Karakorum

Lore & Background

Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire from 1235 to 1260 and later of the Northern Yuan dynasty. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of Övörkhangai Province, Mongolia, near the town of Kharkhorin and adjacent to Erdene Zuu Monastery, likely the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in the country. The site is part of the Orkhon Valley World Heritage Site. The city was founded on a location that had been a centre for earlier empires, including the Xiongnu, Göktürk, and Uyghur. The area was one of the oldest farming regions in Mongolia. Genghis Khan rallied troops there in 1218–1219, but the city’s foundation is usually dated to 1220. Until 1235, it was little more than a yurt town; only after the defeat of the Jin empire did Ögedei Khan erect city walls and build a fixed palace, the Tumen Amgalan Ord (Palace of Myriad Peace), completed in one year. The site was chosen for its centrality, abundant grass due to the warmer, moister climate of the Medieval Warm Period, the Orkhon River’s unusual north-south flow facilitating travel, and its symbolic importance as a former power centre. Under Ögedei and Möngke Khan, Karakorum became a major site for world politics. Möngke enlarged the palace and completed a great stupa temple. The enslaved Parisian goldsmith Guillaume Bouchier designed the Silver Tree, a large automaton of silver and precious metals in the palace courtyard, with silver fruit, four golden serpents, and a trumpet angel that summoned drinks. William of Rubruck, visiting in 1254, described a walled city with four gates, two quarters of fixed houses (one for Saracenes, one for Cathai), twelve pagan temples, two mosques, and a Nestorian church. He compared the palace unfavourably to the abbey of Saint-Denis but noted the town’s cosmopolitan and religiously tolerant character. After the empire’s dissolution in 1260, Khubilai Khan developed Dadu (Beijing) as the Yuan capital, reducing Karakorum to a provincial administrative centre. The Toluid Civil War and later war with Kaidu deeply affected the town; Kublai disrupted its grain supply in 1260, and Kaidu took it in 1277 before being ousted by Yuan troops.

Reader's Guide

Its founding by Ögedei Khan marked a shift from a nomadic yurt town to a walled city with a permanent palace, symbolizing the consolidation of Mongol power. The city's cosmopolitan character, described by William of Rubruck, reflected the empire's religious tolerance and its role as a hub of Eurasian trade and diplomacy. The Silver Tree of Karakorum, designed by the enslaved Parisian goldsmith Guillaume Bouchier, became an iconic symbol of Mongol wealth and technological sophistication. After the empire's fragmentation, Karakorum retained ideological significance for the Chinggisids and later served as a capital for the Northern Yuan dynasty. The site remains a key archaeological window into Mongol urbanism and the broader history of the Orkhon Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Northern Yuan Seat at Karakorum

Karakorum, situated in what is now modern Mongolia, held the distinction of serving as the capital of the Northern Yuan dynasty during the period from 1371 to 1388. This placement came in the wake of the original Yuan dynasty, which had governed from 1271 to 1368 with its capital at Dadu, the city we now know as Beijing. When the Yuan court lost its hold over the Chinese heartland in 1368, the northern remnant of that dynasty reestablished itself at Karakorum, making this Mongolian city the administrative center for roughly seventeen years. The Northern Yuan's tenure at Karakorum represents a significant chapter in the broader story of Chinese imperial capitals, as it marks a period when the seat of power shifted northward beyond the traditional Chinese territories. The city's role, though brief, connects the Mongol imperial tradition to the wider tapestry of dynastic capitals that span from the Western Zhou to the present day.

Outside the Five Capitals

The traditional framework of Chinese imperial history recognizes five major capitals, each identified by a cardinal direction: Xi'an as the western capital, Luoyang as the central capital, Nanjing as the southern capital, Kaifeng as the eastern capital, and Beijing as the northern capital. Karakorum does not appear within this canonical grouping. Located in modern Mongolia, it falls outside the geographic and cultural heartland that these five cities represent. The five capitals are associated with the great uniform dynasties, from the Western Zhou through the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing, while Karakorum's claim to capital status derives from the Northern Yuan, a period that, though connected to the Yuan dynasty, represents a more peripheral chapter in the dynastic narrative. This distinction highlights how the traditional five-capital model reflects a particular view of Chinese political geography, one that centers on the territories of the major unified dynasties rather than the broader Mongol imperial sphere.

One Name Among Many

The full roster of cities that have served as capitals in Chinese history extends well beyond the five traditionally recognized ones. In the comprehensive alphabetical listing, Karakorum appears alongside a remarkable array of other cities: Acheng in Harbin, Anyang, Balasagun in modern Kyrgyzstan, Changchun, Chengde, Chengdu, Chongqing, Datong, Emin, Fenghao, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Nanjing, among others. Many of these cities served as seats of rump states, regional kingdoms, or short-lived regimes during periods of fragmentation. The Northern Yuan at Karakorum fits into this broader pattern of cities that briefly held capital status. What distinguishes the traditional five from entries like Karakorum is the criterion of uniform dynasties, the major, unified dynasties of Chinese history. Karakorum, while historically significant, belongs to the larger category of capital cities that the traditional five-capital narrative does not emphasize.

From Dadu to Karakorum: A Dynastic Transition

The story of Karakorum as a capital is inseparable from the broader arc of the Yuan dynasty and its aftermath. The Yuan dynasty, which ruled from 1271 to 1368, established its capital at Dadu, the Chinese name for what is now Beijing. In Mongolian, the city was known as Daidu, and in Mongolian and Turkic languages as Khanbaliq, meaning the city of the Khan. The famous traveler Marco Polo referred to it as Cambuluc. When the Yuan dynasty collapsed in 1368 and the Ming dynasty took hold of the Chinese heartland, the remnants of Yuan authority retreated northward. By 1371, the Northern Yuan had made Karakorum in Mongolia its capital, a position it maintained until 1388. This transition from Dadu to Karakorum illustrates how the center of imperial power could shift dramatically, moving from the great walled city of the Chinese north to a Mongolian steppe location, before Beijing would resume its role as capital under the Ming from 1403 onward.

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