The Architecture of the Bedchamber of the Emperor Qin Mausoleum

The mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin Shi Huangdi is located on the north side of the earthen mound, and in 1979 archaeologists discovered this large building site by drilling, covering a total area of 3,524 square metres. The investigation revealed that the central part of the site was the base of a high platform, a palace built on a rammed high earth platform and surrounded by a corridor 3-5 metres wide. The southern half is divided into two curved ruler-shaped units by two partition walls 1-2 metres wide. Experts believe that the curved unit to the side belongs to the front corridor and side halls, while the inner curved unit belongs to the main hall section. The base of the hall is treated with great care, with four layers of cobblestones laid on a rammed earth platform, with fine sand filling the joints in between, and then a layer of mud applied to the cobblestones as the floor of the house. The walls around the hall are all rammed, and the walls are coated twice with mud before the white clay powder is applied to the walls for decoration. The walls are surrounded by coarse sand paved water (the water is laid around the building as a protective layer to prevent water from penetrating into the ground). A section of rammed earth foundation was found jutting outwards at the southern end of the cloister on the eastern side of the foundation, which archaeologists believe to be the entrance hall of the palace. The upper part of the site is covered with fragmentary tiles and red-burned earth, suggesting that this was originally a large, almost square, tile-roofed building of earth and timber construction, which was destroyed by fire.