Dingling Tomb
The splendid Ding Ling is the tomb of Emperor Wanli, Zhu Yijun, the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He ruled his great empire for 48 years, the longest for his whole dynasty. The historical documents reveals that the total cost for the tomb amazingly reached mover 8 million taels of silver, which was approximately equivalent to the entire tax income for two years of then government. Regarding the scale, Ding Ling is the third largest after Chang Ling and Yong Ling, its exquisite decorations, however enormously surpassed the other two. Most of the structure above the ground has disappeared except the Soul Tower. It is a magnificent building wholly made of stone and bricks, which may explains why it can survive. So far, Ding Ling is the only one that has been opened for archeological purpose. The underground palace is 27 meters deep with a total floor space of 1,195 square meters. It consists of five chambers: the antechamber, the central chamber, the rear chamber and two annex chambers on both sides of the central chamber. All of these chambers were built of stones, without using a single beam or column. The rear chamber is the main and the largest one in the underground palace. It is 30 meters long, 9.5 meters high and 9 meters wide, where three coffins (the largest one in the middle was for the emperor and the smaller one on two sides for the empresses). Beside the coffins, there were also 26 red-lacquered wooden boxes containing 3, 000 or so pieces of precious funeral objects. Among the unearthed items, a gold crown and a phoenix crown are the most amazing. The gold crown was woven with very fine gold filaments and has two dragons playing with a pearl on the top. The beautiful phoenix crown was for the empress only at grand ceremonies or big occasions. One of them was inlaid with over 5, 000 pearls of different sizes and more than 100 pieces of valuable gems. Today tourists can see these precious antiques in the exhibition halls of Ding Ling.
Zhao Ling is the ninth tombs of the 13, with the 12th emperor and his 3 empresses and concubines in it. What makes Zhao Ling distinct is its architecture above the ground, which is the best preserved and a typical layout of the Ming imperial tombs.
Read More about Ming Tombs
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