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| Mausoleum of the Northern Song Dynasty
Emperors |
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The Imperial Tombs of the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhengzhou, it is
located in Gongxian county in Henan province, the tombs cover an area
of some 160 square kilometres. Nine emperors of the Northern Song
were buried here along with 22 empresses and more than 1000 members
of the imperial family.
Located at the place 70 km away from the west of Zhengzhou, it
is the largest group of mausoleums of various emperors in Central
China. There are 9 emperors in the Northern Song Dynasty, except
for that the Emperors Hui and Qin captured by Jin troops died in
Mobei, their tombs cannot be found clearly, the other 7 emperors
and Zhao Hongyin (the first emperor, Taizu's father) were buried
here, so it is called "7 Emperors, but 8 Tombs". In addition,
there are 21 empresses' tombs and 144 tombs including princes, princess,
emperor's sons, the emperor's grandsons and emperor's wives, 7 tombs
including famous generals and officials (including Bao Gong and
Kou Zhun, etc), over 200 tombs including the emperors' descendants
and relatives. The group of mausoleums with 15 km from south to
north and 10 km from east to west were formed there. Among which,
there are good reception conditions in the Yongzhao Tomb and Yongding
Tomb (Emperor Zhen Zong's tomb). The constructions of Song Tombs
almost are the same facing south and consisting of "Upper Palace",
"Palace Wall", "Underground Palace" and "Down
Palace". In the front of each tomb, there are stone characters
including guard watching pole, elephant, elephant slave, sheep,
lion, civil & military officials, horse and horseman, etc. It
is the only figure group for the Song Dynasty in China. |
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