Located in the majestic Altai-Sayan Mountains in the south of Siberia, the city of Abakan has a long and rich history going back thousands of years. But in the 1940s, archaeologists found something near Abakan, that was entirely unexpected – the 2,000-year-old remains of a palace typical of the Han Dynasty in China. What was so unusual about this discovery was the fact that, not only was the palace hundreds of miles away from the region of the Han Empire, it was also located in territory that belonged to their arch-enemy, the Xiongnu.
The Xiongnu were a nomadic pastoral people who formed a great tribal league that came to dominate much of Central Asia from the 3rd century BC until the 2nd century AD. The Xiongnu were a constant threat to China’s northern borders. In fact, it was their repeated invasions that prompted the small kingdoms of North China to begin erecting barriers, in what later became the Great Wall of China.