Khirkhirinskoye Fortified Settlement

Associated features include the Okoshki necropolis, located 2 km north, and the “Genghis Stone,” bearing an Old Mongolian inscription.

«Founded by the Mongols in the early thirteenth century on the site of an earlier occupation. It served as the military-administrative and economic center of the ulus of Jochi-Khasar (a brother of Genghis Khan) and his son Khan Isunke. The settlement was discovered and first described in 1724 by D.G. Messerschmidt. Subsequently, the site was visited by many researchers. Archaeological work was conducted in 1957–1959 by S.V. Kiselev and in 1997–2005 by A.R. Artemyev. Excavations established that the residential quarters extended 2.5 km (E–W) and 1.5 km (N–S), separated by alleys, and included over 100 adobe houses of the poor and artisans, as well as more than 30 fortified estates belonging to the nobility and feudal lords. Many estates were surrounded by ramparts and moats and enclosed by clay and mudbrick wall. About 350 m west of the Khirkhira riverbank lay the central estate, apparently the khan’s headquarters- a square citadel 150 m on a side. It was surrounded by a moat and a rampart, further reinforced by a wattle‑and‑daub fence. The citadel had gates on the south sides, adjoining an artificial lake. At the center stood the khan’s palace (15 x 30 m), raised on an artificial platform, together with quarters for servants and guards. The single-story palace with timber panel walls and a hipped roof tiled with plain ceramic tiles, was heated by two furnaces; warm air from them passed beneath the floor through special channels (kans). The citadel was ringed by garden plots to the east, north, and west».

Kovychev E.V. Khirkhirinsky Town // Small Encyclopedia of Transbaikalia. Archaeology / ed. by R.F. Geniatulin. – Новосибирск: Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2011. – P. 317–319.

1. Khirkhirskoye Fortified Settlement // Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Sites (EGROKN). URL: https://opendata.mkrf.ru/opendata/7705851331-egrkn/63/418239 (accessed: September 27, 2025). 

2. Kovychev E.V. Khirkhirinsky Town // Small Encyclopedia of Transbaikalia. Archaeology / ed. by R.F. Geniatulin. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2011 . – P. 317–319.

3. Kiselev S.V. Town on the Khirkhira River // Ancient Mongolian Towns. – Moscow, 1965.

4. Kovychev E.V. History of Transbaikalia (1st mid-2nd millennium AD): textbook. – Irkutsk, 1984.

5. Artemyev A.R. New Research on the Town of the Mongol Khan Yesungge in Transbaikalia (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries) // Ancient and Medieval History of East Asia. To the 1300th Anniversary of the Bohai State: Materials of the International Scientific Conference. – Vladivostok, 2001.

6. Kovychev E.V. Khirkhirinsky Town // Encyclopedia of Transbaikalia: Chita Region: Vol. 4: S–Ya / ed. by R.F. Geniatulin. – Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2006. – P. 251–252.

7. Kovychev E.V. Khirkhirinsky Town // Small Encyclopedia of Transbaikalia: Architecture and Construction / ed. by N.N. Zhdanova. – Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2016. – P. 434–435.

8. Kovychev E.V. Khirkhirinskoye Fortified Settlement // Small Encyclopedia of Transbaikalia: Culture: Part 2: M– Ya / ed. by R.F. Geniatulin. – Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2009. – P. 330–331.