The Xixia Imperial Tombs, also known as the Xixia Imperial Mausoleums and the Xixia Imperial Mausoleums, are the imperial tombs and royal tombs of the Western Xia dynasties. The Royal Tomb is located in the west of Yinchuan City, Ningxia, with Helan Mountain in the west and Yinchuan Plain in the east. It is between 1,130 meters and 1,200 meters above sea level. It is one of the largest existing imperial cemeteries with the most complete ground ruins in China. It is also the largest existing Xixia cultural sites. ?[1]?
The Xixia royal tombs were built from the beginning of the 11th century to the beginning of the 13th century. The royal mausoleums of the Western Xia Dynasty were influenced by Buddhist architecture, which organically combined Han culture, Buddhist culture, and Dangxiang culture, forming a unique form of mausoleum architecture in my country. Among the 119 national key scenic spots in China, the Xixia Mausoleum is the only scenic spot composed of a single imperial tomb. It inherits the history of the Tuoba clan of Xianbei from Pingcheng in the Northern Wei Dynasty to Dangxiang and Xixia.
The scenic area covers an area of ??more than 58 square kilometers, and the core scenic area is 20.9 square kilometers. There are 9 imperial mausoleums and more than 200 tombs of princes and relatives. It is grand in scale and neatly laid out. Each imperial mausoleum is an independent building group in the shape of a vertical rectangle facing north and south, and its scale is comparable to the Ming Tombs. It absorbed the strengths of imperial mausoleums of the Tang and Song Dynasties since the Qin and Han dynasties, and was also influenced by Buddhist architecture, forming a unique form among Chinese mausoleum architecture, so it is also known as the Oriental Pyramid.
In 1988, the Xixia Tombs were listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit and a national key scenic spot. In 2006, they were included in China’s national natural and cultural dual heritage preliminary list; in 2011, the Xixia Tombs National Archaeological Site Park and the World Cultural heritage declaration work; in 2012, the Xixia Mausoleum was included in the preliminary list of China's World Cultural Heritage by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. [2] On April 13, 2018, it was shortlisted for the "100 Magical Scenes of the Northwest". It was rated as "China's 50 Yellow River Scenes" at the 2018 China Yellow River Tourism Conference.
The Xixia Royal Tombs are located at the eastern foot of Helan Mountain, 30 kilometers west of Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The mausoleum area starts from Quanqigou in the north and ends at Yinba Highway in the south. It is about 10 kilometers long from north to south; it borders Xigan Canal in the east. It borders Helan Mountain to the west, is about 5 kilometers wide from east to west, and covers a total area of ??about 50 square kilometers. The mausoleum area is located on the east side of the southern section of the middle section of Helan Mountain. It is a piedmont alluvial fan zone with an altitude of 1150-1220 meters. The ground surface is covered with gravel and coarse sand. The foundation has large bearing capacity, poor water retention, and good natural drainage conditions. The good foundation enabled the Xixia royal tombs to successfully survive many major earthquakes in the history of the northwest region. The location of the cemetery has low rainfall all year round, so the possibility of flash floods is very low, which is conducive to the overall protection of the cemetery. ?[5]?When it was first built, each cemetery had underground mausoleums, tombs, above-ground buildings and gardens, each covering an independent area of ??about 100,000 square meters, with roughly the same shape and layout.