At 6000 inhabitants, the ancient city of Jiaohe in Xinjiang Province of northwestern China held almost twice as many people as my hometown in Iowa, when I grew up there in the 1950s. If the reports of friends and high school classmates are to be believed, that little Iowa town is well on its way to being as extinct as the Chinese city, though probably with less spectacular physical qualities.
Jiaohe, which means something like "at the fork of two rivers," was built on an island and was not the usual walled city of ancient times. Except for the artificial structures of the tourist industry, there is no clear entryway to the city. The photos above and below show entryways to the remains of buildings within the city.
The building that most attracted my attention was the Buddhist temple that stood at the far end of the main street that ran down the middle of the city.
You can see in the niches of the tower that the Buddhas have been disfigured or totally removed, probably during the Cultural Revolution, but perhaps also at some other time by thieves who make a living by stealing and selling such antiquities. Western museums are full of such stolen properties and still somehow manage to maintain their legitimacy as cultural conservators.
