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Karakorum

  (kăr'ə-kôr'əm, -kōr'-, kär'-) pronunciation

A ruined ancient Mongol city in central Mongolia. Inhabited by Turkic tribes from the first century A.D., it became Genghis Khan's capital c. 1220 but was abandoned by Kublai Khan in 1267.

 

 
 

Ancient capital, Mongol empire. Its ruins lie on the upper Orhon River in north-central Mongolia. It was settled c. 750. Genghis Khan established his headquarters there in 1220. In 1235 his son and successor, Ögödei, enclosed the city with walls and built a palace. Chinese forces invaded Mongolia and destroyed Karakorum in 1388. It was later partially rebuilt but was abandoned by the 16th century. The ruins are included in a regional UNESCO World Heritage site designated in 2004.

For more information on Karakorum, visit Britannica.com.

 
('rəkō'rəm) , ruined city, central Republic of Mongolia, near the Orkhon River, SW of Ulaanbaatar. The area around Karakorum had been inhabited by nomadic Turkic tribes from the 1st cent. A.D., but the city itself was not laid out until c.1220, when Jenghiz Khan, founder of the Mongol empire, established his residence there. As capital of the Mongols, Karakorum was visited (c.1247) by a papal mission under Giovanni Carpini. The city was abandoned (and later destroyed) after Kublai Khan, grandson of Jenghiz, transferred (1267) the Mongol capital to Khanbaliq (modern Beijing). The noted Lamaist monastery of Erdeni Dzu was built near Karakorum in 1586. The ruins of the ancient Mongol city were discovered in 1889 by N. M. Yadrinstev, a Russian explorer, who also uncovered the Orkhon Inscriptions (see Orkhon). Karakorum is also the name of a nearby site, which in the 8th and 9th cent. was the capital of the Uigurs.


 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more

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