With the reputation of “Chinese Pyramid”, the Imperial Mausoleums of the Western Xia Dynasty is the mausoleum for all the emperors in the Western Xia Dynasty, located at the east foot of Mountain Helan, about 30 kilometers west of Yinchuan City proper.
Nine imperial cemeteries of the Western Xia Dynasty are constructed along mountain topography, with more than 200 graves accompanied. Every cemetery is a solely integrated building group with similar shape and structure. With cemetery on the ground and coffin chamber underground, each consists of the watchtower on either side of the gate, stele kiosk, outer city, inner city, Xiandian Palace and bier platform from south to north, in addition to the remains of a divine encircling wall.
On the southeast corner at the foot of Mountains Helan are two large mausoleums, probably Yuling and Jialing Mausoleums of Li Jiqian and Li Demin, who were posthumously designated Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong. The architectural arrangement of the mausoleum area makes these two mausoleums most prominent, followed by others built later.
Like other imperial tombs, Imperial Mausoleums of the Western Xia Dynasty were composed of two architectural units, the mausoleum gardens above ground and underground palaces. All the mausoleum gardens faced south, and their architectural forms above ground have some unique characteristics, though they are quite similar to mausoleums of the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties in Gongxian County.
Based on some excavations, each mausoleum had a unified layout, occupying an area of more than 100,000 square meters, surrounded by inner and outer walls. At each corner of the mausoleum gardens were watchtowers, providing visual indicators of the boundaries, serving functions similar to those of watchtowers of the imperial palace (forbidden city) in Beijing. Mausoleum gardens were organized from south to north: stone gates, tablet pavilion, outer city, inner city, hall furnished as an imperial bedroom and spiritual terrace.
In each of the four inner city walls was a gate, between the hall and terrace was an earth ridge shaped like a fish back, about 50 meters long. It was the earth covering of the tomb passage. The northern tip of the ridge was the highest point of the mausoleum garden, and was the mound above the underground palace. The mound, also known as the spiritual terrace, can be seen from some distance because of its height.
The unique characteristics of Imperial Mausoleums of the Western Xia Dynasty are clearly visible on the spiritual terraces. The mausoleum mounds of the Han, Tang and Northern Song Dynasties are generally high, square-based packed earth mounds with tapering tops cut flat and gently sloped sides. Completely different, the mounds of Imperial Mausoleums of the Western Xia Dynasty look like squat buddhist pagodas, round or octagonal and about 20 meters high. Examples seen today have five or seven stories, each of which is built with flying rafters overlaid with rows of tiles, richly decorated with an interspersing of glazed green tiles. The sides of the spiritual terraces are painted a deep red, the red walls and the green tiles providing a striking contrast, making it easy to imagine how magnificent the spiritual terraces must have been. |
Asia Travel 
Articles: (
Newest publication