. MalikeAwat Ancient City is located at the west bank of Yurongkash river, southeast ofHotan city. It is about 27km far from Hotan.

It is belong to the Han and Tang Dynasties. The ruins is about 10km from south to north long, width is about 2KM from west to east. The west part of the ruin is surrounded by sand dunes. The Kunlun mountain is located on it is south. The Yurongkash River is located on it is east. What you can see in the ruins is leftover wall and walls of the house. From the Melikeawat ancient city,they excavated bronze Buddha figures, jade articles, clay Buddha sculptures, ancient Uyghur styled wall decorations, fresco pieces, potteries and a large amount of old coins have been unearthed. Aural Stein excavated this ruins twice, first in 1901, second in 1906. He collected a large number of articles belonging to the Han and Tang Dynasties. Chinese Archeologist Huang Wen Bi has also excavated the ruins twice, first was in 1929 and second was in 1957.His view about Melikeawat ancient city is that it used to be the capital of Yutian Kingdom. It has been under the Autonomous Regional Preservation of Cultural Relics since 1957.