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Abstract Taraz in Kazakhstan， also called ″Talas，″ was strategically located on the Silk Road. The name of the city Talas came from the Talas River flowing between modern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Back to the first century B.C.， Chinese generals Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang of the Han Dynasty had already reached the Talas River area on their military expedition to Central Asia. The city of Talas was built by Sogdian settlers in the fifth century and was later occupied by Western Turks from the sixth to seventh centuries. The capital of the Western Turkic Khaganate was located in modern Kungey-Alatau， where the Eastern Roman envoy was granted an audience by Istemi Khan. After the Tang China expanded into Central Asia， it was Talas instead of Tokmak that became the farthest western point under the rule of the Chinese Protectorate General. Wang Zhengjian， the Beiting Military Commissioner of the Tang Dynasty， once dispatched his staff Wang Ji to Talas to develop its irrigation systems. In the early eighth century， the rise of Türgesh brought Talas under their control， which actually formed a barrier for China to resist possible military threats from the Abbasid Caliphate. Ironically， multiple attacks on Türgesh that were initiated by the Tang China under the reign of Emperor Gaozong destroyed this barrier and forced Talas and other cities on the Silk Road to directly face the military pressure from the Arabs. Tang general Gao Xianzhi was defeated at the Battle of Talas in 751. Subsequently Chinese territory never reached Talas again. According to Arabic sources， the battlefield of Talas was in fact not located at Talas， but rather at Artlakh city that was located in the upper-middle reaches of the Talas River， the west of modern Kyrgyzstan. Nevertheless， the Talas River thereupon represented an impassable geographical obstacle in Chinese history and marked the farthest point of Chinese western expansion in the Han and Tang dynasties. After the Battle of Talas， the Karluks occupied Talas and built a new city roughly eighteen kilometers east of the old one. The ancient remains in the modern Taraz city that has been excavated by Russian archaeologist A.N.Bernshtam， Kazakhstani archaeologists and the archaeological team of University College London over the years is the new city， while the old city remains has been identified as an Islamic cemetery. Archaeological discoveries have revealed that the Talas city adopted the Sodgian-style stone architecture. At the end of the ninth century， several Turkic tribes such as Karluks， Yaghmas and Uighur that originally believed in either Buddhism or Christianity converted to Islam and formed the Kara Khanids. The Eastern ruler bore the title Arslan Qara Khaqan and had his capital in Balasagun （modern Burana of Kyrgyzstan）， while the Western ruler bore the title Bughra Qara Khaqan and had his capital in Talas （the capital was moved east to Kash in 839）. This state is known in Chinese history as Hei-han Dynasty. Based on Chinese， Latin and Arabic sources， as well as archaeological findings in Central Asia， this paper attempts to discuss the remains and the artifacts discovered at the city of Talas．
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