The Russian expedition to the Taklimakan , though numerous and long lasting, never yielded a wealth of treasures equal to those of stein or Von Le Coq. In 1905, the beresovsky brothers went to Kucha but found little. In 1908,the Russians made their first and only significant discovery, when colonel pyotr koslov led an exploratory mission to the Sino-Mongolian border. The expedition came across the remains of fortress in the Gobi Desert , the old city of KaraHoto , probably what Marco Polo had referred to as the city of Etzina . Koslov reported, the walls of the city are covered with sand, in some places so deeply it is possible to walk up the slope and enter the fortress.
At the west gate they .found a quadrangular space where on were scattered high and low, broad and narrow, ruins of buildings with rubbish and kinds at their feet. KaraHoto had been destroyed 600 years earlier, in the 14 th century. The last ruler, Kara Tsian Tsiun, had designed on the Chinese throne and attacked the Chinese, who retaliated with a vengeance. Assaulting KaraHoto, the Chinese cut off the town's only water supply, massacring the inhabitants as they tried to flee, and then leveled the city. Before he was killed, Kara Tsian Tsiun filled the well with the state treasury, supposedly casting a spell over the spot so no one would find it.
Koslov missed the gold but did manage to find Buddhist manuscripts, coins and books (enough to fill ten crates) from among the sandy ruins, as well as several Buddhist paintings on the silk, linen and paper in royal tomb. These treasures are now on display at the Hermitage in St Petersburg .
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