It covers an area the size of Cambridge but so far only a tiny proportion of the site of the First Emperor of China’s underground palace for the afterlife has been excavated.
Now Chinese archaeologists have used computerised imagery to complete a 3-D reconstruction of the giant tomb that lies 30 metres beneath a mound, with the Qinling mountains in the background.
The dramatic imagery has been made available to The Times by the historian John Man, before he publishes pictures and a detailed description of it in his book The Terracotta Army: China’s First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation next month. The reconstruction of the tomb has been put together by a team led by Duan Quingbo, of the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, and it is being made public as some of the greatest finds at the excavation site — including figures from the famous Terracotta Army — are due to go on display at the British Museum.
I'm going to be in China in November and plan on visiting this place.
I'm sure I'll be walking around and stumble into a hole somewhere, thus discovering the secret entrance to the Lost Tomb.