Western Xia mausoleums

The Western Xia mausoleums occupy an area of some 50 km2 (19 sq mi) at the foot of the Helan Mountains in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of northwestern China, and include nine imperial mausoleums and 250 tombs of imperial relatives and officials of China's Western Xia dynasty.

[1] Some 17,000 m2 (180,000 sq ft) have so far been excavated, and efforts are underway to secure and preserve the remains of this poorly understood era.

[2] The Western Xia capital city and the burial complex eluded early 20th century explorers of Central Asia, including Pyotr Kozlov, Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin.

During modern times, it was first reported by Wulf-Dieter Graf zu Castell, who recorded the site in an aerial photograph, published in 1938 in his book Chinaflug.

Each mausoleum has a similar layout (see plan of Mausoleum 2 below), in general comprising a rectangular outer enclosing wall (waicheng 外城), with a pair of gate towers (quetai 鵲臺) at the south end, then one or more pavilions (usually a pair) housing memorial steles (beiting 碑亭), then a rectangular barbican (yuecheng 月城) in front of the entrance to a square or rectangular inner enclosure (lingcheng 陵城), with watch towers (jiaoque 角闕) at the four corners.