13 Tomb (十三陵)

After Emperor Zhu-Di (朱棣) seized the throne from his nephew, he shifted the capital of Ming's Dynasty from NanJing to BeiJing. The subsequent 12 emperors' of Ming's Dynasty hence ruled and died there~ Their bodies were buried in the Royal Cemetery known as the 13 Tomb. The one we visited was the only mausoleum being unearth and open for visitors. Ding's Mausoleum (定陵) belongs to Emperor Wan-Li （万历帝） which was among the most spendthrift and cruel emperor in Ming's history. According to records, Wan-Li love alcohol and would whack his servant to death every time he was drunk~ Kinda crazy eh?~

 

The full plan of Ding's Mausoleum 

It was a thirty minutes journey from the great wall...but make sure you board the right bus......

The architecture was similar to the Mausoleum of Zhu-Yuan-Zhang

When the archeologist tried to find the entrance into the underground palace about 50 years ago, they found multiple Written tiles saying the palace was just right below how many foot, how thick is the wall...... just to confuse tomb raider~ This is one of the failed attempt~

Need to scan your belonging before going down the palace~

Kinda deep, definitely more than 6 feet underground~

Door made of Jed 

When they open up the Mausoleum, alot of artifact oxidized and spoilt, leaving behind an empty chamber

Kinda impressive for them to built such an underground palace so deep down~

Some of the things that will not get oxidized~

The left chamber was still un-open~

We are inside a Royal Mausoleum~

The original Metal Door

Thats how the archeologist break open the Mausoleum

This is the site where the real instruction for the tomb entrance was found, they called it the "Guiding Slab"

The original slab was now kept in the museum~

Picture from the museum on the original digging process back then

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