Loulan Kingdom

Loulan Kingdom

Coordinates: 40°31′39.48″N 89°50′26.32″E / 40.5276333°N 89.8406444°E / 40.5276333; 89.8406444

Loulan or Kroran (Uyghur: كروران قەدىمكى شەهىرى‎ simplified Chinese: 楼兰故城; traditional Chinese: 樓蘭故城; pinyin: Lóulán gùchéng), known to Russian archaeologists as Krorayina, was an ancient kingdom based around an important oasis city along the Silk Road already known in the 2nd century BCE on the north-eastern edge of the Lop Desert. In 108 BCE, the Han Dynasty forces defeated the armies of the Loulan kingdom and made it into a puppet/allied state. In 77 BCE, according to the History of the Former Han Dynasty, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi assassinated Loulan's king, Chang Gui. The kingdom then came under the control of the Han empire and was given the Chinese name of Shanshan, though the town at the northwestern corner of the brackish desert lake Lop Nur retained the name of Loulan. The ruins of the town of Loulan are on what were the western banks of Lop Nur, now desiccated, in the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang. The site is now completely surrounded by desert.