9 mysteries of Tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang
The Emperor Qin Shihuang has caused great concern for his life and merit for long, so as the tomb of him for its mysteries. The Tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang is an underground kingdom full of magic, especially the deep of Underground Palace. What is the structure of it? How many treasures are lying in the palace? Is there any guard against theft? How deep is the Underground Palace? Is the outer coffin cupreous or wooden? Are the bones of Emperor Qin Shihuang still in perfect condition? Such mysteries have been troubled the experts and scholars for long.
Mystery No.1: How deep is the Underground Palace?
According to the latest exploration, the Underground Palace covers an area of 41600 square meters, 260 meters long from east to west, 160 meters from north to south. The Underground Palace is as big as 5 international football field in vertical style. By applying high-technology, some experts inferred that its depth is ranging from 500 meters and 1500 meters, which may exceed the fall gap between the mausoleum and Wei River. In this case, the water in the Underground Palace would be hard to drain and the water of Wei River may even back flow to the underground palace as well.
As the latest drilling study, the depth between the pithead and the bottom of the Underground Palace is 26 miles, the depth between the pithead and the earth surface of Qin Dynasty is 37 miles at most. Further studies are needed to confirm the real depth of the Underground Palace.
Mystery No.2: How many gates are there in the Underground Palace?
As referred in "The Historical Records", after housing the coffins and funeral objects inside Zhong Men, the labors and architects were busy with their work outside the Zhongmen, then suddenly, the Zhong Xian Gate and Wai Xian Gate were closed and all of them were locked up inside the tomb and never see light again. Maybe there is another gate, Nei Xian Gate as well. (In Chinese, “Nei”, “Wai” and “Zhong” means “Inside”, “Outside” and “Middle” respectively.)
Mystery No.3: How to understand “The ceiling represents the heavens”?
Recently, paintings related to “astronomy” and “geography” has been excavated in Han Mausoleum. In the ceiling, there are painted sun, moon and stars. At the bottom, there are painted mountains and rivers. According to "The Historical Records", maybe there is a more complete constellation chart in the ceiling and a map of Chinese kingdom made of mercury at the bottom of the Underground Palace.
Mystery No.4: Mystery of the mercury
Dose the mercury really exist in the underground? Through carefully study, the experts have found the amount of the mercury in the closing soil of the tomb differs from that in other places. The records about the mercury in the tomb may be true.
Mystery No.5: How many treasures are in the Underground Palace?
According to “The Historical Records”, there are many precious treasures in the tomb. A group of large-scale colored drawing bronze chariots and horses with delicate design was excavated at the end of 80th. A group of wooden chariots and horses with silver, golden and coppery ornaments was excavated before that. These treasures are all excavated from the outer part of the underground palace. The funeral objects inside the Underground Palace must be abundant and delicate.
Mystery N0.6: Is the coffin wooden or coppery?
According to Si maqian, the coffin of Emperor Qin Shihuang is coated with copper, so some experts think the coffin was made of copper. While as mentioned in Book of Han, the inside of the coffin is coated with copper and the outside, laque and emerald. So the coffin may be wooden.
Mystery N0.7: Is there any space in the Underground Palace?
Through the study, the Underground Palace is vertical, so there will be no space if the coffin is vertical as well. However, one of the main organizers of the establishments-Lisi described like this: the Underground Palace could not be chiseled and burned. When knocking at it, you feel there is nothing inside. If his description is correct, there must be a shell and the Mausoleum must be a sealed, vacuum and bunker-style underground palace. Since the exploration of the inner part of the Underground Palace has not started yet, it is not true whether there is any space inside.
Mystery No.8: Deadly booby-traps
To guard against theft, Emperor Qin Shihuang took some measures. There seem to be automatic emitting crossbows inside the Underground Palace as historic books tell. The deadly booby-traps will be the earliest auto anti-theft alarms in ancient China if it is true. And it is a puzzle how the people in Qin Dynasty knew the method to make the high-level traps more than 2200 years ago.
Mystery No.9: Is the remains of Emperor Qin Shihuang complete and in good condition?
A rare-seen well-preserved female remains of Han tomb at Mawangdui was discovered in the middle 1970s. And is the remains of Emperor Qin Shihuang well-preserved as well? Judging simply from the preservation of remains, Qin Dynasty should possess the aseptic technique at that time. However, as the records, Qin Shihuang died during the cruise in a hot summer and he was buried after transported to Xianyang more than 50 days after his death. So, the remains of Emperor Qin Shihuang may not be well-preserved.
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