It is now known as Kara-Kharam
(Rampart) or Kara Balghasun (city). The remains consist of a quadrangular
rampart of mud and sun-dried brick, of about 500 paces to the side, and
now about 9 feet high, with traces of a higher tower, and of an inner
rampart parallel to the other. But these remains probably appertain to the
city as re-occupied by the descendants of the Yuen in the end of the 14th
century, after their expulsion from China."
Dr. Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 123) rightly observes: "It seems,
however, that Paderin is mistaken in his supposition. At least it does not
agree with the position assigned to the ancient Mongol residence in the
Mongol annals Erdenin erikhe, translated into Russian, in 1883, by
Professor Pozdneiev. It is there positively stated (p. 110, note 2) that
the monastery of Erdenidsu, founded in 1585, was erected on the ruins of
that city, which once had been built by order of Ogotai Khan, and where he
had established his residence; and where, after the expulsion of the
Mongols from China, Togontemur again had fixed the Mongol court. This vast
monastery still exists, one English mile, or more, east of the Orkhon. It
has even been astronomically determined by the Jesuit missionaries, and is
marked on our maps of Mongolia. Pozdneiev, who visited the place in 1877,
obligingly informs me that the square earthen wall surrounding the
monastery of Erdenidsu, and measuring about an English mile in
circumference, may well be the very wall of ancient Karakorum."
Recent researches have fully confirmed the belief that the Erdeni Tso, or
Eideni Chao, Monastery occupies the site of Karakorum, near the bank of
the Orkhon, between this river and the Kokchin (old) Orkhon.
