TOMB:

Ming Mausoleums directly under the peak of this symbolic burial mound, the question had always been: How to approach it?

The broken wall might be the place. And remember, this was in May 1956.

“The bricks had gone and there was a big hole about half a meter in diameter,” Yang says. “Since it was three meters above the ground, the team members had to set up a human ladder to reach the hole and take a peek inside. It was a peek that would change the contemporary history of the Dingling Mausoleum.”

The rim of the hole appears to its examiners like the upper edge of an arched gate. Peeking inside, the man at the top of the human ladder also glimpsed brick marks — marks left on earth indicating the previous existence of bricks. What according to some villagers had been a hiding place for local bandits reminded the archaeologists of the entrance to a secret tunnel.

Difficult quest

So they began digging. Two hours later, a stone stele was unearthed bearing the characters sui dao men, or tunnel gate. Ten days later, as the team arrived at 4.2 meters underground, they discovered brick walls on both sides of an 8-meter-wide path that ran along the circular wall of the Treasure City. In retrospect, the path, called “the brick tunnel” was the route the colossal coffins of the emperor and his two empresses traveled after their arrival at the mausoleum.

Just when most people were about to give up, the emperor, if you like, sent another beckoning.”