The ruins of Guyaju are a collection of homes hewn out of the surrounding rock. Cave dwellings dating back thousands of years have been uncovered at the ruins, making them the largest such site in all of Northern China.
They can be found in the rural community of Dongmenying, which is situated in Yanqing County, to the north of Beijing Municipality, and close to the city of Zhangshanying. A community that is at least a thousand years old but has left behind very few historical traces worked on the structure that was carved into the rock. The last period of the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Liao Dynasty are the time periods that archaeologists believe the site to have been inhabited. A Mongolic steppe people known as the Kumo Xi are credited with creating the work.
The Xi people staged a revolt in the year 847, which coincided with the fall of the Tang dynasty. However, Zhang Zhongwu was able to soundly defeat them in the end. The Xi were ultimately defeated, betrayed, and assimilated by the Khitan people, who went on to found the Liao Dynasty in the year 907. On the other hand, it is thought that when this tribe was on the run, they built their home here, and they resided here for a period of thirty years. The ruins have the appearance of a fortress that is situated in a canyon.
Caves numbering 117, as well as more than 350 rooms and halls, are dispersed across the northern, southern, and eastern slopes of the site. The majority of the caverns consist of three chambers, one of which is a modest living area, and the other is a storage room. Some of the houses have two levels, and the levels are linked together by stone steps, stone bridges, and carved stairs. Every area serves a specific function, whether it be for social gatherings, royal apartments, religious rites, cooking, storage, livestock, or residential space, among other things. It is equipped with its own water storage and drainage system.
The rooms range in size and shape, with the largest being 20 meters long and the smallest being 3 meters. Some rooms are rectangular, while others are round or square. The tallest room is 1.8 meters in height, whereas the average room height is 1.6 or 1.7 meters. Due to this fact, researchers have hypothesized that the people who lived there could not have been taller than 1.4 or 1.5 meters. Archaeologists have posited that the proportions of the area may be an indication that the buildings had been created for a community of people who were on the shorter side of the size spectrum. There is no documentation of this peculiar location in any of the available literature. There is a mention of a family by the name of Xi that lived in the north-eastern part of China; this family was later betrayed, and as a result, the clan relocated to the region that is now known as the County of Yanqing.
They made their home in the highlands, although we are unable to pinpoint the precise site. Some people believe that the reason for their flight compelled them to keep their location a secret and to construct their own fortified village in a mountainous area. Because the history of this family brings to mind the latter events in the history of the Kumo Xi, it’s probable that the Xi family was actually the Kumo Xi people who were hiding out. Other hypotheses have been proposed on the history of this location, including the following: it was constructed during the Tang Dynasty, and it was a big granary that was erected by the government with government funding. Some people believe that it was a fort that was constructed during the Han Dynasty.
Because we lack sufficient historical data, the origins of this archeological site remain a mystery to us. As a result, this site is still a mystery.
