Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang: vast complex, terracotta army and mercury detections

July 21, 2026SpainGeneralShare

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Key facts

• This is the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang near Xi’an, China, not the Roman-period Mausoleum of the Atilii at Amiternum, Italy.
• Construction is generally dated from 246 to 208 BCE, ending about two years after Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BCE at age 49. Mercury pills are a proposed but unproven contributor to his death.
• Estimates commonly given for the complex are 700,000 workers and about 56 square kilometres. The surviving mound is approximately 76 metres high, not 50 metres, and its original height is uncertain.
• Pit 1, about 1.5 kilometres east of the mound, contains approximately 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots and 520 horses.
• Other excavated pits contain officials, acrobats, stables with animal remains, musicians and bronze aquatic birds, but these pits are separate from the largely unexcavated central tomb.
• Sima Qian described mercury rivers more than a century after Qin Shi Huang’s death but did not mention the terracotta army.
• Elevated soil mercury and mercury vapour detected above the site by a 2020 Chinese-Swedish remote-sensing study are consistent with Sima Qian’s account, but do not confirm underground mercury rivers or establish how much mercury remains inside.
• Ground-penetrating radar used in 2002 and a drilling probe in 2003 identified a large underground chamber complex, although most of the mausoleum remains unexcavated.

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