十三陵 (shí sān líng)The Ming Tombs—中国古建筑及其故事英文版

十三陵 (shí sān líng)

The Ming Tombs

The burial sites of 13 Ming Dynasty emperors

Besides Tian'anmen Square, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City

and the Summer Palace, anothermust-e for tourists in

Beijing today is definitely the Ming Tombs, also known as the

MingDynasty Tombs or in Chine, Shisanling (literally, The

Thirteen Mausoleums).

The Ding Mausoleum, or the tomb of Emperor Wanli

(1563-1620) is the third-largest in the Shisanlingcomplex and

also the only one that has ever been excavated.

kilometers northwest of downtownBeijing, this is the burial

site of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Also,

there aretombs of 23 empress, two princes, more than 30

concubines and one eunuch of the dynasty.

Covering an area of more than 120 square kilometers, this

The Ming Tombs十三陵

Location:Beijing

Area:120 square kilometers

First built:In 1409, Ming Dynasty

Mausoleum, the tomb of Emperor Yongle, isthe largest and

oldest. Situated on the southern slope of the main peak of

Tianshou Mountain, itsarchitecture covers a total area of

Also, the excavators had unearthed more than 3,000 artifacts

made of silk, gold, silver, jade,porcelain and rare wood. Among

them, there was a dragon crown elaborately knitted with

"The harmonious integration of remarkable architectural

groups in a naturalenvironment chon to meet the criteria of

geomancy (fengshui) makes the Ming and QingImperial

Tombs masterpieces of human creative genius," the

organization said.

The marble Paifang

of the Ming Tombs has six pillars, five openings and 11 roofs.

of stone,marble, glazed terracotta, wood or sometimes metal,

could be quite high, hence often rving aslandmarks. The

gateways could have one, three or five openings, depending

on how wide anentrance they span. On top, they may have