Underground Palace of Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum

Underground palace of Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum is the catacomb of the First Qin Emperor used to place his coffin and funerial objects, located right beneath the mausoleum mound. What was found in the tomb of the First Qin Emperor? The mysterious under palace has not been excavated yet because of the complex constructions, limited excavation and advancing technologies. According to historical records and archaeologists’ test, there are many valuable treasures, mercury, and invisible weapons inside it. 
 

After careful exploration of Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum, the archaeologists found that this palace is about 35 meters (115 feet) beneath the grave mound of the mausoleum, and the whole grand construction covers an area of 41,600 square meters (49,753 square yards) or so. With a rectangular configuration, the palace is about 260 meters (284 yards) long from east to west, 160 meters (175 yards) wide from north to south. The coffin chamber in its center is also rectangular, and it has the approximate size of a standard soccer field with a height of about 15 meters (49 feet). 
 

The archaeologists found the firm palace wall enclosing the grand underground palace. The whole wall is built by multi-layer soil, and the southern and northern parts are almost 16-meter (52-feet) and 22-meter (72-feet) thick respectively, and the height of the cob wall is nearly 30 meters (98 feet), looking quite spectacular. They discovered a stone wall under Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum as well, which plays an important role in preserving the mausoleum from some geological disasters, such as flood and earthquakes. 
 

Several paths leading to the underground grave were discovered in the east and west ends of the palace. In ancient China, imperial tomb usually had four passages in all directions west, east, north and south to show the respected social status and position, and Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum is supposed to have four, too, while only two of them are found at present. 
 

According to the Historical Records, the underground palace has three doors to defend the significant royal mausoleum, and the coffin and burial objects could be buried inside the middle and inner ones. The archaeologists guess that the three doors may distribute in a straight line. 
 The historical documents also record that many legendary luminous pearls are decorated on the tomb’s dome, which is considered as the symbolization of the sun, the moon and the stars to accompany the soul of Qin Shi Huang after his death. 
 A lot of mercury is detected from the soil of Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum. It may represent the lakes, rivers and seas on the basis of the records. As mercury was very precious in ancient time, it might also be a symbol of wealth that the First Qin Emperor possessed, people guess. Another guess is that the mercury is used to protect the body of the first emperor from decay. 
 

As the underground palace has not been excavated yet, a two-floor man-made attraction of the belowground palace is constructed about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to the west of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum. Although molded on the description in the book Historical Records written by Sima Qian, the attraction is much less grand than the real one, according to archaeologists, so it is not advisible to go. 

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