However, no positive conclusion can
be derived from these researches, chiefly in consequence of the absence of
a tolerably correct map of Northern Mongolia."
Abel Remusat (Mem. sur Geog. Asie Centrale, p. 20) made a confusion
between Karabalgasun and Karakorum which has misled most writers after
him.
Sir Henry Yule says: "The evidence adduced in Abel Remusat's paper on
Karakorum (Mem. de l' Acad. R. des Insc. VII. 288) establishes the site
on the north bank of the Orkhon, and about five days' journey above the
confluence of the Orkhon and Tula. But as we have only a very loose
knowledge of these rivers, it is impossible to assign the geographical
position with accuracy. Nor is it likely that ruins exist beyond an
outline perhaps of the Kaan's Palace walls."
In the Geographical Magazine for July, 1874 (p. 137), Sir Henry Yule has
been enabled, by the kind aid of Madame Fedtchenko in supplying a
translation from the Russian, to give some account of Mr. Paderin's visit
to the place, in the summer of 1873, along with a sketch-map.
"The site visited by Mr. Paderin is shown, by the particulars stated in
that paper, to be sufficiently identified with Karakorum. It is precisely
that which Remusat indicated, and which bears in the Jesuit maps, as
published by D'Anville, the name of Talarho Hara Palhassoun (i.e. Kara
Balghasun), standing 4 or 5 miles from the left bank of the Orkhon, in
lat. (by the Jesuit Tables) 47 deg. 32' 24". It is now known as Kara-Kharam
(Rampart) or Kara Balghasun (city). The remains consist of a quadrangular
rampart of mud and sun-dried brick, of about 500 paces to the side, and
now about 9 feet high, with traces of a higher tower, and of an inner
rampart parallel to the other. But these remains probably appertain to the
city as re-occupied by the descendants of the Yuen in the end of the 14th
century, after their expulsion from China."
Dr. Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 123) rightly observes: "It seems,
however, that Paderin is mistaken in his supposition. At least it does not
agree with the position assigned to the ancient Mongol residence in the
Mongol annals Erdenin erikhe, translated into Russian, in 1883, by
Professor Pozdneiev. It is there positively stated (p. 110, note 2) that
the monastery of Erdenidsu, founded in 1585, was erected on the ruins of
that city, which once had been built by order of Ogotai Khan, and where he
had established his residence; and where, after the expulsion of the
Mongols from China, Togontemur again had fixed the Mongol court. This vast
monastery still exists, one English mile, or more, east of the Orkhon. It
has even been astronomically determined by the Jesuit missionaries, and is
marked on our maps of Mongolia.
