The Cemetery Complexes of the Xiongnu Nobility
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How it came to be
The Xiongnu built a powerful nomadic empire between the 3rd century BCE and the 2nd century CE, centred on what is now Mongolia. They dealt with Han China and controlled nodes along the Steppe Route of the Silk Roads. The property groups eight funerary complexes of their nobility: Chikhertiin Zoo, Duurlig Nars, Gol Mod I and II, Sujigt, Zuramt and Khujirt at Noyon Uul, and Takhiltiin Khotgor in the Altai.
The main burials are large and deep, with satellite graves marked by small ring-shaped mounds and sacrificial structures of paired stones. Scientific research began in 1924, when a team led by the Russian explorer P.K. Kozlov recorded 212 graves at Noyon Uul, and the first excavations followed in 1924-1925; many of the finds are now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Gol Mod I was discovered in 1956, Duurlig Nars in 1974 and Chikhertiin Zoo in 2013.
The tombs have yielded horse tack and chariots, weapons, tools and food for the afterlife; the four-wheeled chariots of Chikhertiin Zoo date from before the 2nd century BCE, and a Roman glass bowl was found at Gol Mod II. Of 39 excavated tombs, 38 had been disturbed by looters. The property was inscribed in 2026 at the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan.
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