The ruins of Melikawat lie about 25 kilometres south of Hotan, on the northern edge of the Kunlun Mountain foothills. This is believed to be the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Khotan, the Buddhist state that controlled the southern Silk Road and produced some of the most important manuscripts and artefacts of the early Buddhist world. The ruins are extensive but largely unexcavated, and the visible remains — earthen walls, mounds of debris, occasional carved fragments — give only a partial sense of what lies underneath.
Visiting requires a taxi from Hotan and the willingness to walk on uneven desert terrain. There are no facilities, no interpretation, and the labelling is minimal. But the experience of standing in the ruins of a city that was mentioned by Chinese pilgrims and Arab geographers in the same breath as Samarkand and Baghdad — a city that has simply been forgotten by the wider world — is striking.
The nearby Yotkan site, closer to Hotan, is where most of the small objects from the ancient kingdom were found: terracotta figurines, coins, glass beads, seals. Many are in the Hotan Cultural Museum, but Yotkan is still worked by local farmers who occasionally find objects in their fields.