Enigmatic Feeling of Touching History: Maoling Mausoleum

#asiatrip Maoling is the mausoleum of Emperor Wudi Liu Che of Han Dynasty. It is located in the northeast of Xingping City, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. It is the largest, longest-built and richest funerary mausoleum of the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty. The construction of Maoling Mausoleum began in the second year of Jianyuan, lasted 53 years, and was completed in the second year of Later Yuan. The location of Maoling Mausoleum reflects the strict feng shui concept of the tombs of ancient emperors. It is located in the hinterland of the Guanzhong Plain, bordered by Jiujiang Mountain to the north and Zhennan Mountain to the south. The terrain is high-pitched and the field of view is wide, which conforms to the ideal pattern of “backing the mountains and facing the water”. The building of Maoling is large-scale and has a rigorous layout. It is divided into two inner and outer city walls. The inner city is the imperial mausoleum cemetery, and the outer city is the burial area of the queen and the nobles. The cemetery is surrounded by rammed earth walls, with gates on all sides, and the gates are towering and spectacular. The cemetery has built-in sleeping halls, toilet halls, mausoleums and other buildings, which are used for worship and residence of officials guarding the mausoleum. The structure of Maoling's underground palace has not been fully excavated so far, but according to historical records and archaeological speculation, its underground palace is large-scale and complex in structure, and may contain multiple burial chambers and funerary pits. The funeral system of Maoling is extremely rich, including a large number of precious cultural relics such as gold, silver, jewelry, jade, lacquerware, terracotta cars and horses, reflecting the highly developed material civilization and funeral culture of the Western Han Dynasty. Maoling and its funerary tombs have undergone many archaeological excavations since the 20th century, and have achieved fruitful results.Archaeologists have discovered a large number of funerary pits and tombs around Maoling, and unearthed a large number of precious cultural relics, including golden wisps of jade clothes, bronze carriages and horses, terracotta warriors, etc., which provide valuable physical materials for the study of the history, culture and art of the Western Han Dynasty. At the same time, Maoling, as one of the outstanding representatives of the tombs of ancient Chinese emperors, has had a profound impact on the construction of the tombs of future emperors, and has become an important window for domestic and foreign tourists to understand ancient Chinese history and culture.