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Photo: Colegota, CC BY-SA 2.5 es via Wikimedia Commons
Fascinating and eerie. Pay your entrance fee to unlock the gate to the site, where you'll also get a sell on electric carts to take you around the site for an added charge (unlike fees to unlock the gate, you can bargain on the cart costs). Be ready for dust. The carts aren't strictly necessary and won't go all the way to some of the interesting buildings but are likely to make the friendly folks at the gate even happier to see you.
Melikawat is an archaeological site located 18 miles south of Hotan, Xinjiang in north-western China. It was once a city that functioned as a major Buddhist center in the Kingdom of Khotan and may have been the kingdom's capital. The first inhabitants of the site were probably Tocharians. Today, the site contains the remains of walls, glass and pottery.
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