A balloon vendor runs across a street with a trailing mass of balloons in Buenos Aires, November 1921. Photo: Newton W. Gulick; for National Geographic | src 125 Years of National Geographic Photography · Christie’s
“These are the ruins of the Black City of Mongolia.
Kharakhoto, literally translated 'Black City', is a ruined fortified city near the Juyan Lake Basin in the far west of Inner Mongolia, China.
The site was located on the northern borders of the Tangut empire and consists of a large walled city, nearby stupas and a large area of cultivation to its east containing homesteads and farms.
The city was a centre of religious learning, art, and a trading hub that was founded in AD 1032 as a Tangut stronghold of the Tibeto-Burman tribal union, emerging into the empire of Western Xia.
The city walls were 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.
Gates lead through the western and eastern wall faces, each protected by a rectangular outwork built as massively as the walls themselves.
The city is identified by Stein with Marco Polo's 'City of Etzina'. It was later sacked by the Mongols. After the city was taken, Khara-Khoto was abandoned and swallowed by the sands of the Gobi Desert until it was rediscovered in the early 20th century.”