Qianling Mausoleum

Qianling is the joint tomb of the Tang emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule China as emperor in her own right, built into a natural hill rather than a raised mound and never excavated, so the burial chamber is believed intact. The spirit road climbing to it is lined with stone winged horses, ostriches, officials and pairs of columns, and beyond them stand sixty-one stone figures of foreign envoys, all of them now missing their heads, damaged at some point in the centuries since. Wu Zetian's stele beside the path was left deliberately without inscription. Satellite tombs nearby hold painted murals.

What you actually see

• The spirit road - stone animals, officials and columns climbing the hill.
• The headless envoys - sixty-one foreign figures without their heads.
• The uninscribed stele - Wu Zetian's blank memorial stone.
• The satellite tombs - subsidiary burials with Tang wall paintings.

When to go

April to June and September to October; summers in the Guanzhong plain are hot and winters cold and grey. The walk up the spirit road is exposed, so mornings are better.

Honest expectations

The main tomb is unexcavated, so there is no interior to enter; the visit is the approach and the statues. Satellite tomb museums charge separately. English interpretation is limited.

Nearby

Famen Temple lies west; Xi'an is southeast.