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.  Pozdneiev, who visited the place in 1877, obligingly informs me that the square earthen wall surrounding the monastery of Erdenidsu, and measuring about an English mile in circumference, may well be the very wall of ancient Karakorum.”

Recent researches have fully confirmed the belief that the Erdeni Tso, or Eideni Chao, Monastery occupies the site of Karakorum, near the bank of the Orkhon, between this river and the Kokchin (old) Orkhon. (See map in Inscriptions de l’Orkhon, Helsingfors, 1892; a plan of the vicinity and of the Erdeni Tso is given (plate 36) in W.  Radloff’s Atlas der Alterthuemer der Mongolei, St. Pet., 1892.)

[Illustration]

According to a work of the 13th century quoted by the late Professor G. Deveria, the distance between the old capital of the Uighur, Kara Balgasun, on the left bank of the Orkhon, north of Erdeni Tso, and the Ho-lin or Karakorum of the Mongols, would be 70 li (about 30 miles), and such is the space between Erdeni Tso and Kara Balgasun.  M. Marcel Monnier (Itineraires, p. 107) estimates the bird’s-eye distance from Erdeni Tso to Kara Balgasun at 33 kilom. (about 20-1/2 miles).  “When the brilliant epoch of the power of the Chinghizkhanides,” says Professor Axel Heikel, “was at an end, the city of Karakorum fell into oblivion, and towards the year 1590 was founded, in the centre of this historically celebrated region of the Orkhon, the most ancient of Buddhist monasteries of Mongolia, this of Erdeni Tso [Erdeni Chao].  It was built, according to a Mongol chronicle, on the ruins of the town built by Okkodai, son of Chinghiz Khan, that is to say, on the ancient Karakorum. (Inscriptions de l’Orkhon.)” So Professor Heikel, like Professor Pozdneiev, concludes that Erdeni Tso was built on the site of Karakorum and cannot be mistaken for Karabalgasun.  Indeed it is highly probable that one of the walls of the actual convent belonged to the old Mongol capital.  The travels and researches by expeditions from Finland and Russia have made these questions pretty clear.  Some most interesting inscriptions have been brought