BEIJING - Chinese researchers say they have found a strange pyramid-shaped chamber while surveying the massive underground tomb of China's first emperor. Remote sensing equipment has revealed what appears to be a 100-foot-high room above Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb near the ancient capital of Xi'an in Shaanxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The room has not been excavated. Diagrams of the chamber are based on data gathered over five years using radar and other remote sensing technologies, the news agency said.
Archaeologist Liu Qingzhu of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was quoted as saying the room is unlike any ever found in a Chinese tomb.
"Qin himself was very unusual, so it's not unexpected that his tomb should also be unique," Liu told the news agency.
Archaeologists theorize that because the room was built on top of Qin's mausoleum and seems to have ladder-like steps leading up, it was intended as a passageway for his spirit, Xinhua said.
Qin is credited with starting construction of the Great Wall and commissioning an army of Terracotta soldiers to guard his tomb. Thousands of the Terracotta warriors were discovered more than 20 years ago by peasants from a local commune who were sinking wells.
Archaeologist Liu Qingzhu of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was quoted as saying the room is unlike any ever found in a Chinese tomb.
"Qin himself was very unusual, so it's not unexpected that his tomb should also be unique," Liu told the news agency.
Archaeologists theorize that because the room was built on top of Qin's mausoleum and seems to have ladder-like steps leading up, it was intended as a passageway for his spirit, Xinhua said.
Qin is credited with starting construction of the Great Wall and commissioning an army of Terracotta soldiers to guard his tomb. Thousands of the Terracotta warriors were discovered more than 20 years ago by peasants from a local commune who were sinking wells.
The new finds are forcing a re-examination of old Chinese books that describe historical or legendary figures of great height, with deep-set blue or green eyes, long noses, full beards, and red or blond hair. Scholars have traditionally scoffed at these accounts, but it now transpires that these accounts were correct.
The discoveries in the 1980s of the undisturbed 4,000-year-old ”Beauty of Loulan” and the younger 3,000-year-old body of the ”Charchan Man” are legendary in world archaeological circles for the fine state of their preservation and for the wealth of knowledge they bring to modern research.
"From the evidence available, we have found that during the first 1,000 years after the Loulan Beauty, the only settlers in the Tarim Basin were Caucasoid.” East Asian peoples only began showing up in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin about 3,000 years ago, Mair said.
The Mongol leader Temujin (AD 1167-1227), better known by his title Genghis Khan (Universal Ruler), was a man of strongly Nordic racial ancestry. According to the Persian historian Ab ul Ghasi, the tribal clan to which Temujin belonged, were known as the Bourchikoun (Grey-Eyed Men).
The ancestral mother and founder of this clan was known as Alan goa (beautiful Alan).
According to the Mongol and Chinese legends on the subject, she was said to have been visited in her tent by a divine being, who possessed golden hair, a fair complexion and grey eyes. Shortly after this visitation, she gave birth to the first member of the Bourchikoun clan.
Temujin himself was noted in Chinese descriptions of him, for his tall stature and heavy beard. We should also note the following depiction of Temujin's appearance, as given by Harold Lamb, in his biography of the great Khan:
Temujin himself was noted in Chinese descriptions of him, for his tall stature and heavy beard. We should also note the following depiction of Temujin's appearance, as given by Harold Lamb, in his biography of the great Khan:
And his eyes were green, or blue-grey in the iris, with black pupils. Long reddish-brown hair fell in braids to his back."
Ab ul Ghasi also observed that the family of Yesugai, the father of Temujin, were known for the fact that their children often had fair complexions, and blue or grey eyes. Temujin's wife, Bourtai, bore a name which means "Grey-Eyed".
Temujin's relatives and descendants also possessed fair features: Temujin's son and successor Ogadei, had gray eyes and red hair; Temujin's grandson Mangu, had reddish eyebrows and a red-brown beard; Subatei, who conquered China, had a long, reddish beard. Indeed, it was said that people were surprised Kubilai Khan had dark hair and eyes, because most of Genghis Khan's descendants had reddish hair and blue eyes.
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