ARCHEOLOGISTS have unraveled the mystery of the plan of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum, the 2,200-year-old site of the 7,000 terracotta warriors.

　Located in Xi’an in Shaanxi Province, the mausoleum was built for Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) and also of China.

　Covering 2.13 square kilometers, the four-tiered mausoleum, like a well-structured city, includes an underground palace, the center of the mausoleum, an inner city, outer city and grounds.

　“The revelation of the structure is the greatest achievement in the study of the mausoleum in the past 40 years,” said Yuan Zhongyi, an expert on the mausoleum and honorary curator of the Museum of Qin Terracotta Horses and Warriors.

　Since they began to explore the mausoleum 40 years ago, archeologists have discovered constructions over hundreds of square kilometers and more than 600 tombs of those buried alive with the emperor. However, the overall plan of the cemetery remained a mystery.

　The cemetery, facing east, is a rectangle measuring 85 meters from south to north.

　The ramparts of the inner city and outer city are 12 km long, similar to the walls of Xi’an during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.).

　The underground palace, the central city, lies under the grave mound to the south of the inner city. It symbolizes Qin Shi Huang’s real palace when he was alive, occupying two thirds of the southern part of the inner city.The inner city has the most buildings and buried relics such as the coffin chamber, flags and weapons for guards of honor and stores. Subordinate buildings and tombs for buried concubines of the monarch were also in the inner city.

　In the area between the inner and outer cities, archeologists have found a chamber for stables, 31 chambers for birds and rare animals and 48 tombs for imperial concubines who were buried alive with the emperor.

　Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the first in China to construct a mausoleum city. The first emperor also initiated the ritual of building chambers for those buried alive on a large scale with the owner of the tomb. One unusual discovery was that there was no tomb of the empress.(Xinhua)