Karakorum (1235): The Capital of the Mongol Empire

Karakorum (also spelled Qaraqorum) was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the mid-13th century, when that empire stretched from China to eastern Europe. Founded as a camp by Genghis Khan and walled by his son Ögedei from 1235, it stood in the Orkhon Valley of central Mongolia. For a few decades this modest town on the steppe was the place where envoys, merchants and craftsmen from across Eurasia came to meet the Great Khan.

Background: why the Orkhon Valley?

The Orkhon Valley had long been a heartland of steppe power. The Göktürks and then the Uyghurs had their political centres there between the 6th and 9th centuries, and the ruins of the Uyghur capital Ordu-Baliq lie a short distance away. Its grasslands, rivers and position on routes across Mongolia made it a natural seat of authority.

After uniting the Mongol tribes, as told in the article on Genghis Khan and the rise of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan used the area as a base around 1220. But the Mongol rulers were nomads, and their court moved with the seasons. A permanent city only became necessary as the empire’s administration, treasury and diplomacy grew.

The building of the city

In 1235 Ögedei Khan ordered walls to be built around Karakorum and a palace, called Wan’an Gong (Palace of Ten Thousand Peace) in Chinese sources. Craftsmen and builders from conquered lands, especially northern China and Central Asia, worked on the project. Ögedei also set up a system of relay stations, the yam, which linked Karakorum to the provinces and carried officials, envoys and goods.

The khan himself still spent much of the year in seasonal camps nearby, using the palace mainly for great assemblies and feasts. Karakorum was therefore less a city of the khan’s residence than an administrative and commercial centre: a storehouse for tribute, a home for artisans and merchants, and a meeting point for embassies.

A cosmopolitan court

The best description of Karakorum comes from the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck, who visited Möngke Khan’s court in 1254 (see William of Rubruck’s journey). He was not impressed by its size, remarking that it was smaller than the French village of Saint-Denis outside Paris. Yet he described a remarkable variety of people. The town had two main quarters, one for Muslim merchants and one for Chinese craftsmen, and Rubruck counted twelve temples of “idolaters” (mostly Buddhists) belonging to different peoples, two mosques and a Nestorian Christian church.

Rubruck also met Europeans who had been captured in Hungary and elsewhere, including Guillaume Boucher, a goldsmith from Paris. Boucher made a famous fountain for the palace in the form of a silver tree, with four pipes that poured out wine, fermented mare’s milk, rice wine and mead during feasts. Rubruck took part in a religious debate held before the khan between Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, an example of the Mongol rulers’ generally tolerant attitude to religions.

Decline and destruction

Karakorum’s time as imperial capital was short. After Möngke died in 1259, his brothers Kublai and Ariq Böke fought for the throne. Ariq Böke held Karakorum, and Kublai cut off the grain supplies that the town depended on, since the steppe could not feed a large population. After his victory in 1264, Kublai ruled from China, first from Shangdu and then from Dadu (modern Beijing), and Karakorum became a provincial centre.

It regained some importance after 1368, when the Yuan dynasty was driven out of China and the Mongol rulers retreated to the steppe. In 1388 a Ming army sacked and destroyed the city. In 1585 Abtai Khan founded the Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu next to the ruins, reusing some of their materials.

Archaeology

For centuries even the exact location of Karakorum was uncertain, until it was identified in the late 19th century near Erdene Zuu. A Soviet-Mongolian team excavated there in 1948-1949, and from 1999-2000 German and Mongolian archaeologists carried out new excavations. They uncovered streets, workshops for metal and glass, kilns, coins and goods from China, Central Asia and the Islamic world.

A large building with rows of columns, long identified as Ögedei’s palace, has been reinterpreted by the German-Mongolian team as a great Buddhist temple; the palace may have stood elsewhere. Two stone turtles, which once supported inscribed stelae, still stand near the site. In 2004 Karakorum became part of the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site.

Key people

• Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227): chose the Orkhon area as a base around 1220.
• Ögedei Khan (r. 1229-1241): ordered the walls and palace from 1235.
• Möngke Khan (r. 1251-1259): ruled from Karakorum at its height.
• William of Rubruck: Flemish friar whose account is the main eyewitness description.
• Guillaume Boucher: Parisian goldsmith who made the silver tree fountain.

Trade, tribute and daily life

Karakorum depended on the outside world. The steppe around it could not grow enough grain for a town, so food was brought in by long caravans of carts, especially from northern China; Persian chroniclers of the Mongols wrote that hundreds of carts of food and drink reached the town every day. Merchants from Central Asia and the Islamic world came to sell textiles, jewels and other luxuries, and the khans often paid them generously, sometimes far above the value of their goods, to show their wealth and attract trade.

Archaeologists have found the remains of workshops for bronze casting, iron working, glass beads and bone carving, as well as pottery kilns and a main street lined with workshops and shops. Coins from China and the Islamic world, Chinese porcelain and objects from as far away as the Middle East show how widely Karakorum’s trade reached. Buildings ranged from felt tents to houses of mud brick and timber with tiled roofs in the Chinese style.

The town was also a centre of administration. Officials of many backgrounds, including Uyghur, Khitan, Chinese and Persian scribes, kept records, issued documents and managed the treasury. Envoys and vassal rulers from lands such as Rus, Georgia and Armenia, as well as from the Seljuk sultanate, came to Karakorum or the nearby imperial camps to pay homage.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Karakorum was a vast metropolis. Fact: by contemporary accounts and archaeology it was a modest walled town, important for its role rather than its size.
• Myth: the Great Khans lived permanently in their palace. Fact: they continued to move between seasonal camps and visited the town mainly for feasts and assemblies.

Timeline

• c. 1220: Genghis Khan uses the Orkhon area as a base.
• 1235: Ögedei orders walls and a palace to be built.
• 1246: Güyük is enthroned at a nearby camp, witnessed by the papal envoy Carpine.
• 1254: William of Rubruck visits Möngke’s court.
• 1260-1264: Ariq Böke holds Karakorum in the civil war with Kublai.
• 1388: A Ming army destroys the city.
• 1585: Erdene Zuu monastery is founded beside the ruins.
• 2004: The site becomes part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

Karakorum was where the largest land empire in history was governed, and for a generation it was one of the most international places on Earth. Its remains show how a nomadic power built a capital to manage trade, tribute and diplomacy, and the accounts of its visitors gave Europeans their first close look at the Mongol world.