The Yangling Mausoleum is a joint burial tomb of Emperor Jing and his wife, Empress Wang. Located 20 km to the north of Xian on the Xianyang Plateau, it is the most complete imperial mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty(202BC – 9AD) ever discovered in China.

Around the mausoleum, there are more than 80 attendant pits containing cavalry and infantry figurines, clay animals and other clay, bronze and lacquer utensils, weapons and chariot parts. In the southern attendant pits, a large number of clay warriors wearing real clothes (now all naked because the clothes are rotted away) have been discovered. These naked figurines with the wooden arms missing are often called the David and Venus in Orient representing the high level of the art of sculpture of the Western Han Dynasty.

The compass stone found southeast of the mausoleum is the earliest datum stone for measuring ever found in the world. The south gate tower of the mausoleum is the earliest, largest and the highest in rank three-building gate tower ever discovered up to now.

The Yangling Mausoleum covers a total area of 20 square kilometers with the construction time as long as 28 years from 153 BC to 126 BC. In the Mausoleum, you can visit a spectacular ‘underground archaeological museum'. It was built on the site beside Emperor Jing's Mausoleum and incorporates. In the museum, apart from appreciating thousands of relics, you can also watch a complex SpectraVision program for the Han Yang Mausoleum, which is devised and produced by the Shirley Spectra, a company based in Australia.

Note

Emperor Jing, named Liu Qi (188-141), was the fourth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty. As an emperor for 17 years, he is renowned to be a very capable and benevolent leader in Chinese history. His reign saw the limit and curtailment of power of feudal princes which resulted in the Rebellion of the Seven States in 154 BC. Emperor Jing managed to crush the revolt and princes were thereafter denied rights to appoint ministers for their fief. This move consolidated central power which paved the way for the glorious and long reign of his son Emperor Wu of Han.