7 Crazy FEATURES of the First Emperor of China's Tomb | Learn Chinese Now

the first emperor of China Huang a lovely fellow with an appetite for conquering other states killing members of his own family surviving assassination attempts building walls burying Scholars Alive Burning books and a search for a 1 000 year old Taoist wizard to teach him the recipe to the elixir of life he sent out 3 000 young men and three thousand young women on a voyage to find it but they never came back Legend has it they discovered Japan and settled there instead of coming back to China and I don't blame them they probably didn't want to get buried alive but I think deep down chinsho Huang knew that he was only mortal because before he had even conquered all of China he already started building his tomb near Xiang the capital of the Qin State and later all of China which is modern day Xi'an his tomb is an incredible structure which has yet to be excavated with many secrets hidden within such as rivers of molten metal an army of several thousand life-sized Terracotta soldiers and even booby traps so in this video we are going to give you seven incredible facts about the first emperor of China's tomb number one immense size the tomb complex took 38 years and 700 000 workers to complete according to the writings of Summer Chen in the shuji the tomb complex or the extent of it which has been discovered covers 3.9 square miles and this sits within the world heritage site area that has over 600 sites related to the chin Emperor's tomb that covers an area of 56 square kilometers or 21 square miles archaeologists have even found the foundations of an Imperial Palace one quarter of the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing Palace consists of 18 Courtyard style houses and one main building that overlooks them the palace foundations were Unearthed in 2010 and archaeologists have found the remains of walls Gates brickwork and pottery from the Qin dynasty 2 200 years ago but the buildings are not still standing this is just foundations and ruins however there is one thing that is still standing and that is number two the pyramid why do ancient civilizations all love pyramids you can see them from Egypt to Mexico to China all right I know they're for landing alien spaceships on top of that's the most likely explanation but pyramids have also been used all over the world for tombs although the ones in China are kind of in Disguise they are made of rammed Earth so now most of them have vegetation growing on top of them some Farmers even grew rice and other crops on them and they end up just looking like small hills the pyramid or burial mound that sits above the first emperor of China's burial chamber was originally 76 meters or 249 feet tall and around 50 meters or 164 feet of that survives that puts it at about half the height of the Luxor Hotel Pyramid in Las Vegas and about one third of the height of the great pyramid at Giza in Egypt however it is what's under the ground that is most impressive number three terracotta warriors in 1974 some workers in the area were drilling a well when they Unearthed a chamber with 8 000 terracotta warriors standing in formation inside these clay soldiers were to protect the Qin emperor in the afterlife and they have become the world famous Terracotta Army the clay figures come in several variations but they do have individually detailed faces there are also horses and chariots and some of the soldiers are carrying swords made out of an unusual 13 element alloy and they are still sharp to this day the main pits where the Terracotta Army were found are about three quarters of a mile from the main area of the Tomb the soldiers face East the direction of the Qin Army's campaign to conquer all of China but these Warriors are still not inside the tomb itself so let's now actually take you below the pyramid into the chin Emperor's burial chamber number four buried under three underground Rivers historian samachien wrote that workers dug down through three Springs or underground rivers and poured bronze down to seal the tomb and create the outer coffin there's also an underground Dam that protects the tomb from groundwater and it is 84 meters or 275 feet thick at its thickest point and it's made from a different type of Earth as the surrounding area this has stopped groundwater from entering the tomb but it isn't just water that the first emperor wanted to keep out number 5. booby traps terms of important people in history are all known for one thing booby traps of the first Emperor's tomb historian samachian wrote this Artisans were ordered to install mechanically triggered crossbows set to shoot any Intruder so the idea is that anyone who tried to raid the tomb would face a barrage of arrows since other parts of samachan's writings about the first Emperor's tomb have been proven true in science we'll tell you what those are in a moment it is safe to assume that there really are mechanical crossbows inside the first Emperor's tomb but would they work 2 200 years later it is highly likely that the metal has corroded or fused together and the wood or rope elements have already decomposed so probably no but still Chinese authorities have not allowed for the tune to be explored yet and this is probably due to this and some other reasons like our next one number six rivers of Mercury sonatian wrote in the Shruti Mercury was used to represent the various waterways of the Yangtze and yellow rivers and the great sea being made by some mechanism to flow into each other and above they were arranged the Heavenly constellations and Below was the layout of the land so the tomb was literally supposed to have liquid mercury flowing through a map of the waterways of the Chinese Empire and this is one of the facts that has been proven through scientific study or at least the presence of mercury has been proven a 1983 study of soil samples on the burial mound detected high levels of mercury compared to the standard background levels in the area the author stated the anomaly presented a direct evidence for the authenticity of accounts stated in the shuji that there existed a large Mercury Reservoir in the underground basement of The Emperor's Mausoleum then there was also a 2016 study using laser beams to detect Mercury emissions seeping out of cracks in the burial Mount this study also concluded that there were indeed elevated levels of mercury in the air above the tomb so it seems the chin did have the ability to produce large quantities of mercury to fill up underground rivers and seas and this Mercury thus added another layer of difficulty to any potential grave robber who did get past the mechanical crossbows the Mercury would give off a poisonous gas that would likely kill anyone that inhaled it and that's just as well because the tomb contained valuable artifacts that the emperor would need in the afterlife number Seven Treasures sunachan wrote In The City replicas of palaces Pavilions all the various officials and wonderful vessels and other rare objects were brought up to the tomb which was then filled with them so we know that this tomb like other tombs was filled with the emperor's wealth in the form of jewelry gold and Priceless artifacts thank you we don't know the value of the wealth inside the main chamber of the Tomb because it hasn't been allowed to be excavated yet however we do have some idea of the value of the Terracotta Army one Terracotta Warrior costs 4.5 million dollars we know this because there was a court case against a young guy who snuck into a Terracotta Warrior exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia he took a cheeky selfie with one of the Warriors and then he proceeded to remove the Warrior's thumb and the prosecution quoted the price of a single warrior in court when trying to work out the value of the thumb that he stole interestingly this case resulted in a mistrial because 24 year old Michael Rohana had been charged using laws reserved for jewelry thieves and major Museum thefts but his lawyer even said in court that this was not Ocean's 11 or Mission Impossible it was just a case of youthful vandalism and Mr Rohana didn't even try to sell the thumb he just kept it in a draw not knowing its value not really even knowing what to do with it the jury ended up not reaching a verdict and thus he got off scot-free I think he had to return the Thunder but anyway if one Terracotta Warrior costs 4.5 million dollars then the whole 8 000 of them would cost around 36 billion if we add in the value of the other chariots and other types of figures that were with the Terracotta Army the horses Etc it gets you to around 50 billion dollars in Bali but we don't know how much more value is buried inside the main burial chamber it could be another 50 billion worth of treasure and now for the piece of evidence that makes me think that what's buried inside is really valuable samachan wrote after the burial had taken place someone mentioned the fact that the workers and craftsmen who had constructed the mechanical devices would know about all the buried treasures and the importance of the treasures would immediately be disclosed consequently when the Great occasion was finished and after the treasures had been hidden away the main entrance way to the tomb was shut off and the outer gate lowered so that all the workers and craftsmen who had buried the treasure inside were shut in and there were none who came out again so the emperor's son actually had all of the key Craftsmen who'd buried the treasure inside the tomb and knew its Secrets buried alive inside with the emperor and thus they could never divulge the secrets of the Tomb to anyone because they'd be dead in addition to that the emperor's concubines who did not have children were also buried alive in the Tomb to accompany the emperor in the afterlife I mean at least he spared the ones that did have children what a nice fellow so if you did manage to make it past the crossbows and the rivers of mercury and break into the tomb not only will you find a vault of buried treasure but you will also find a collection of the most beautiful women in China the skeletons of the most beautiful women in China and on that note I think I have heard enough about the first emperor of China I think if I lived in chin times I probably would have been buried alive by now too simply for writing this script and disrespecting the emperor the first Emperor's achievement of uniting all of China was Monumental but the means with which he did it and the Iron Fist he ruled with afterwards caused a lot of suffering to millions of people fortunately his dynasty was short-lived and shortly after he died rebellions erupted that paved the way for the Han Dynasty China's first golden age but the first emperor certainly left his mark on China a Mark that can never be forgotten thanks for watching guys please subscribe to the channel for more cultural historical and linguistic content about China and we'll see you in the next video bye-bye