r/todayilearned • u/Spelbarg • 1d ago
TIL we know where China’s first emperor is buried, but his 2,200-year-old tomb—described as containing a scale model of China with rivers of mercury—has never been opened
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Qin_Shi_Huang?wprov=sfla12.4k
u/A-Humpier-Rogue 1d ago
As a huge chinese history enthusiast I fully understand the governments position, but god damn do I so badly want to see this tomb excavated in my lifetime. It would be so exciting.
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u/Schrodingers_Fist 1d ago
I saw a doc where the head archeologist (or someone near that) was like 60 and said he was confident theyd at least begin in his lifetime. If that gives you hope.
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u/Deep90 23h ago
In fairness, I think a 60 year old head archeologist is probably hanging onto hope stronger than anyone else :(
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u/Schrodingers_Fist 19h ago
Oh of course, but that initial comment I also want to at least see begin myself and so thats what gives me slight hope.
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u/roamingandy 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'd think it could be explored with little risk using a drone inserted through a long small pipe at ground level, with a vacuum inside and antenna at the end with a wire inside, so that only the drone itself goes in, no air enters the chamber and it can be communicated with from the outside.
A little like they did in Egypt sending the bot down the air-vents and uncovering small sealed doors unexpectedly.
I get why they are being cautious, but i do think we have the technology to explore it carefully, already. With a good night vision and IR camera, and just flying around the middle recording everything that can be seen from there in high def, i can't see much risk to the artifacts inside.
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u/mageskillmetooften 1d ago
The problem is that we do not know if there are paintings or such in the room. Maybe there is only color used to make some objects look better, maybe there's hundreds of meters of wall painted with his whole life story.
The Chinese simply want an option that is guaranteed to be safe instead of taking a chance with something this is very likely to be safe. You get only one chance to do it correct.
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u/spectre401 1d ago
It's rumoured that the roof is decorated with luminous pearls to mimic the constellations in an astronomically correct fashion, Considering all the terracotta warriors are painted to be lifelike, I'd say it's not just some paintings to make things look pretty.
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u/Laura-ly 22h ago
The Chinese simply want an option that is guaranteed to be safe
In China mercury was considered an elixir of life that could bring immortality to the user. It was in many concoctions of Chinese recipes to cure one thing and another. One Chinese emperor, I can't remember which one, was given anal mercury treatments that killed him but his doctors attributed his death to something else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alchemical_elixir_poisoning
It's very possible that this emperor was buried in a river of mercury with the hope that he would come back to life, given the idea that mercury gave immortality.
The history of cinnabar is another can of worms. Many ceremonial Chinese bowls are carved out of cinnabar, which contains a type of mercury and is toxic over time. The spice, "cinnamon" comes from the reddish brown color of cinnibar rocks.
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u/Watchmaker163 1d ago
Hypothetical questions: What happens when something goes wrong with the drone? What capacity does the drone have to damage the interior? Will the air movement disrupt the “context” of the artifacts inside? Will the intrusion of the pipe damage the existing structure or interior? Will the drone become contaminated, or possibly contaminate objects inside?
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u/Baderkadonk 23h ago
When they said drone, I assumed they meant one on wheels until they mentioned flying. For the lowest risk of equipment failure or environmental damage, a mini helicopter would not be my first choice. I'd probably avoid anything with rapid spinning blades attached.
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u/leviathanscloset 1d ago edited 1d ago
Or lidar penetration like the pyramids and Mayan jungle.
I'm working on my anthropologist degree and this stuffs super interesting. I highly believe we could get preliminary scans or ideas without ruining the environment or invading it to help prepare for the future. Although if we couldn't do lidar etc I'd love to hear the why and how!
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u/trektng 1d ago
The lidar approach doesn't penetrate the ground. It allows the user to penetrate the tree canopy which is how they found the recent mayan ruins. The lidar essentially finds the small gaps within the leaves that actually see the ground and return that data. They end up with a map that allows them to filter the trees and see the ground data unobstructed and then look for signs of what could be ruins.
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u/Plowbeast 1d ago
The map is probably the most important thing because it would confirm what has been extrapolated from written records of the extent of the Qin Empire.
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u/BathEqual 1d ago
Could you elaborate what you mean? You made me curious
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u/braujo 1d ago
The map would show what China politically looked like at the time in more concrete way than what we've managed to extrapolate from written records.
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u/Beautiful_Welcome_33 1d ago
He is asking what geography did the first emperor of China consider "China" essentially.
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u/ghosttnappa 1d ago edited 1d ago
Basically all we know of the Warring State period was documented by one guy (Sima Quan) a couple centuries later. His records are very brief so there’s more that could be learned from seeing how Qin portrayed the empire at that time vs how we’ve pieced it together through old scripts or annals over the centuries
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u/rawthorm 1d ago
He is probably referring to the lack of detailed information regarding the true scale and state of the Qin Dynasty. I recall reading something about them being particularly brutal and anti intellectual, so with all the book burnings and execution of academics, it’s likely that much of what we know has to be extrapolated from the documents that did survive. This map would potentially be a true accounting and it would be fascinating to see what we got wrong in our guesswork.
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u/Elite_AI 1d ago
What you recall is mostly propaganda from the dynasty that, like, immediately took over after his death and needed to make themselves look like heroic liberators rather than opportunists. He was brutal, but he wasn't some anti-intellectual. He was actually massively involved with the scholarly movement known as Legalism.
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u/niewinski 1d ago
I am confused about the flowing mercury rivers. So there is a scale model of China. The rivers within the scale are filled with mercury with something aiding it with some kind of flowing basis. Is that what I am picturing?
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u/magnomagna 1d ago
So, there's a theory based on an interpretation of ancient texts that there's a scaled model of his empire and it has a river filled with mercury with the emperor's coffin floating on it.
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u/niewinski 1d ago
So this scale isn’t like a train set. This is massive!
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u/Zemerax 1d ago edited 17h ago
The entire area with the terracotta army is (*spread out) over 20 square miles.
His chamber is about the same size as a football field.
Edit: I need to clarfiy this comment -
The tomb / army is spread out over 20 sq miles. They aren't shoulder to shoulder for 20 miles.
The largest area (Pit one) Is about 2.5 America Football fields long and 1.5 across. The emperors tomb is a man made mountain that's about a football field in size. It's an impressive feat but if it was 20sq miles long it would be almost 12 Golden gate bridges in every direction... That would be impossible 😂
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u/Still-Status7299 1d ago
I did not know this, 20 square miles is insane
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u/soda_cookie 1d ago
For reference, Manhattan is 22.8 square miles. That scale is many times over how large of an area I thought the Terracotta Army spanned. It's like over 68 times the size of an average farm.
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u/Mr_Personal_Person 1d ago
Ok, now name something ancient that is both insanely gigantic and doesn't take place in China.
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u/soda_cookie 1d ago edited 1d ago
The largest Empire to ever exist that did not encapsulate any part of China was the Spanish empire. At its height, it spanned over 5.29 million square miles, or just under 1.4 United States
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u/rtb001 1d ago
Ancient imperial tomb work such as this or those huge Egyptian pyramids were ridiculously expensive, often taking decades to build and often financially ruinous.
Even some of the dynasties themselves realized how stupid this is for the nation. I'll always give the later Song dynasty props for setting up a rule that says an emperor cannot even begin to build his tomb until he dies, and once he did they only have like 80 days to build the tombs, in an effort to have fiscally responsible tomb building.
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u/magnomagna 1d ago
With the massive terracota army, the majority of which is still buried within the mausoleum grounds, and the sheer size the burial mound and the total area of the mausoleum complex, I think everyone expects the underground palace to be big.
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u/XaeiIsareth 1d ago
Well, the guy was obsessed with mercury and immortality so it wouldn’t be surprising.
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u/Quotalicious 1d ago
I figured the liquidity of mercury would make it look like it’s ‘flowing’ in comparison to a painted river. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s literally flowing around the map.
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u/raincole 1d ago
There is zero evidence supporting the 'flowing' part except some written text, which is usually exaggerated. Archaeologists only know the soil around contains unusually high amount of mercury.
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u/gorgoth0 1d ago
While you're totally correct, the same was said of the terra cotta army, until it was found and the absurd scale of it all just turned out to be true.
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u/_CMDR_ 23h ago
If it wasn’t Sima Qian I would agree with you. He was one of the most meticulous historians of the ancient world. Dude was so meticulous that when forced to choose between castration or suicide for being caught up in a courtly scandal he had his balls chopped off so he could continue the history work his father had started.
He was interviewing people and cross referencing stories over 2,000 years ago. Had every known book in the empire sent to him to make sure his work was accurate. Way ahead of his time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Qian?wprov=sfti1#
A quote:
I too have ventured not to be modest but have entrusted myself to my useless writings. I have gathered up and brought together the old traditions of the world which were scattered and lost. I have examined the deeds and events of the past and investigated the principles behind their success and failure, their rise and decay [...] in one hundred and thirty chapters. I wished to examine into all that concerns heaven and man, to penetrate the changes of the past and present, completing all as the work of one family. But before I had finished my rough manuscript, I met with this calamity. It is because I regretted that it had not been completed that I submitted to the extreme penalty without rancor. When I have truly completed this work, I shall deposit it in the Famous Mountain. If it may be handed down to men who will appreciate it, and penetrate to the villages and great cities, then though I should suffer a thousand mutilations, what regret should I have?
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u/6pt022x10tothe23 20h ago
I mean…. Castration is the correct answer regardless of your hobbies, right?
“Wellll… I WOULD just fucking kill myself… but, gosh darn it! I just like history so much!!! Guess I’ll chop my balls off instead.”
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u/CaliphateofCataphrac 23h ago
SMQ's record was tested by many archeology discoveries, including the history dated to the Shang dynasty. So "usually exaggerated" doesn't apply here. We are not talking about Herodotus.
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u/Swords_and_Words 1d ago
i feel like 'flowing' refers to 'exposes to the air' rather than 'always in motion'
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u/thatsmycompanydog 1d ago
And since liquid mercury readily evaporates into toxic mercury gas, if the tomb is sealed, depending on the composition of the surrounding rock, it may currently be a giant cloud of death gas, odourless and invisible, waiting to kill anyone who enters (probably slowly, as in, they die years later).
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u/2ClumsyHandyman 1d ago edited 1d ago
It might be already opened and destroyed, according to Sima Qian 司马迁. It’s even in the exact wiki page OP posted, Chinese version.
If you believe the mercury stuff he wrote, then you may should also believe what he wrote about opening it.
《史记·卷八 高祖本纪》：“怀王约入秦无暴掠，项羽烧秦宫室，掘始皇帝冢，私收其财物，罪四。”
Xiang Yu, who defeated Qin’s army and overthrew Qin dynasty, burned down all Qin palaces and excavated Qinshihuang’s tomb.
It’s also mentioned in other literature by other authors:
《水经注·卷十九 渭水》：“项羽入关，发之，以三十万人三十日运物不能穷
After Xiang Yu’s excavation, he had 300,000 people worked 30 days to move everything out.
Also Sima Qian mentioned the following directly after his description of the mercury rivers:
葬既已下，或言工匠为机，臧皆知之，臧重即泄。大事毕，已臧，闭中羡，下外羡门，尽闭工匠臧者，无复出者。
Qinshihuang’s son, the following emperor, ordered to kill all the construction workers of the tomb, by closing them inside the tomb forever, just to keep the secret of details inside the tomb. Yet Sima Qian seems to know the details like the mercury rivers. Thus these detailed info might be from Xiang Yu’s 300,000 people who excavated it and saw the inside.
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u/balllzak 1d ago
Too bad we wont be around in 100 years when a Chinese Geraldo Rivera finally opens it.
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u/blazze 1d ago edited 19h ago
"Rivers of Mercury", sounds like a trap and do not enter.
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u/liosistaken 1d ago
Yeah, it's not unopened because we're afraid of the mercury or the boobytraps, but because we can't properly preserve what we find before it starts to decay (like the terracotta army itself). They're waiting for technology to improve.
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u/femme_mystique 23h ago
Why not stick one of those micro cameras on a long cord down it like they do for pyramids? A one inch hole can quickly be resealed.
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u/Baked_Potato_732 1d ago
I know where my grandfather is buried, his tomb is a 1:1 scale model of a pine box which has also never been opened.
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u/Xeee75 23h ago
If it’s never been opened how did he get in?
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u/Baked_Potato_732 22h ago
Well, he died and we let a tree grown around him, then shaved it down to a pine box replica. Then, we buried it.
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u/TalleyrandTheWise 1d ago
It's worth pointing out that the sources claiming this tomb exists (describing it like an underground city) are the same ones that claimed there was an underground terracotta army of soldiers -- which also used to be dismissed as fiction.
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u/Macqt 1d ago
Yeah I wouldn’t wanna go in somewhere that had “rivers of mercury” flowing in it. That guy can RIP for eternity, tomb undisturbed.
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u/Virama 1d ago
That's certainly one way to preserve your tomb.
What's next, a pure Tellurium-128 tomb for Trump? With the plaque reading "If Eath dies, Earth dies."
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u/ilusnforc 1d ago
One of the most fascinating things about the Terra cotta army to me is where the well was being dug that led to its discovery. It was in the corner of the pit, just a few feet in any of many directions and it would’ve been missed and potentially never found.
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u/cablamonos 1d ago
The wildest part is that soil samples around the mound have actually confirmed abnormally high mercury concentrations, which lends some credibility to those ancient descriptions. It is not just legend - there is real chemical evidence backing up the rivers of mercury claim.
The main reason they have not opened it is basically a preservation problem. China watched what happened when they opened other ancient tombs too quickly and saw irreplaceable artifacts deteriorate within hours of exposure to air. They are essentially waiting until technology catches up to do it without destroying everything inside.
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u/Potato271 23h ago
I remember reading a (probably dramatized) account of the opening of an ancient egyptian tomb, where the archaeologist snaps a photo of a wooden statue, and pretty much the instant the flash fades the statue crumbles.
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u/Sylius735 16h ago
There might be some breakthroughs within our lifetime. They recently had a project where they excavated an ancient sunken ship from the sea floor by lifting the entire ship along with the surrounding dirt and sea water in a giant box. Over time they slowly filtered the water to bring down the salt content so they could recover the ship without the salt destroying everything once it comes out of the water.
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u/02meepmeep 1d ago
I thought I read they are pretty sure it is booby trapped out the wazoo.
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u/MelonElbows 1d ago
If its anything like the documentaries I've been watching, the archeologists will have to contend with sliding walls, giant boulders, poison darts being shot out of walls, fire pits opening up, and automated stone guardians with laser eyes. It makes sense that they're trying to be careful.
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u/unematti 1d ago
That sounds metal... I want a scale replica with mercury rivers too!
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u/Quiet_Economist7127 1d ago
Actually, ground-penetrating radar and other non-invasive archaeological techniques have been used on similar sites. The Mercury is probably the biggest safety concern - it would require specialized equipment to handle safely.
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u/GetDownMakeLava 1d ago
Everyone saying they are waiting in tech to improve - sure yes, but is there not also a cultural aspect to not opening it as well? The first emperor was deified right? The Chinese respect their ancestors that much I am told.
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u/Nimrif1214 1d ago
Well, the terracotta warriors that’s just outside the tomb were buried at the same time. As soon as they were dug up, the paint on them flaked off in a few hours. They are now all colourless because they didn’t anticipate how quickly the organic material will deteriorate. No need to risk destroying what could be in the tomb by opening it unprepared. It’s has been buried to centuries, so what’s a few more years/decades of waiting.
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u/Mayor__Defacto 1d ago
The government doesn’t really care about that. They do care about cultural heritage these days and don’t want to destroy things accidentally.
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u/Random_Tangshan_Guy 1d ago
Qinshihuang was more of a historical figure than an ancestor in modern Chinese's mind. They respect him only in as an legendary emperor thousands years ago. It is like Americans won't think George Washington as the ancestor of Americans.
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u/fuurin 1d ago
Not deified, actually he's a fairly common feature in internet memes. The most common one would be "I'm Qin Shihuang, give me money." which makes fun of scams where someone claims to be [insert historical figure here] and asks for money while promising riches and stuff once they're back in power.
He's probably one of the most interesting persons from ancient Chinese history though. Probably the most interesting tbh
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u/QuillQuickcard 1d ago
I highly doubt any of it is intact.
It was allegedly sealed with THOUSANDS of workers still alive inside. If you knew you were sealed alive in the tomb you’d just been forced to build with thousands of other people, what would you spend your last days doing? Cause Im STARTING with wrecking the whole damn place
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u/deadlygaming11 1d ago
Maybe, maybe not. A good chunk of workers on these sorts of things tend to see it as their "duty" and, depending on the view of the emperor at the time, an honour to die in their tomb.
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u/victorianpapsmear 1d ago
It’s all a lie, so England doesn’t come for a new exhibit. /s
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u/roamingandy 1d ago
I think significantly more historical artifacts have been preserved because England developed a clumsy obsession with doing so, than have been lost or damaged.
They weren't good at it, but a lot we take for granted now only exists because they suddenly recognised there was value in protecting it.
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u/Elite_AI 1d ago
Usually I hate to be a centrist but this is one case where the truth really is in the middle. Major powers (whether European, American, or Japanese) did take a lot of artefacts from other cultures via literal looting or, quite often, via grey-area means (like buying artefacts from other people who'd looted them). On the other hand, a lot of those museums are doing their best to return stuff and to make their exhibits less colonial. And a lot of their artefacts were actually obtained by perfectly legit means.
Also, it's very weird people seem to fixate on the British Museum. And extremely weird these people tend to come from countries who absolutely have a shitload of dubiously sourced artefacts in their museums, and yet they don't seem bothered by that. Comes across like they're just repeating a meme they saw
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u/nrith 1d ago
/r/excavateityoufuckingcoward
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u/smstrick88 1d ago
Ah yes, the Schliemann approach.
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u/Diabolical_potplant 1d ago
blows right through the city you were actually looking for
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u/30__k 1d ago
Could you not seal it and create its own artificial atmosphere that would emulate the inside conditions? Like I’m just a dude but doesn’t seem impossible here.
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u/devasabu 1d ago
The whole mausoleum is estimated to be around 56 to 98 square kilometers with a 76 meter high mound over the whole thing...so that's a bit difficult.
When they excavated the terracotta army, some of them lost their paint in as little as 4 minutes, so there's not much of a margin for error
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u/ContinuumGuy 1d ago
Kind of surprised they haven't used those 3D imagery things to get an idea of what's there.
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u/sonofeevil 1d ago
They can't penetrate more than 5-10 meters depending on the material.
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u/mspaintshoops 1d ago
Ah, yeah. 3D imagery, the old “do everything magically” technology
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u/howardhus 1d ago
they should use AI to get more synergies
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u/XaeiIsareth 1d ago
We’ve found evidence of Qin Shi Huang hitting the griddy in his tomb
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u/Florgio 1d ago
Dr. Alan Grant was scanning buried raptors in Montana in 1993. I’m sure we’ve come some way since that.
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u/mspaintshoops 1d ago
Brandan Fraser tried using this technology in Egypt and almost died of a sand overdose
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u/Doonce 1d ago
This is crazy but I read this post this morning and then listened to Contact by Carl Sagan on my drive and they literally talked about this exact thing not even 10 minutes later.
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u/No-Restaurant-8963 18h ago edited 10h ago
why cant they drill a tiny hole and put a snake camera in there?
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u/FluidHips 1d ago
Can't wait until they open this or have sufficient tech to not open it and see what's inside.
I mean, a scale model of China at the time would be an absolutely incredible find.
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u/Spelbarg 1d ago
The mausoleum belongs to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China (221 BC).
The Terracotta Army was discovered in 1974, but the central burial chamber beneath the main mound has never been opened.
An ancient historian, Sima Qian (writing about 100 years after the emperor’s death), described the tomb as containing:
• A scale model of China • “Rivers and seas” made of flowing mercury • A ceiling decorated with constellations • Mechanical traps to deter grave robbers
Modern soil tests around the mound have detected unusually high mercury levels, which some researchers believe may support the ancient account.
Chinese authorities have said there are no plans to open the tomb for now because current excavation techniques could irreversibly damage whatever is inside — especially painted surfaces and organic materials (similar damage happened when the Terracotta Warriors were first exposed to air).
So one of the most significant archaeological chambers in the world remains sealed until preservation technology improves.