Por-Bazhyn is the name of a ruined structure attributed to the Uyghur Khaganate. It is located on an island in the middle of Tere-Khol, a lake in Tuva

Tuva

The Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the...

. The name Por-Bazhyn translates from the Tuvan language

Tuvan language

Tuvan , also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan or Tuvin, is a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia in Russia. The language has borrowed a great number of roots from the Mongolian language and more recently from the Russian language...

 as "earthenware house".

The structure is believed to have been built sometime in the 8th century CE based upon the dating of several objects found in the ruin. According to Istvan Fodor of the National Museum in Hungary

Hungarian National Museum

- History:The Hungarian National Museum is said to have been founded in 1802 when Count Ferenc Széchényi set up the National Széchényi Library. This would then be followed a year later by the donating of a mineral collection by Széchényi’s wife. This led to the creation of the Hungarian National...

, identification of the structure's purpose is obscured because of the scant amount of evidence of daily human activity at the site. The theories include a fortress, a palace, a monastery, and an astronomical observatory. It is possible, according to Dmitriy Subetto, from the Department of Physical Geography RGPU, that the structure was abandoned prior to completion due to the builders' lack of familiarity with permafrost

Permafrost

In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...

.

Excavation of the site continues, and supervisor Tigran Mkrtich states that the structure was built around 757 AD. Among objects found are clay tablets bearing imprints of human feet, and coloured drawings on the plaster of the palace.

External links

• More photographs of Vladimir Putin’s visit to Por-Bazhyn in 2007