Chinese pyramids


Chinese pyramids are pyramidal-shaped burial mounds built as mausoleums for early emperors of China and their imperial relatives. About 38 of them are located around – north-west of Xi'an, on the Guanzhong Plains in Shaanxi Province. The most famous is the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, northeast of Xi'an and 1.7 km west of where the Terracotta Army was found.

Earliest tombs

The earliest tombs in China are found just north of Beijing in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and in Liaoning. They belong to the Neolithic Hongshan culture.
The site of Niuheliang in Liaoning contains a pyramidal structure.

Information available in the West

In 1667 the Jesuit Father Athanasius Kircher wrote about Chinese pyramids in his book China monumentis Illustrata.
The existence of "pyramids" in China remained little known in the Western world until the 1910s. They were documented in large numbers around Xian, first in 1912 by the Western traders Fred Meyer Schroder and Oscar Mamen, and also in 1913 by the expedition of Victor Segalen. He wrote about the First Emperor's tomb, and about the other mound tombs in the region in his Mission archéologique en Chine : L'art funéraire à l'époque des Han.

Sensational claims

The introduction of pyramids in China to popular attention came soon after World War II. Many early stories were focused on the existence of a "Great White Pyramid". This is the tomb of Emperor Wu of Han located in Xingping, Shaanxi Province.
U.S. Army Air Corps pilot James Gaussman is said to have seen a white jewel-topped pyramid during a flight between India and China during World War II. Colonel Maurice Sheahan, Far Eastern director of the Trans World Airline, gave an eyewitness account of his encounter with a pyramid in the March 28, 1947 edition of The New York Times. A photo of Sheahan's pyramid appeared in The New York Sunday News on March 30, 1947. This photograph later became attributed to James Gaussman.
Western pseudohistorians and fantasy authors speculated they were built by aliens. and, through promoting their theories, have increased western awareness of these pyramids.
Despite claims to the contrary, the existence of these pyramid-shaped tomb mounds was known by scientists in the West before the publicity caused by the story in 1947. Shortly after the New York Times story, Science News Letter published a short item saying: "The Chinese pyramids of that region are built of mud and dirt and are more like mounds than the pyramids of Egypt, and the region is little travelled. American scientists who have been in the area suggest that the height of, more than twice as high as any of the Egyptian pyramids, may have been exaggerated, because most of the Chinese mounds of that area are built relatively low. The location, reported southwest of Sian, is in an area of great archaeological importance, but few of the pyramids have ever been explored."
Some of the pyramids of Xi'an are currently tourist attractions, such as for example the Han Yang Ling Mausoleum of the Western Han dynasty, and several of them have museums attached to them.

Partial list of mausoleums and tombs in China

Zhou dynasty tombs complex near Luoyang, Henan

  • Tomb of King Ling of Zhou
  • Tomb of Three Kings of Zhou

    Zhao Kings' tombs complex near Handan, Hebei

  • Tomb of King of Zhao state

    Yan King's burial mounds in Yixian, Hebei

  • Burial complex in ancient Xiadu

    Qin dynasty mausoleums near Xi'an, Shaanxi

  • The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Lintong .This is the largest Chinese burial mound. The original height was, the present height is, and the dimensions are. It was built during the short-lived imperial Qin dynasty.
  • Tomb of Emperor Qin Ershi in Xi'an.

    Western Han dynasty mausoleums complex in Xianyang and around Xi'an, Shaanxi

  • Tomb of Emperor Wu of Han. The size is x.
  • Tomb of Empress Li
  • Tomb of Princess Yang Xin
Pingling Mausoleum group:
Yanling Mausoleum group:
Kangling Mausoleum group:
Weiling Mausoleum group:
Group of two "tombs of Zhou Kings" :
Yiling mausoleum group:
Anling mausoleum group:
Changling mausoleum group:
Yangling mausoleum group:
Baling mausoleum group:
Duling mausoleum group:
  • Tomb of Emperor Xuan of Han
  • Tomb of Empress Wang
  • Tomb of Empress Xu

    Eastern Han mausoleums near Luoyang, Henan

Yangling, Shaanxi

The eighteen mausoleums of the Tang dynasty emperors in the valley of the Wei River north of the Qin Mountains. Most are natural hills shaped by man, and they are among the biggest Chinese mausoleums, such as Qianling, joint tomb of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and of the Empress Wu Zetian. Some mausoleums feature a burial mound:
  • Chongling Mausoleum of Emperor Dezong of Tang
  • Jinling Mausoleum of Emperor Xianzong of Tang
  • Tomb of Princess Chengyang of Emperor Taizong
  • Tomb of Princess Xincheng of Emperor Taizong

    Mausoleum of Emperor Xiaojing of Tang near Goushi, Henan

  • Tomb of Emperor Xiaojing of Tang
  • Tomb of Empress Ai

    Imperial mausoleums complex of Song dynasty in and around Gongyi, Henan

Elsewhere