Legend says that in order to prevent robbery of the tomb, 13 identical processions of funeral troops started from 13 city gates to obscure the real burying site.

One enters the site through the monumental Great Golden Gates (Da Jin Men), and is soon faced by a giant stone tortoise (bixi), which resides in the Sifangcheng ("Square city") pavilion.

[4] Unlike the similar pavilion at the Ming Tombs near Beijing, Nanjing's Sifangcheng roof was once destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion and left unbuilt until 2006.

Four pairs of ministers and generals (or warrior guardian figures, Wengzhong) of stone have been standing there for centuries to guard the journey to the afterlife.

On an inscribed stone tablet outside of the gate an official notification of the local government in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) is ordered to protect the tomb.

The one in the middle, also mounted on a stone tortoise, is inscribed with four Chinese characters, "治隆唐宋", which were written by the Qing dynasty's Kangxi Emperor on his third inspection tour of the South in 1699.

The emperor and his queen were buried in a clay tumulus, 400 metres (1,300 ft) in diameter, known as the Lone Dragon Hill (Du Long Fu).

In the meantime, the tortoise and the blank stele (无字碑) have been moved to the Red Chamber Culture Park (红楼艺文苑, Honglou Yiwen Yuan), located just east of the Ming Xiaoling complex.