Han Yangling Mausoleum

Han Yangling Mausoleum lies in Weicheng District, Xianyang, north of Xi'an, and is the joint burial site of Han Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE) and Empress Wang, part of a broader necropolis of Han imperial tombs scattered across the Xianyang plateau. Emperor Jing's reign, together with that of his father Wen, is remembered in Chinese historiography as a period of consolidation and light taxation following the Han dynasty's founding, often called the Rule of Wen and Jing. The mausoleum complex includes the emperor's and empress's twin burial mounds along with 81 satellite burial pits arranged in a grid pattern to the south, discovered and partially excavated beginning in 1990. Unlike the life-size Terracotta Army of the earlier Qin dynasty, the pits here contained tens of thousands of terracotta figures at roughly one-third human scale, originally clothed in real silk and wood-jointed to allow posable arms, of which only the ceramic torsos survive; the wooden arms and textiles decayed, leaving many figures without limbs. The pits also held miniature domestic animals, chariots, and models representing the emperor's household administration, granaries, and military units, giving archaeologists a detailed record of Han court organization. A distinctive underground museum, built directly over several excavated pits with glass walkways and glass flooring, allows visitors to look down on the figures still arranged in their original excavation context rather than removed to display cases, a presentation method distinct from other Shaanxi mausoleum sites.