Imperial Mausoleum of Xixia

The Imperial Mausoleum of Xixia is located at the right foot of Helan Mountain, 30 kilometers west of Yinchuan City, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. 

The Imperial Mausoleum of Xixia (1038-1227) is the mausoleum for the successive kings, 4 kilometers from east to west and 10 kilometers from north to south. Covering an area of about 40 square kilometers, the mausoleum has 8 imperial tombs and 70 satellite tombs. Each tomb yard of the mausoleum is a complete architectural group, with a floor area of over 100, 000 square meters. The ground buildings consist of turrets, gates, stele pavilions, outer city, inner city and divine walls. The general layout of the buildings is arranged in a chess-board form, symmetric between the left and right. 

There are towers in the four corners of the tomb yard, with the gate in front, symmetric between the left and right. The south wall of the inner city has a gate in it. The relics of eaves tiles demonstrates that there were gate towers before. The inner city also has relics platform, where the emperors of the Xixia Kingdom offered sacrifice to their ancestors. 

The general layout of the tomb yard maintained the flavor of the tomb construction of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and integrated with the Song character. The No.8 imperial tomb with 3 auxiliary tombs was excavated from 1972 to 1975. In front of the underground coffin chamber is a slope passageway, 49 m long. The square chamber has side halls in the two sides, 25 m deep. Though thieved in the early year, the tomb still has a lot of antiques unearthed, such as the gold decorations, bamboo sculptures, copper papers, pearls, and remains of chinaware. The auxiliary tombs all have passageways and square chambers, with bronze ox and stone horses buried. The remains of the written record and the antiques show that this tomb is perhaps of the eighth emperor of the Xixia Kingdom. 

There are also stele relics, written in Chinese and Xixia characters, unearthed in the area of the tomb yard. The one with Chinese character is written in regular script with the flavor of the Liu Style of the Tang Dynasty. The one with the Xixia character is written in regular and Han Style Script. All of them are of high calligraphic value.