Jiangjunmiao (
Chinese: 将军庙,
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
: Jiàngjūnmiào) is a
ruin
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...
and
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...
site in
Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture
Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture ( zh, s=昌吉回族自治州; ) is an autonomous prefecture for Hui people in the middle north of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Western China. The prefecture has an area of and its seat is Changji City.
...
,
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
.
Geography
Jiangjunmiao is located in the
Junggar Basin
The Junggar Basin (), also known as the Dzungarian Basin or Zungarian Basin, is one of the largest sedimentary basins in Northwest China. It is located in Dzungaria in northern Xinjiang, and enclosed by the Tarbagatai Mountains of Kazakhstan in t ...
near the border with
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
, on a
mesa
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...
and at the top of an
alluvial slope.
There is a single dirt road which connects the ruins to the nearby city of
Qitai, and the
Ürümqi–Dzungaria railway connects the site to
Zhundong but offers no passenger service.
The closest inhabited area is a remote
nature park
A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are pres ...
maintained by the county government which hosts the area's
petrified forest
Petrified wood (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial plant, terrestrial vegetation. ''Petrifaction ...
. The area around the ruins is known as the "Jiangjun Gobi" in reference to the ruin.
The site is located only from one of the
45×90 points
The 45×90 points are the four points on Earth which are both halfway between one of the geographical poles and the equator, and halfway between the Prime Meridian and the 180th meridian. Both northern 45×90 points are located on land, while both ...
, four sites on Earth located exactly between a
geographical pole
A geographical pole or geographic pole is either of the two points on Earth where its axis of rotation intersects its surface. The North Pole lies in the Arctic Ocean while the South Pole is in Antarctica. North and South poles are also defined ...
(the
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
) and the
Equator
The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...
, as well as the
Prime Meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian (geography), meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. On a spheroid, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian ...
and
180th meridian
The 180th meridian or antimeridian is the meridian (geography), meridian 180° both east and west of the prime meridian in a Geographic coordinate system, geographical coordinate system. The longitude at this line can be given as either east ...
. Jiangjunmiao is the closest named location to the 45x90 point where the
45th parallel north
The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of Earth's equator. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the ...
and
90th meridian east converge.
Temperatures in the area can reach in the summer months as westward winds blow hot air in from the
Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...
.
History
Jiangjunmiao was originally established as a temple memorializing Yang Xigu (), a
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
general who led an army against
Turkic nomads in defence of the
Silk Road
The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
and served as the chief imperial censor (, ''yushidafu'') of the
Beiting Protectorate
The Beiting Protectorate-General, initially the Beiting Protectorate, was a Chinese protectorate established by the Tang dynasty in 702 to control the Beiting region north of Gaochang in contemporary Xinjiang. Wu Zetian set up the Beiting ...
around 789.
According to legend, the army was successful in securing the area but while returning eastward all of the soldiers died of
dehydration
In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water that disrupts metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds intake, often resulting from excessive sweating, health conditions, or inadequate consumption of water. Mild deh ...
passing through the desert; Yangxigu and his men were buried where they were found, and Jiangjunmiao ("General Temple") was established at the burial site.
Jiangjunmiao was abandoned some time during the 19th or 20th century. A number of structures including a wooden inn remained standing when palaeontologist
Zhao Xijin visited the ruins in 1981,
and by 2004 the only remaining structures in the village were a series of damaged mud walls.
Geology
Coal mining
Jiangjunmiao lends its name to the Jiangjunmiao mining area, which is part of the
East Junggar coalfield. The average thickness of coal seams at and around Jiangjunmiao is .
Palaeontology
Jiangjunmiao serves as a locality of the
Shishugou Formation, a
Late Jurassic
The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...
formation. Beginning in 1981, Jiangjunmiao has served as an important
palaeontological
Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...
dig site and many
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...
fossils have been discovered in the area,
though the earliest finds date back to 1928 when ''
Tienshanosaurus'' was discovered by
Yuan Fu.
The
holotype
A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
specimens of ''
Monolophosaurus'' and ''
Sinraptor
''Sinraptor'' () is a genus of metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. The name ''Sinraptor'' comes from the Latin prefix "Sino", meaning Chinese, and "raptor", meaning robber. The specific name ''dongi'' honours Dong Zhimin ...
'' were discovered in the vicinity by researchers from the
China-Canada Dinosaur Project
The China-Canada Dinosaur Project (Standard Chinese, Chinese: 中国-加拿大恐龙计划; Pinyin: ''Zhōngguó-jiānádà kǒnglóng jìhuà''; also known as ''Sino-Canadian Dinosaur Project'') was a six-year series of paleontology, palaeontol ...
. Fossils of ''
Mamenchisaurus
''Mamenchisaurus'' ( , or spelling pronunciation ) is an extinct genus of sauropod dinosaurs known for their remarkably long necks which made up nearly half the total body length. Numerous species have been assigned to the genus; however, the val ...
'' have also been found at the site. Before its name was finalized, ''Monolophosaurus'' was known alternatively as "''Jiangjunmiaosaurus''" and "''Monolophosaurus jiangjunmiaoi''" in reference to the ruins where it was found.
''
Jiangjunosaurus'' was named in 2007 in reference to Jiangjunmiao.
Various institutions have participated in digs at Jiangjunmiao including
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
, the
Guangdong Museum, the
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of People's Republic of China, China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian For ...
, the
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...
,
Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1899, it was the third and final university established in the Arizona Territory.
It is one of the three universities gove ...
, and the
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (RTMP; often referred to as the Royal Tyrrell Museum) is a palaeontology museum and research facility in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. The museum was named in honour of Joseph Burr Tyrrell, and is situate ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture
Former populated places in Xinjiang
Jurassic paleontological sites
Mesozoic paleontological sites of Asia
Military history of the Tang dynasty
Ruins in China