Archaeologists discover a 1,000-year-old city underwater: it was a key trading hub between China and the West

A team of marine archaeologists identified megalithic structures last October beneath Lake Issyk-Kul in present-day Kyrgyzstan. These remains are believed to belong to the ancient city of Toru-Aygyr, which was submerged after an earthquake.

The archaeologists dove to depths of up to about 13 feet and uncovered brick buildings, fragments of a millstone, and a Muslim cemetery, along with wooden structures and a large number of ceramic artifacts.

“The monument under study is a city or a large commercial agglomeration on one of the important sections of the Silk Road,” said Valery Kolchenko, a researcher at the Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan.

According to Maksim Menshikov, head of the expedition from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, these findings reinforce Toru-Aygyr’s role as a significant stop along the Silk Road, the trade network that connected China with the West.

“The tragedy can be compared to Pompeii”

At the beginning of the 15th century, a devastating earthquake caused the city to be submerged beneath the lake. Based on researchers’ assessment, the inhabitants had already abandoned the settlement by the time of the disaster.

“The tragedy can be compared to Pompeii,” Kolchenko explained. After the earthquake, the region’s population changed dramatically, and the prosperous medieval civilization disappeared. It was replaced by nomadic groups.

“The section of the Silk Road in the Issyk-Kul Lake area was under control of the Karakhanids. The Chinese considered this territory a zone of their interests, but they could not control it. Nevertheless, we see that this location is reflected in Chinese sources. This gives us hope to correlate historical materials with the results of our archaeological excavations,” said Menshikov.

In the 13th century, under the influence of the Golden Horde, Islam spread throughout the region. The necropolis that was discovered on the lakebed likely dates to this period the archaeologists concluded.

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