{"it":{"id":"ASI-011","kind":"site","sub":"Asia","name":"Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang","place":"People's Republic of China","lat":34.382,"lon":109.254,"date":"It was constructed over 38 years from 246 to 208 BC, and is situated underneath a…","mat":"earth","nfacts":17,"tags":["Asia"],"sum":"Ancient writers said rivers of mercury flow inside the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, built over 38 years from 246 to 208 BCE. Soil tests over the mound have found high levels of mercury.","why":"A rare case where modern instruments test a 2,000-year-old written claim, and so far the claim holds up.","src":[347],"nsrc":3,"yt":"Should it be, and what might it hold?","rel":["ASI-008"],"hook":"Soil over China's first emperor's tomb holds up to 2204 ppb mercury, as an old historian said it would."},"S":{"347":["Wikipedia: Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang"]},"rec":{"id":"ASI-011","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"208 nbsp BC and is situated underneath a","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"76","u":"m","o":"It was constructed over 38 years from 246 to 208 BC, and is situated underneath a 76 m tomb mound shaped like a truncated pyramid.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0804"},{"f":"The circumference of the inner city is","a":"circumference","v":"2.5","u":"km","o":"The circumference of the inner city is 2.5 km and the outer is 6.3 km.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0805"},{"f":"is 2 5 km and the outer is","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"6.3","u":"km","o":"The circumference of the inner city is 2.5 km and the outer is 6.3 km.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0806"},{"f":"controversy in academic circles with opinions differing from","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"20","u":"meters","o":"As for how deep the underground palace is, there is a lot of controversy in academic circles, with opinions differing from 20 meters to 50 meters.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0807"},{"f":"circles with opinions differing from 20 meters to","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"50","u":"meters","o":"As for how deep the underground palace is, there is a lot of controversy in academic circles, with opinions differing from 20 meters to 50 meters.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0808"},{"f":"The Terracotta Army is about","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"1.5","u":"km","o":"The Terracotta Army is about 1.5 km east of the tomb mound.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0809"},{"f":"studies indicate a 4-meter high perimeter wall measuring","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"460","u":"meters","o":"Archaeological survey and magnetic anomaly studies indicate a 4-meter high perimeter wall, measuring 460 meters north to south and 390 meters east to west, which is made of bricks and serves as the wall of the underground palace.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0810"},{"f":"wall measuring 460 meters north to south and","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"390","u":"meters","o":"Archaeological survey and magnetic anomaly studies indicate a 4-meter high perimeter wall, measuring 460 meters north to south and 390 meters east to west, which is made of bricks and serves as the wall of the underground palace.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0811"},{"f":"an enclosing wall made of rammed earth of","a":"height","v":"30-40","u":"meters","o":"On top is an enclosing wall made of rammed earth of 30–40 meters in height.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0812"},{"f":"The tomb chamber itself is","a":"length","v":"80","u":"meters","o":"The tomb chamber itself is 80 meters long east to west, 50 meters north to south, and is about 15 meters high.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0813"},{"f":"itself is 80 meters long east to west","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"50","u":"meters","o":"The tomb chamber itself is 80 meters long east to west, 50 meters north to south, and is about 15 meters high.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0814"},{"f":"50 meters north to south and is about","a":"height","v":"15","u":"meters","o":"The tomb chamber itself is 80 meters long east to west, 50 meters north to south, and is about 15 meters high.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0815"},{"f":"is estimated to be at a depth of","a":"depth","v":"30","u":"meters","o":"Sima Qian's text indicates that during its construction the tomb may have reached groundwater, and the water table is estimated to be at a depth of 30 meters.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0816"},{"f":"foundations the courtyard-style palace was estimated to be","a":"length","v":"690","u":"meters","o":"REF29 Based on its foundations, the courtyard-style palace was estimated to be 690 meters long and 250 meters wide, covering an area of 170,000 square meters, which is nearly a quarter of the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0817"},{"f":"was estimated to be 690 meters long and","a":"width","v":"250","u":"meters","o":"REF29 Based on its foundations, the courtyard-style palace was estimated to be 690 meters long and 250 meters wide, covering an area of 170,000 square meters, which is nearly a quarter of the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1368884501 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0818"},{"f":"mausoleum","a":"original / present height","v":"76 / 47","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Chinese pyramids","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Chinese pyramids","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_pyramids&oldid=1359674442","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3609"},{"f":"mausoleum","a":"base","v":"357 x 354","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Wikipedia Chinese pyramids","yr":"2026","m":"as stated","c":"Wikipedia Chinese pyramids","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_pyramids&oldid=1359674442","b":"S","bb":"","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M3610"}],"lab":[],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"It was constructed over 38 years from 246 to 208 BC, and is situated underneath a 76-metre-tall (249 ft) tomb mound shaped like a truncated pyramid.","dm":"[see dating_excerpt; method not extracted]","lab":"NO: inference only (style/context/king list/textual)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/441","dens":"CENSUS"},"co":{"lat":"34.38166667","lon":"109.25388889","src":"Wikidata P625 + UNESCO WHC list XML (agree ≤0.05°)","agree":"agree","b":"V","note":"two independent sources agree; max delta 0.0002 deg (~0.03 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/257071487"},"src":[{"id":"S0333","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang&oldid=1368884501"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia Chinese pyramids","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_pyramids&oldid=1359674442"},{"id":"S0531","t":"Wikipedia: Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang"},{"id":"VASI-011-4","t":"PubMed Central article PMC7319949","u":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7319949/"},{"id":"VASI-011-5","t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/441/"}],"sum":"The craftsmen were ordered to build crossbows that would fire on their own. The weapons were set inside the tomb, primed and aimed at the passages, so that anyone who broke in would be shot by men long dead. Above, on the ceiling, the stars and constellations of heaven were laid out. Below, on the floor, the land of China was modelled in miniature, and through it ran the Yangtze, the Yellow River and the great sea, all made of mercury and set to flow by machinery. Lamps burned with a fat chosen because it would last a very long time. When the funeral was over, the inner passage was blocked and the outer gate lowered, trapping the workers who knew the tomb's secrets inside. Then trees were planted on the mound so that it looked like an ordinary hill.\n\nThat is the account written by the historian Sima Qian, who lived from about 145 to 95 BCE, roughly a century after the burial he described. For two thousand years it read like legend. Then scientists began to measure the soil.\n\nThe tomb belongs to Qin Shi Huang, the man who made China. In 221 BCE, after centuries of rival kingdoms, he founded the first unified empire in Chinese history. He imposed one system of writing, one currency, and one set of weights and measures across lands that had used many. He also began planning his own death almost at once. UNESCO says work on the tomb started in 246 BCE, when he became king of Qin at the age of thirteen, and it ran for 38 years until 208 BCE, two years after he died. Sima Qian put the workforce at 700,000 people drawn from every province, building, in UNESCO's phrase, \"a subterranean city within a gigantic mound\".\n\nThe mound still stands at the foot of Mount Li, about 35 kilometres north-east of the city of Xi'an. It was once about 76 metres tall. UNESCO gives its height today as 51.3 metres, about as tall as a fifteen-storey building, over a base roughly 350 to 380 metres across. Around it run two walls, an inner enclosure 2.5 kilometres in circumference and an outer one of 6.3 kilometres, laid out like the plan of the Qin capital, Xianyang. The emperor had built himself a city to rule in the afterlife.\n\nMost people know it through its guards. In March 1974 farmers digging a well near the village of Xiyang struck hardened earth, then fragments of red pottery and bronze arrowheads. They had found the edge of the Terracotta Army, about 1.5 kilometres from the mound. UNESCO counts nearly 200 pits around the tomb holding terracotta soldiers, horses and bronze chariots; the first three pits alone held about 7,000 soldiers and horses. Inside the inner wall were figures of courtiers and officials. Outside it stood entertainers and strongmen, and even a suit of armour carved from stone. Everything an emperor needed was there, except the emperor, who lies under the hill, still unseen.\n\nNobody has opened the central chamber. As far as anyone knows, it has never been looted. Instead, archaeologists have studied it from outside. Ground radar and gravity surveys, which detect buried structures by how they reflect radio waves or slightly change the pull of the earth, suggest an underground palace of about 140 by 110 by 30 metres. The coffin chamber inside is estimated at 80 by 50 by 15 metres, its ceiling about 30 metres below the surface. That is a hall nearly as long as a football pitch, its roof buried deeper than a ten-storey building is tall.\n\nAnd then came the mercury. Mercury is a liquid metal, silver and heavy, and it gives off a poisonous vapour. In Qin Shi Huang's time it was thought to be an elixir of life, a substance that could keep death at bay, and a 2020 scientific paper notes that the emperor's own death was probably caused by mercury poisoning. If Sima Qian was right, his tomb should be full of it.\n\nSoil tests came first. One study found up to 1,440 parts per billion of mercury in the soil over the mound, with an average of 205. A newer one found up to 2,204, with an average of 169. Both were well above the background level in the surrounding land. Then a team whose results appeared in the journal Scientific Reports in 2020 tried something new. They used differential absorption lidar, an instrument that sends laser pulses into the air and reads the light that scatters back. By comparing two very close wavelengths, one absorbed by mercury and one not, it can measure how much mercury vapour is drifting above the ground. Over the mound they found up to 27 nanograms per cubic metre, against a general level of about 5 to 10 nearby. The high readings lined up with the earlier soil results. The team suggested that mercury is escaping through cracks that have opened in the tomb over time, and wrote that their results support the ancient chronicle.\n\nThe mainstream reading is cautious, and rightly so. The same paper warns that mercury pollution is already high around Xi'an, so wind direction must be watched closely. If the vapour were drifting in from the city, the readings over the tomb would mean little. What points to the tomb is the match between air and soil: the mercury is concentrated where the chamber is thought to be. Excavation has been postponed until there are better ways to protect what lies inside from air and rapid decay. Until then, nobody can say whether liquid mercury still flows in channels, or whether only traces remain in the earth.\n\nThat restraint is wise. But it leaves a remarkable situation. A historian wrote down a description that sounded impossible: rivers of liquid metal moved by machinery, a ceiling of stars, crossbows that fired themselves. Modern instruments have now tested one part of that description from the outside, and so far it holds.\n\nThink about the man who ordered it. Qin Shi Huang spent his reign standardising the world: one script, one coinage, one measure. He feared death enough to drink a metal he believed would save him. And he built a tomb that reproduced the whole of his empire beneath a map of the sky, with its rivers in motion, as if he meant to keep ruling a working model of the cosmos forever. Then the men who built it were sealed inside with their knowledge, so that no one could tell how it was done.\n\nSome scholars believe the phrase about digging through \"three layers of groundwater\" is figurative. It is less clear now how much of the rest was. If the mercury is real, how much else of Sima Qian's account is a literal report of what the engineers of the first emperor knew how to build, waiting thirty metres down under a hill that was planted to look like nothing at all?","qs":["If the source is the tomb, what else did Sima Qian get right?","Should the chamber stay closed until it can be opened safely?","How sure can we be that the mercury is ancient and not modern pollution?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Tomb_of_the_First_Emperor_Qin_Shi_Huang_Di%2C_Xi%27an%2C_China_-_panoramio.jpg/1280px-Tomb_of_the_First_Emperor_Qin_Shi_Huang_Di%2C_Xi%27an%2C_China_-_panoramio.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb_of_the_First_Emperor_Qin_Shi_Huang_Di,_Xi%27an,_China_-_panoramio.jpg","title":"Tomb of the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, Xi'an, China - panoramio.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Aaron Zhu","cap":"Tomb of the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, Xi'an, China"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/51714-Terracota-Army.jpg/1280px-51714-Terracota-Army.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:51714-Terracota-Army.jpg","title":"51714-Terracota-Army.jpg","lic":"CC BY 2.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0","by":"xiquinhosilva","cap":"Terracotta Army in Xi'an, China"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/China.Terracotta_statues012.jpg/1280px-China.Terracotta_statues012.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:China.Terracotta_statues012.jpg","title":"China.Terracotta statues012.jpg","lic":"CC BY 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0","by":"Georges Jansoone (JoJan)","cap":"Bronze swan, Lintong, Qin dynasty"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Qin_Terracotta_Acrobat_%289897907493%29.jpg/1280px-Qin_Terracotta_Acrobat_%289897907493%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qin_Terracotta_Acrobat_(9897907493).jpg","title":"Qin Terracotta Acrobat (9897907493).jpg","lic":"CC0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en","by":"Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China","cap":"Museum at Qin Shihuang Mausoleum, Lintong, 2011. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com. Reference: Metropolitan Museum of Art"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Qin_Terracotta_Attendant_%28grey_background%29.jpg/1280px-Qin_Terracotta_Attendant_%28grey_background%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qin_Terracotta_Attendant_(grey_background).jpg","title":"Qin Terracotta Attendant (grey background).jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Gary Todd","cap":"Qin Terracotta Attendant (grey background)"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"208 BC","h":"It was constructed over 38 years from 246 to 208 BC","s":[95]},{"v":"Earth","h":"Made of","s":[95]}],"hs":{"95":["Wikipedia: Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/ASI-011.webp","w":1280,"h":687,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Tomb_of_the_First_Emperor_Qin_Shi_Huang_Di%2C_Xi%27an%2C_China_-_panoramio.jpg/1280px-Tomb_of_the_First_Emperor_Qin_Shi_Huang_Di%2C_Xi%27an%2C_China_-_panoramio.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}