Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han to Northern Wei Dynasty hosted the capital cities of four important imperial dynasties in the evolutional history of Chinese civilization (1st Century-6th Century AD). Situated in the Luoyang Basin of Central China, being the oriental starting point of the Silk Roads in this period, it demonstrates cultural characteristics of the Central Chinese dynasties from the Eastern Han to Northern Wei Dynasty and testifies to the unique urban culture resulted from the assimilation of nomadic people with farming people during the Northern Wei Dynasty, cross-region and cross-period evolution of urban layout, and the spread and localization of Buddhism in Central China.
The site of Luoyang city from the Eastern Han to Northern Wei Dynasty was located in the city of present-day Luoyang, 15 km west from the city proper of Luoyang and 345 km away from Xi’an city (Chang’an city of Han Dynasty). The ancient Luoyang city was built on the alluvial plain of Yi River and Luo River in the eastern part of Luoyang Basin. It was adjacent to Mang Hill to its north and Luo River to its south. The Luoyang Basin where the site was located was an important agricultural region in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and is of high transportation and military significance. Therefore several dynasties set their capitals here. The layout and remains of the site mainly date back to the Northern Wei Dynasty, accompanied with remains from the Western Jin Dynasty, the Kingdom of Wei and the Eastern Han Dynasty and even from earlier periods. The ancient Luoyang city occupied 10 square kilometers in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was expanded to a trio of city walls in the Northern Wei Dynasty, covering an area of nearly 80 square kilometers.
The contour of the city during the Eastern Han Dynasty was a rectangular in north-south direction, with 12 city gates on four sides; the northern and southern palaces occupied most of the space within the city. During the Kingdom of Wei period and Western Jin Dynasty the city site stayed the same with that of the Eastern Han Dynasty. And in the Kingdom of Wei period, the southern palace gradually dilapidated; only the northern one existed, and the Jinyong City was newly built on the northwest corner of the city.
Luoyang city of Northern Wei Dynasty inherited the urban forms explored since Kingdom of Wei including Yongning Temple, etc. Neat east-west and north-south streets and avenues constituted the grid road system of the city. The main roads were connected with the gate of the inner city and the roads stretched out of the city. On the northwest corner of the inner city was Jinyong city, a military installation. Lifang (enclosed residential area) was distributed in other parts of the inner city and outer city, with living area, handicraft area and markets.
Representative remains of Luoyang city from Eastern Han to Northern Wei dynasties were mainly from the inner city at the time of Northern Wei (i.e., the range of Luoyang city in Eastern Han, the Kingdom of Wei, and Western Jin dynasties), mainly containing city walls of the inner city and imperial palace, city gates, remains of the moat, roads remains, and architectural sites (including sites of palaces, government buildings, temples, warehouses etc.) and handicraft workshop sites.
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