The Lion Hill Tomb is the tome of Liu Wu, the third Prince of Chu. It took archaeologists half a year to excavate the huge tomb. The excavation has made a great contribution to the study of the politics, economy, culture, military practices, and geography of the early Western Han Dynasty. For this reason it was listed as the first of the ten most important archaeological discoveries in China in 1995.

The tomb is 117 meters long and covers an area of 851 square metres. It is the most magnificent Han tomb in Xuzhou and consists of an outside corridor,  an  inside  corridor, a courtyard and the main chambers. Now we are standing in the half -finished extension of  the outside corridor. Have you noticed the carved  stones untidily pild here? This is quite unusual as the entrance of the tomb should have been perfect. The stones must be the rough stones  intended as 'blocking stones' and it seems that the entrance was not finished when the master died a sudden death.

The main part of the outside corridor is the best spot to enjoy an imposing view of the whole tomb. The walls were carved 2000 years ago by  hollowing out the whold hilland it is still a mystery today how such an enormous project was completed only by hands. The average depth is fourteen metres, and it is as high as a five-storey building. The fact that it is so deep and narrow helps create an atmosphere of eternity, appropriate to such an excavation.

Near the doorways to the chambers, archaeologists  discovered have an official in charge of the prince's diet buried in it. This is the first discovery of such a servant's tomb placed at the  entrance of the main tomb.

See you next time, we will bring more interesting introduction  of Lion Hill Tomb of the Han Dynasty~