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E-Pang palace

Updated: 2011-02-11 14:51

(Cultural-china.com)

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As a palace in the Qin Dynasty, E-Pang Palace was initially built in 212BC, with the site located in E-Pang Village, western suburb of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.

E-Pang palace 

After Emperor Qin Shi Huang united China, the national power as well as the population in its capital Xianyang was undergoing continuous growth. In 212BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huang commanded to build E-Pang Palace. However, due to the huge scale of the project, only a front palace was completed during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. According to the calculation performed in line with the recordation in Historical Records • Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Biography, the front palace of E-Pang Palace is 690m wide, 115m long, covering an area of approximately 80,000 square meters. Legend has it that there were over 700 palaces of various sizes, which contained huge quantity of treasure and accommodated numerous beauties.

E-Pang palace

The palace was burned down in the late Qin Dynasty when Xiang Yu (a leader of a rebel army at that time) led the insurgents to attack Xianyang. This fact is reflected in Rhapsody on E-Pang Palace, a famous work written by Du Mu, a renowned poet in the Tang Dynasty.

E-Pang palace

A large earth podium built by rammed earth is still seen in the south of E-Pang Village. It is approximately 310m long and 20m high, being named by the locals as "Heaven Approaching Roof of Emperor Qin Shi Huang". Close to the southwest of the village stands a rectangle mesa with an area of approximately 260,000 square meters, which is named "Meiwu Mountain". These two locations are the most prominent architectural vestiges on the relics of E-Pang Palace.

E-Pang palace

In 1994, relics of E-Pang Palace was confirmed by the UNESCO to rank the first among all ancient buildings in the world in terms of scale and intactness, and thereby was confirmed as one of the miracles and famous relics in the world and crowned as "The First Palace under Heaven".

 

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