The mausoleum is about the size of a football field. The underground palace is the place where coffins and funerary objects are placed, and it is the core of the Qin Mausoleum. There have always been different opinions about the location of Qinling underground palace. About the depth of the underground palace of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum, it is introduced in the historical material Nine Meanings of Han Dynasty: In 2 10 BC, Prime Minister Lisi reported to Qin Shihuang that he had taken 720,000 people to build the tomb of Mount Li, which had been dug deep, as if it were underground. After hearing this, Qin Shihuang ordered "to walk another 300 feet or even." The statement of "300 feet away" makes the location of the Qin Mausoleum even more confusing. It has been said that the underground palace of the Qin tombs is on Mount Li, and there is an underground passage between Mount Li and the Qin tombs. Every time it rains on a cloudy day, there are "Yin soldiers" in the underground passage. People are cheering and horses are neighing, which is very lively. It is reported that archaeologists have conducted many investigations according to this legend, but they have never found this legendary underground passage.
"We use remote sensing and geophysical methods to detect respectively. In fact, the underground palace is just under the mound. " According to Duan Qingbo, this large-scale underground palace is located below and around the mound top platform, 35 meters deep from the ground, with a length of 170 meters from east to west and a width of 145 meters from north to south. The main body and tomb are rectangular. The tomb is located in the center of the underground palace, with a height of15m, which is equivalent to a standard football field.
Zhou Xiaohu, an engineer from the Institute of Remote Sensing Application of China Coal Aerial Survey and Remote Sensing Bureau, told the reporter an interesting phenomenon: at the beginning of this year 1 month, the temperature of the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum dropped to MINUS 12 degrees Celsius, and the pomegranate tree on the mound was in normal bloom, while the pomegranate tree outside the south wall of the mound was severely frozen and could not blossom and bear fruit normally, and the difference was particularly obvious. "The soil outside the wall has not been disturbed, but the soil structure and water content in the sealed mound have changed, and because there is an underground palace under the wall, the relative temperature of the soil is higher, resulting in differences in plant growth." Zhou Xiaohu explained.
The palace wall is solid, and the tomb has not collapsed.
In this exploration, the researchers found that under the sealed mound, there was a thick fine rammed earth wall around the tomb, which was called the palace wall. According to textual research, the palace wall is about168m long from east to west, 14 1 m long from north to south,16m long from north to south and 22m long from north to south. "When building the palace wall, in order to test whether the palace wall compacted with soil is hard, the construction workers will stand in the distance and shoot the wall with bows and arrows. If the arrow can be inserted into the wall, then the repaired palace wall must be demolished and rebuilt. " Duan Qingbo said that the palace walls are made of layers of fine soil, each layer is about 5-6 cm thick, which is quite delicate and strong. "To our surprise, the top surface of the palace wall is even much higher than the ground of the Qin Dynasty at that time, and it has been 33 meters under the sealed soil until now. The height of the whole wall is about 30 meters, which is very spectacular! " Inside the earth wall, the researchers found another stone palace wall. Duan Qingbo said that according to the test, it was found that there was no water in the tomb and the whole tomb did not collapse. "There has been a major earthquake of magnitude 8 or above in the history of Guanzhong area, but the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is intact, which is closely related to the firmness of the palace wall!"
"This kind of palace wall is an unprecedented discovery! This brand-new tomb form can be called "Qin Mausoleum Style". It is still unpredictable how much the Qin Mausoleum-style palace wall can promote the study of the ancient mausoleum system in China. " Duan Qingbo said.
There is a "waterproof dam" in the underground palace
In addition to the palace wall, the researchers also found that there were huge underground drains around the Qin tomb.
Duan Qingbo said that this drainage channel about 1000 meters long is actually a wall. The bottom is tamped with17m thick plaster mud, and the upper part is tamped with 84m wide loess. The scale is unimaginable. "The drainage design is quite clever. Qin Shihuang's mausoleum is high in the southeast and low in the northwest, with a drop of 85 meters, and the drainage channel just blocks the flow of groundwater from high to low, effectively protecting the mausoleum from flooding. " Duan Qingbo said that in the "crossing three springs" recorded in Historical Records, "three" is actually a rough number. In fact, it should refer to the flood during construction, so a drainage channel was built.
Duan Qingbo said humorously: "Qin people are too smart. The Beijing National Grand Theatre, which is under construction, is to solve the flooding problem in this way. "
Anti-corrosion and theft prevention of intrauterine mercury
According to Records of Historical Records of Qin Shihuang, the underground palace "takes mercury as a hundred rivers". Liu Shiyi, a researcher at China Geological Survey and Research Institute, said that geophysical exploration proved that there were obvious mercury anomalies in the underground palace, and the mercury distribution was stronger in the southeast and southwest, and weaker in the northeast and northwest. If the distribution of mercury represents rivers and oceans, it coincides with the distribution of Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea in China. "Qin Shihuang has been to Bohai Bay personally, so it is likely to sketch the Bohai Sea into his underground palace. If this is confirmed, it shows that the Qin Dynasty conducted an investigation and study on the geography of China, which is also a new discovery. " Liu Shiyi said.
Qin Shihuang used mercury for rivers and seas, not only to create a magnificent natural landscape, but also to make the buried bodies and funerary objects not rot for a long time because of the mercury gas in the underground palace. Moreover, mercury is a highly toxic substance, and a large amount of inhalation will lead to death, so mercury in the underground palace can also poison grave robbers.
Geophysical exploration also found that there are stone tombs in the underground palace.
There are only two tombs in the tomb.
Earlier, some media reported that archaeologists discovered five tombs in the eastern part of Fengtu by drilling holes, and found 1 in the western and northern parts of Fengtu. At yesterday's acceptance meeting, Duan Qingbo, the captain of the archaeological team of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum, clarified that according to the detection results, except for one pyramid-shaped mound in the east and one in the west, the rest were all burial pits.
From Shang and Zhou Dynasties to Han Dynasty, there are generally four tombs of emperors, which run through the southeast, northwest and four directions respectively, and are symbols of aristocratic status and status, while ordinary officials and ordinary people have one or two tombs. According to common sense, there should be four Mausoleums of the First Qin Emperor, but so far only two have been found in the east and west. This discovery attracted great attention of experts at yesterday's meeting.
"Unexpectedly, this is also expected. Qin Shihuang was a freak! " Duan Qingbo said that during the reign of Qin Shihuang, many things were beyond the imagination of ordinary people: China was unified, the currency was unified, and nearly 60 square kilometers of cemeteries and huge burial pits for terracotta warriors and horses were built ... "No one can tell what Qin Shihuang was thinking. The first emperor was arrogant before his death, and he was bound to leave a confusing grave after his death. " Duan Qingbo said.
It is reported that after the completion of the first phase exploration project, the second phase will also conduct in-depth research on the mausoleum.
Four mysteries revealed
1. Is the underground palace in Lishan Mountain? According to folklore, the underground palace of Qin Mausoleum is located in Lishan. Experts used remote sensing and geophysical methods to detect it, and confirmed that the underground palace was located under the mound of the Qin Mausoleum, 35 meters deep from the ground. 2. Is the tomb intact? It is found that there is a circle of extremely thick palace walls around the tomb, which is closely related to the preservation of the tomb. This newly discovered tomb form is called "Qin Mausoleum Style". 3. Is there mercury in the underground palace? Detection proves that mercury does exist in the underground palace, which is strong in the southeast and southwest and weak in the northeast and northwest. "Taking mercury as a hundred rivers and seas" in Historical Records was initially proved. 4. How many graves are there? The detection results show that there is only one tomb in the east and one tomb in the west. From Shang and Zhou Dynasties to Han Dynasty, there were usually four emperors' tombs. This new discovery has aroused great concern of experts.
Historical investigation
The earliest historical document about the Qin underground palace is Sima Qian's Historical Records: "At the beginning of the emperor's accession to the throne, Mount Li was ruled by the emperor and merged with the world. The world sent 700,000 people across the three springs, down the bronze sparrow terrace and led them to the palace. " Let the craftsman make a crossbow, and anyone who comes near will shoot it. Take mercury as a hundred rivers and seas, instill machines, there is astronomy on the top and geography on the bottom. Take mermaid cream as a candle, and it will last for a long time. "
The first comprehensive archaeological investigation of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum began at 1962. Archaeologists drew the first layout of the cemetery. After exploration, the cemetery covers an area of 56.25 square kilometers, equivalent to nearly 78 Forbidden City, which caused a sensation in the archaeological community.