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.

History

Emperor Gaozong's tomb was completed in 684, a year after his death, and on 2 July 706 Wu Zetian, who had ruled as China's only reigning empress, was buried with him. Seventeen attendant tombs surround the main one; their epitaphs, among them those of Crown Prince Zhanghuai, Prince Yide and Princess Yongtai, give the burial year 706, which dates their murals precisely. Five of them were excavated in the 1960s and early 1970s, but the main tomb has never been opened, and in 2012 the province ruled out any excavation for at least 50 years (Wikipedia, Qianling Mausoleum).

Highlights

• 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.

Before you go

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.

Key facts