--- title: Mounds claim their rightful place in history description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/mounds-claim-their-rightful-place-in-history/ article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-06-18T14:27:42.761Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-09T07:28:09.949Z article:section: Paid Content og:title: Mounds claim their rightful place in history og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  _This content was paid for and prepared by China Daily, an official publication of the People's Republic of China. The TIME editorial and advertising departments were not involved in the creation of this content._ A bird’s-eye view of Mausoleum No. 3, the largest one among the Xixia Imperial Tombs. PROVIDED BY YINCHUAN XIXIA IMPERIAL TOMBS MANAGEMENT OFFICE TO CHINA DAILY By WANG KAIHAO and WANG RU In 1227, a dynasty in Northwest China was finally defeated by the Mongol army after a campaign led by Genghis Khan. Xixia (or Western Xia, 1038-1227), a power spread across over 444,000 square miles at its zenith, eventually fell in the Gobi Desert. Established by the Tangut people and inhabited by various ethnic groups, Xixia was not documented in a specific history book by its successors the way most Chinese dynasties were. However, at the foot of the lingering Helan Mountains, a group of earthen mounds conceal an exceptional saga, not only as a footnote on how a united Chinese nation evolved and boomed, but also about a neglected legend on the Silk Road. The spotlight returns to this site on the outskirts of Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui autonomous region. On July 11, Xixia Imperial Tombs achieved World Heritage Site status during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in Paris. Within the 15 square miles of the property zone, its key elements included nine imperial mausoleums, 271 subordinate tombs, 32 flood control work sites, and a 12.4-acre architectural complex site to the north. The 11th to 13th centuries, the time of Xixia, witnessed a key era of political standoff and cultural communications in China. The Song Dynasty (960-1279), celebrated for its culture and art in Chinese history, ruled central and southern China. The Khitan and Jurchen peoples successively established the Liao (916-1125) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties to the north. The rise of Mongols on the grassland then further greatly changed the geopolitical environment. “Xixia people demonstrated their perseverance and wisdom in the complicated circumstance,” says Chen Tongbin, honorary director of the Institute of Architectural History, affiliated to the China Architecture Design and Research Group. “They were adept at learning and creativity. They relied on both agriculture and nomads.” In her eyes, Xixia Imperial Tombs remain a crucial witness to such cultural fusion and innovation resulting from interactions among diverse ethnic groups, modes of livelihoods and cultures. The tombs manifest such features through site selection, spatial layout, burial system, architecture, construction techniques, funerary customs, and so on, Chen says. In the 1930s, when a German pilot flew over what is now known as Mausoleum No. 3 — the largest tomb among the complex — and took aerial pictures, he described it as “a huge anthill.” Its true identity as a site of imperial tombs only re-emerged in the 1970s when Chinese archaeologists first launched excavations on the site. The “anthill” is actually a circular mausoleum pagoda. Half a century’s continuous research has greatly cleared questions surrounding the site, according to Chai Pingping, an archaeologist with the Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology who is in charge of recent research on Xixia Imperial Tombs. Broken pieces of stele that were inscribed with Tangut scripts and Chinese characters, architectural components, gold artifacts, sandstone statues, Buddhist relics, and so on, gradually provide a panorama of Xixia imperial life. As experts point out, the imperial tombs follow traditional Chinese geomancy, feng shui. “Through archaeological studies, we can see the layout and design of Xixia Imperial Tombs absorbed many elements from Tang (618-907) and Song dynasties,” Chai says. “It also has its own features.” Xixia people used pagodas to replace the shrines, which were often seen in Tang and Song mausoleums to honor the tomb occupants’ souls. “Xixia people adopted many traditions from other Chinese dynasties,” Chen agrees. “But they displayed their creativity in details.” Xixia founding ruler Yuanhao’s creation of Tangut script, whose formation basically followed that of Chinese characters, is an example of Chen’s views. Xixia also honored Confucius as “an emperor” and became the only dynasty known to do so in Chinese history. Perhaps the design of the imperial tombs is another proof. Though a tomb is basically symmetrical along an axis, the sacrificial hall, the mound above the tomb passageway, the pagoda, and burial chamber are located along another skewed line. “It may reflect the traditional Tangut beliefs: the central axis is left to pay homage to ghosts and deities,” Chen explains. According to Du Jianlu, a history professor on Xixia studies, the time when the Song, Liao, Xixia and Jin dynasties coexisted was an important period for various ethnic groups of China to merge and form a shared community. “Khitan, Tangut and Jurchen ethnic groups communicated and integrated with the Han people for a long time,” Du says. “They gradually absorbed the traditional material and spiritual culture of the Han and, vice versa, they also spread their own customs. It thus enriches the connotations of Chinese civilization.” _Hu Dongmei contributed to this story._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/mounds-claim-their-rightful-place-in-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/mounds-claim-their-rightful-place-in-history/"},"headline":"Mounds claim their rightful place in history","datePublished":"2026-06-18T14:27:42.761Z","dateModified":"2026-06-09T07:28:09.949Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/mounds-claim-their-rightful-place-in-history/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"Paid Content","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/mounds-claim-their-rightful-place-in-history/","name":"Mounds claim their rightful place in history"}}]}] ```