02x02 - Secrets of the First Emperor's Tomb

[bunniefuu]

[Host] Central China

and an iconic ancient treasure.

♪ ♪

The Terracotta Warriors.

♪ ♪

Detail is just unbelievable.

They take your breath away.

An entire army,
over 2,000 years old,

stands in formation,
ready for battle.

♪ ♪

But why?

For decades, archaeologists
have been unearthing

a vast, mysterious site
that surrounds them.

But much remains unexcavated
and undiscovered.

[whirring]

Can technology help
to reveal its secrets?

That's the real reason
that we're here.

To explore one of the world's

greatest ancient mysteries
from above.

♪ ♪

I'm Sam Willis, an archaeologist

and expert
in ancient civilizations,

and I'm going to investigate
China's distant past

from a whole new perspective.

♪ ♪

Today, state-of-the-art
satellites

and specialized drones
can reveal the earth

in stunning detail

and detect hidden archaeology,

enabling us to recreate
lost ancient worlds,

invisible to the naked eye.

♪ ♪

Working alongside
leading Chinese experts,

my team and I will travel
to some of the country's

most remote and incredible
landscapes.

And with cutting-edge science,

investigate previously
unknown cultures,

lost cities
and enduring legends.

♪ ♪

This is ancient China
as you've never seen it before.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

In the grass and scrubland
close to the Terracotta Army,

there's one feature
that stands out above all else.

The Terracotta Army
is guarding that.

Because buried beneath

that rather normal-looking hill
behind me

is actually one of
the world's greatest wonders:

the tomb of the First Emperor.

♪ ♪

The First Emperor is one
of the most important figures

in all Chinese history.

He started out
the 13-year-old ruler of Qin,

one of Seven Warring States.

For 25 years he fought
to conquer all the rest,

and by the time he was 38,
he'd succeeded,

awarding himself a new title,
Qin Shi Huang Di,

the first emperor of a vast land

that would eventually
become known as China.

He was the most powerful
man on Earth.

More than 2,000 years later,

his tomb,
hidden beneath the mound,

is rumored to contain
untold treasures.

But it's never been excavated,

and it's so revered that
there are no plans to do so.

And the secrets
of the tomb itself

seem to be just one part
of an even greater mystery.

♪ ♪

From space, lines can be seen
surrounding the tomb mound

that seem to form the perimeter
of a vast mausoleum

three times the size
of Beijing's Forbidden City.

But the Terracotta Warriors
are way beyond this perimeter,

almost a mile away to the east.

If they're guarding the tomb,
why are they so far away

and what else might lie
hidden underground?

Now, with my team of experts,
historian Douglas Flowe,

archaeologist Janice Li,

and tech team leader
Zhang Jianwei,

we'll work
with the archaeologists

making discoveries right now
across this huge ancient site,

and use the latest laser
technology for the first time,

to seek out unseen evidence

that could help to piece
this great puzzle together

and reveal the First Emperor's
entire mausoleum

as never before.

♪ ♪

Hi, guys.

Professor Zhang's tech team
are already getting to work.

[Team member 1, translated]
Is that alright?

[Team member 2, translated]
OK, then we're ready
to take off.

[Sam] They're using
two different drones.

The first uses photogrammetry,

combining hundreds
of photographs

into a detailed 3D model
of the ground.

The second uses a technology
called LiDAR.

Is this all ready
to go up, then?

[Zhang Jianwei] Yes.

[Sam] LiDAR fires millions
of laser pulses

to detect every feature
on the surface.

♪ ♪

I can't wait to see
what they pick up.

Together, they'll form
the most detailed picture ever

of the emperor's
mysterious creation.

The team is starting with the
feature at the heart of it all:

the burial mound that contains
the First Emperor's tomb.

It's going to be
quite some challenge.

Not only is the mound enormous,
but it's also covered in trees.

And what we're going to do is
use this new LiDAR drone

to do something very special.

Hopefully, it will allow us
to strip away the trees

and see the surface
of the ground itself.

It's never been done before,

so the results could be
truly groundbreaking.

According to an ancient text,
trees were planted

over the tomb mound
right after it was built,

so that it resembled
a natural hill.

And what this means is
that if our LiDAR works,

we will be the first people
in more than 2,000 years

to see every detail
of this remarkable construction

laid bare.

♪ ♪

After hundreds of images
and millions of data points...

-Hi, guys.
-Hello.

[Sam] How you doing?

We're ready to check out
the scans of the tomb

with mausoleum archaeologist
Shao Wenbin.

[Jianwei] This one is
the photogrammetry model.

[Sam] Right.

[Jianwei] So the whole area
of the mound.

[Sam] Wow!

[Jianwei] It looks like a hill,
but if we make it vertical.

[Sam] The photogrammetry
highlights

the distinctive square
of the mound.

[Shao Wenbin, translated]
The tomb mound we're seeing now,

this square shape,
is typical of all tomb mounds

belonging to the kings of Qin.

[Sam] But could the LiDAR scan
reveal more?

[Jianwei] I got something
even cooler to show you.

[Sam] Alright.
[laughs] Look at that!

[Jianwei] This was taken
by the drone LiDAR.

It looks similar,
but we can eliminate the trees.

[Sam] By isolating only
those laser points

that made it through
the thick forest cover,

we can do something that's
never been done before:

reveal the surface
of the tomb mound itself.

Wow!

That's amazing.

This is extraordinary.

You can see the mound
in incredible detail.

So we can see that the ridges
going up to the peak,

so it's like a pyramid.

[Jianwei] Yes. It's a pyramid
with a flat top.

[Sam] I'm never going to call it
a hill ever again.

That's no hill.

We're seeing this giant
manmade pyramid, without trees,

for the first time since it was
built over 2,000 years ago.

Even after two millennia
of erosion,

it still stands
more than 160 feet tall,

making it the biggest tomb
of a known individual

anywhere on the planet.

And then, in the data,
there's something intriguing.

[Jianwei] There seems to be
some lines here.

[Sam] Revealed on the surface
for the very first time,

something manmade seems
to be breaking through

the ground itself
in a perfect square.

But what could it be?

[Jianwei] Okay, now this area is
where we were just watching.

[Sam] On the surface
of a huge pyramid

concealing the tomb
of the First Emperor of China,

we're investigating
a mysterious manmade feature

revealed by LiDAR.

[Jianwei] Here seems higher
than this place, right?

[Sam] Yeah, yeah.

Could this be something to do

with the emperor's
hidden tomb itself?

Well, there's a clue
we could be onto something.


surveyed the mound

using remote sensing.

And using their models,
we created this graphic.

The data suggests
that hidden beneath the surface,

the emperor's tomb featured
thick, terraced earth walls



surrounding a void the size
of a soccer pitch,

with large entrance ramps

descending to a burial chamber
deep beneath.

Now our LiDAR reveals
something amazing.

This potential structure
lines up perfectly

with our mystery feature.

It seems that after


we could be seeing the top
of the First Emperor's tomb

emerging from the earth
for the first time ever!

So, we have an idea
of the tomb's structure.

The challenge now is just what
could lie hidden deep inside?

Fortunately there's a clue,
because that same ancient text

that described
the tree-covered surface

also gives details
of the tomb's interior.

Around a century after the death
of the First Emperor,

a man named Sima Qian
wrote this.

It's an epic narrative history

called the Records
of the Grand Historian.

Or in Chinese,
simply as the Shiji.

In it, he writes, "Craftsmen
were ordered to make crossbows

and arrows primed to sh**t
at anyone who enters the tomb."

"Quicksilver," that's mercury,
"was used to simulate rivers,

and set to flow mechanically.

Above were representations
of the heavenly constellations,

below, features of the land."

Booby traps,
heavenly constellations,

rivers of mercury.

It certainly sounds a little
farfetched, but not impossible.

♪ ♪

To check out the first
of these elaborate claims,

our archaeologist
and weapons expert, Janice Li,

is in the mausoleum storerooms.

[Janice Li] Wow, that's good.

[Sam] Could crossbows really
have been set as booby traps?

The answer might lie
with small pieces of bronze

found among
the Terracotta Warriors.

[Janice] This is a replica
of the crossbow,

but the bronze trigger
is original.

The creation of the crossbow
trigger is revolutionary

in military history.

[Sam] Crossbows were invented
in China 2,500 years ago,

and under Qin Shi Huang,
they really came into their own.

[Janice] These triggers
make these crossbows

better than longbows.

They can release heavy arrows

from 100 meters to 200 meters.

And also can reload
arrows repeatedly.

[Sam] These weapons
played a major role

in the First Emperor's success,

and more than 200 triggers have
been found at the mausoleum.

It all suggests
the Grand Historian, Sima Qian,

could have been right about
the crossbow booby traps.

So, what about the next
of his claims?

The heavenly constellations
said to decorate the ceiling

of the emperor's tomb.

♪ ♪

I've been given a lead
to something buried deep beneath

the nearby modern metropolis
of Xi'an.

A clue hidden in the most
unlikely of places.

This place is great; it's
a school, it's a playground.

And just seconds ago
it was alive with kids,

but they just all vanished.

This modern campus doesn't look
like the kind of place

you'd find answers
to an ancient mystery,

but during its construction,

something amazing
was discovered here,

and I've been given special
permission to explore it.

These tunnels, built to access
it, lead deep underground.

I'm here to investigate
the Grand Historian's claims

about heavenly constellations

on the ceiling
of the Qin emperor's tomb.

Now, many people have
written about this

in terms of beautiful jewelry,
pearls and diamonds

up on the ceiling.

But that's not what
the Grand Historian says.

He talks only of constellations.

So what's the truth?

I'm hoping this place
might hold clues.

Oh, look at this!

Oh, it's unbelievable.

It's all over the walls
and the ceiling.

What a magical place.

This is the kind of room where
your five senses are not enough.

You have to let your mind open
and your soul breathe it all in.

This incredibly preserved tomb
has been dated to 47 BCE,

only around 160 years
after the First Emperor's death.

The colors are so vibrant.

People and animals,
swirling patterns.

And the more the more you see,
the more you find.

But what can
these images tell us

about the tomb
of the First Emperor?

Now, this looks
interesting here.

Very distinctive Chinese dragon.

This is on the right
as you walk in.

If we imagine that is the east,

and that means that
somewhere around here...

Yes, here.

The remains of a tiger.

This is my favorite,
the white tiger of the west.

You can just see the remains
of the distinctive stripes.

In ancient Chinese mythology,
on the very first morning,

so just after the beginning
of the beginning,

heaven and earth were formed.

And then the constellations
appeared,

and each section of the sky
was guarded by a sacred animal.

And there may even...
yes, up here, we've got a sun.

So, a black bird,
this looks a bit like a crow,

has long been associated
with the sun

in Chinese cosmology.

And then that must mean...

Here, we've got the moon

with a distinctive hare
and a toad.

And all around us,
these are all constellations.

So this isn't just
a few images of stars,

this is the entirety
of the heavens,

mapped above whoever was
buried here, sleeping forever.

This amazing imagery shows just
how important the stars were

to the ancient Chinese.

They looked up there
for strength, for power,

for security, and for safety.

Because the one thing you could
rely on is the sun rising,

the sun setting,

and the stars moving around you
above your head.

So, although this tomb
is all about

the inevitability of death,

it's also to do
with the certainty,

the absolute conviction that
there will be a new tomorrow,

that there'll be another day.

As amazing as this is,

it wasn't even for
a member of the nobility.

So just imagine
the First Emperor's tomb.

Maybe his ceiling also had
diamonds or pearls,

but for me, this is a glimpse
of its true richness.

The real treasure
would have been

these beautiful,
intricate images,

and each one with its own
power and meaning.

♪ ♪

So, crossbow booby traps
and a ceiling of stars

both seem to check out.

But what of the claim that
seems to me most outlandish?

Inside the emperor's tomb,

were there really
China's rivers and seas,

made of mercury?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Sam] 140 miles south
of the Qin Mausoleum,

we're heading to investigate
a region that could hold clues

to the rivers of mercury
said to flow

through the First Emperor's
burial chamber.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

For our historian,
Douglas Flowe,

it means climbing high
into the Xunyang Mountains.

♪ ♪

[Douglas Flowe]
It's really steep up here,

and every once in a while,

you can see a pile of rocks
and stones on the road

that has fallen off
of the mountainside.

Whoa!

That's pretty close.

♪ ♪

Mercury is made by refining
an ore called cinnabar.

The question is, was there
a good source of it nearby?

And if so, did ancient people
have the knowledge

and technology to refine it?

Or even to get to it?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Local expert Guan Zhengbing has
been scouring these cliff faces

for years in search of clues.

Watch out, this is
really treacherous.

Oh!

It's tough going,

but then, an opening.

[Guan Zhengbing, translated]
This is quite a big cave.

[Douglas] Wow.

[Zhengbing] Shall we go in?

[Douglas] The cave stretches
deep into the rock.

It's pretty eerie in here.

And everywhere, signs that
it didn't form naturally.

[Zhengbing] Look at the traces.

Those are wooden supports
left by ancient people.

And look at this.

They've chiseled
these grooves here.

[Douglas]
Guan Zhengbing believes

these are no ordinary tunnels.

They're mines,
and they're seriously old.

[Zhengbing] Based on
our geological research,

this site was in use
over 2,000 years ago.

[Douglas] Wow, that's amazing.

That places this mine
in exactly the right period,

and Zhengbing has spotted
something else.

[Zhengbing] Look here, do you
see the slightly red color?

That is chicken blood stone.

[Douglas] What Zhengbing calls
chicken blood stone

we know as cinnabar, the raw
material for making mercury.

I see it, yeah,
there's a lot of it here.

And down here, it's everywhere.

There's a huge vein of it
right there.

So how did they do it?

How did they get the cinnabar
off the walls of the caves here?

[Zhengbing] They would heat
the rock with fire,

and cool it with water.

And they would use an iron
chisel to break the rock.

[Douglas] This heating
and cooling would cause the rock

to crack, giving up
its precious cinnabar.

[Zhengbing]
Look at the burn marks.

[Douglas] But could they really
have made enough mercury

for the emperor's tomb?

What do you think about the idea
that they would have somehow

mined, refined, and then
transported enough mercury

that they would be able
to create these representations

of rivers at the mausoleum?

Does that sound feasible?

[Zhengbing]
This is entirely possible.

There were probably more
than 2,000 caves like this

distributed across this place
in ancient times.

[Douglas] It seems this area
was a major mercury factory.

And if people were coming
all the way up here to get it,

well, it was a highly prized
substance indeed.

[Sam] So, mercury
was mined and refined,

seemingly on an almost
industrial scale.

And soil samples
from the burial mound

also show unusually high
mercury levels.

So the evidence backs up
the rivers of quicksilver.

The seemingly fanciful tales
of the emperor's tomb

might actually be true,

and our LiDAR scans have
verified its likely structure.

But the tomb is just the start.

There's still
a big mystery here.

Why is the Terracotta Army
so far away?

We need to find out
what lies between the two

and what else is out there.

[Sam] Archaeologists right
across the emperor's mausoleum

are gradually unearthing
the secrets

of his vast construction.

One thing we do know is that he
isn't the only one buried here.

To the west,
outside the perimeter,

Chinese archaeologists
have discovered further tombs.

And Janice is heading
to check out one

that's just been excavated.

♪ ♪

At over 50 feet deep
and more than 300 feet long,

it's the biggest tomb
so far unearthed here.

♪ ♪

And within it,

lead archaeologist Jiang Wenxiao
and his team

have discovered
exquisite treasures.

[Janice] Wow!

[speaking Chinese]

[translated]
The sculpture is so lifelike.

[Jiang Wenxiao, translated]
So, these little things

are burial objects.

They are made specifically
for that purpose.

[Janice] It's quite heavy,
because it is gold.

This is so exciting.

It's really detailed,
you can see the fur,

the hooves here,

and you can see the head,
so, it's so detailed.

So happy to have
this camel in my hand.

[Sam] The golden camel is just
one of hundreds of treasures

discovered inside this tomb.

[Janice]
Wow, have a look at this.

It's beautiful.

This a dancing figure.

This is so vivid and give
a sense of moving, dancing.

[translated] Nothing like this
has been found

with the Terracotta Warriors,
nothing dynamic like this.

[Wenxiao] Sure. Yes.
This indicates the social class

of the tomb owner was high.

[Sam] All they know so far is
that the tomb owner was male

and possibly a member
of the royal family.

And this is just one
of nine large tombs

known to be hidden here,

while still more smaller
tombs and burials

are located all around the site.

♪ ♪

Every new find reveals
this place is far more complex

than once imagined.

And here, at one of the busiest
archaeological sites

on the planet,
the discoveries keep on coming.

From terracotta acrobats

and intricate bronze birds,

to ritual stone armor

and chariots,

just like those the emperor
would have used in life.

Plotting these onto our 3D model
reveals how each treasure

was seemingly placed
in a distinct location,

according to a carefully
laid out plan.

And these amazing wonders
were discovered across an area

way beyond what appeared to be
the mausoleum's perimeter,

across an extraordinary


an area the size
of Manhattan Island.

So, why are all these
treasures and burials

spread across such a vast area?

I'm hoping another discovery
in the east of the mausoleum

might hold clues.

♪ ♪

Archaeologists have been
excavating here

for the past two years,

and they're unearthing
something massive.

Our tech team
is preparing to scan it,

this time combining their drones
with ground LiDAR.

[Team member] And it's starting
to work automatically.

Let's go.

[Sam] While they get to work,
I want to find out more

from lead archaeologist Fu Jian.

[Fu Jian] Hello!
[Sam] How are you doing?

[Jian, translated]
Let me show you down there.

[Sam] He thinks this is
a key feature of the mausoleum.

[Jian] This is the ruin
of the east gate.

Once open, it is a doorway
which leads to the center

of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum.

Let's look at the construction
on both sides of the inner gate.

Here's an example.

There is a complete circle
of pillar foundations

around the building.

This is the hole
for the pillar foundation.

It is about 70 centimeters deep,

so the pillar would have been
about eight meters high.

[Sam] Eight meters tall?

[Jian] Yes.
[Sam] Wow!

With pillars eight meters,
or 26 feet high,

this is not just any gateway.

So just how big was it?
And what did it look like?

We want to scan every detail

so we can try
to rebuild the gate

as it might have looked


Right, guys? What have we got?

[Jianwei]
Can you see the gateway?

[Sam] Look at that.

[Jian] This is
the doorway stone pillar.

And this is
a cornerstone pillar.

The distance between the two
is the width of the gate.

[Sam] The scans show the gate
would have been huge,

almost 30 feet wide.

[Jian] It indicates that
the structure of this building

is probably quite grand.

Then there are
the pillar foundations,

probably where
the overhanging eaves were.

This kind of structure is also
one of the earliest of this type

ever discovered.

[Jianwei]
Based on the measurements,

we can do the conceptional
reconstruction

of this structure.

[Sam] From our scans
and with the help of Fu Jian

and historical records,

we can rebuild the gate
from the ground up.

It reveals a grand gateway,
flanked by two-story towers,

bigger than any city gate yet
discovered from the same period.

And either side of it,

huge walls stretching
right around the mausoleum

with a further inner wall
and gateways on every side.

♪ ♪

I'd always assumed
everything here

was buried or hidden by trees.

But these immense
above-ground structures

mean we need to start
thinking about this place

in an entirely new way.

This isn't just about a tomb
and some pits full of artifacts

and warriors
to protect them all.

It isn't just about a burial.

It's far more than that.

The layout,
with inner and outer walls,

follows the typical plan
of a Chinese city.

And that might explain
why the Terracotta Warriors

are located where they are.

It seems they're standing guard
close to the main entrance

to an entire city built
to serve the emperor in death.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

The question is why?

To really understand
what's going on here,

we need to get inside the head
of the emperor himself.

[Sam] Douglas is 400 miles south
of the Qin Mausoleum,

on the trail of clues
that might give us an insight

into the mind
of the First Emperor.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Douglas] Oh, man.
Look at this place.

This is the ancient town
of Liye.

All of this is clearly very old,
but people have lived here

far longer than any of these
buildings have been here.

The town itself goes back
well over 2,000 years.

It's pretty amazing.

The town of Liye alone
is an historic treasure.

But for two millennia, it also
kept an incredible secret.

♪ ♪

Liye was established by the Chu,

one of the last Warring States
to fall to Qin Shi Huang.

It became part
of his vast new empire.

And I've heard about
an amazing discovery here

that holds clues
to the First Emperor's rule

and a glimpse into exactly
what he was thinking



♪ ♪

♪ ♪

This is really exciting.

I've been given
special access here.

This precious treasure trove,
kept under lock and key,

is something that very few
people ever get to see up close.

Hi, nice to see you.

Long Jingsha has been
guardian of Liye's treasures

since he discovered them
just over 20 years ago.

What are we looking at here?

[Long Jingsha]
Here, take a look.

[Douglas] This sliver of bamboo
bears writing.

Wow.

Known as a bamboo slip,

it's from the time
of the First Emperor

and was found discarded

at the bottom
of an ancient well,

sealed in mud that kept it
in pristine condition.

I can't believe
I'm holding this in my hand,

like you can actually see
the writing so clearly,

it's well preserved,
and it's 2,000 years old.

That's amazing, look at that.

In all, 37,000 slips were found;

official records
and communications

that detail every beat

of the First Emperor's
meticulous bureaucracy.

But there's one in particular
that Jingsha wants me to see...

[Jingsha] Have a look.

[Douglas] ...that hints
at a personal obsession

of the emperor.

[Jingsha, translated]
It says in Du Xiang,

the civilians don't have
good medicine or good herbs.

What the slip is telling us is
that the royal court wanted them

to find some sort of plants
as medicine.

And this is how they replied
when they couldn't find any.

[Douglas] Oh, so they
came back empty-handed.

Do we have any idea what they
were actually looking for?

[Jingsha] There was a tale
that Qin Shi Huang

was looking for medicine
to become immortal.

[Douglas] So the First Emperor
was searching

for an elixir of eternal life.

He's said to have proclaimed
his dynasty would last

for 10,000 generations,

but this suggests
something more.

[chirping]

Judging from what I've just seen
here in the Liye slips,

it wasn't just his dynasty that
he wanted to last that long;

he wanted to be around
to oversee it.

♪ ♪

[Sam] This throws up
a mystery of its own.

Everything
about the First Emperor

seems to be a paradox.

Why does a man so fixated
on living forever

spend so much time and resources

on building one of the greatest
tomb complexes on Earth?

And that complex,

yes, it's a place of burial,
but it's also got high walls.

It's got gates.
It's like a city.

What is going on here?

Is this a place of death
or is it a place of life?

♪ ♪

Archaeologists here might have
discovered some clues,

and they've directed
our tech team to scan an area

in the northwest
of the mausoleum.

Using our LiDAR
to strip away the trees

reveals several straight lines
and raised areas

that can only be signs
of more manmade structures.

To work out what they are,

we need to check them out
on the ground.

[Sam] I'm heading to explore
signs of manmade structures

to the northwest
of the emperor's tomb

with the mausoleum's lead
archaeologist, Shao Wenbin.

[Wenbin] Take a look over here.

This row of pebbles is
a kind of gutter for a building.

They placed these pebbles

around the sides
of the structure.

They were used to stop water
causing damage to the ground.

This indicates that there
was a building here.

[Sam] From a distance, this
whole area looked quite natural.

But the closer you get,
the more you realize

that it's actually
very distinctively manmade.

[Wenbin] Here you can see
the rammed earth ruins

of this building,
layer by layer.

These were the foundations
of big civil buildings,

built on top
of the rammed earth.

[Sam] Shao Wenbin believes
this wasn't just

a few isolated buildings.

[Wenbin] This is where
we are now, right here.

This whole area is
at the northwest corner

of the inner city.

[Sam] So we're talking about
this whole area

was full of buildings?

[Wenbin] Yeah.

[Sam] These structures
look very different

from the tombs and gates.

And by combining our scans
with historical records

and Chinese archaeology,

we can rebuild them
as they might once have looked.

♪ ♪

The entire area was
covered in palaces,

the biggest and most lavish
at the site of our foundations,

close to the tomb mound.

And Chinese archaeologists
believe

these were not empty shrines
but living, working buildings,

where his subjects continued
to serve the dead emperor,

just as they had done in life.

♪ ♪

And that changes everything.

It means this isn't just
a place of remembrance.

It's built to allow
the emperor's spirit

to continue to interact
with the living.

At first, this whole site
is bewildering.

But what I've learned is
that to understand it,

you have to think like
the ancient Chinese.

And once you've made
that leap of faith,

then everything starts to make
a little bit more sense.

The mausoleum is the embodiment
of the ancient Chinese concept

of honoring the dead

almost as if
they were still alive.

And in the absence of an elixir,

this place is how
he would achieve immortality.

Here, even in death,

the First Emperor could remain
the great presiding ancestor,

continuing to exert
power and influence

on the world of the living.

♪ ♪

With this last piece
of the puzzle,

I feel like I finally understand
the First Emperor

and his mausoleum.

In uniting the Warring States,

he'd achieved something
almost miraculous.

And this place was about
ensuring that empire survived

long after he was gone.

It's a great paradox that
the First Emperor's Qin Dynasty

was the shortest of all
of China's ruling dynasties.

But he did leave a legacy
like no other,

an enduring empire
that lasted 2,000 years.

And in that sense, he did
achieve a sort of immortality.

And he left this.

♪ ♪

Guarded
by the Terracotta Warriors

to the east

and flanked by elite tombs
to the west,

a vast metropolis created
for the First Emperor in death.

With its city walls,
magnificent gateways,

and multiple palaces

to allow the First Emperor
to commune with the living.

And beneath the surface,

everything from stables
and chariots

to advisors and acrobats.

♪ ♪

An entire royal court, ensuring
he would rule for eternity.

At the very center,

the emperor's
hidden tomb itself,

its lavish burial chamber
guarded by booby traps

and packed with treasure,

his whole empire flowing
with rivers of mercury

beneath a ceiling
of constellations.

An entire city of extraordinary
ambition and artistry.

A moment frozen in time
for all eternity.

The greatest
burial complex on Earth.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪