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China's Lost Pyramids
For more than 2,000 years, hundreds of pyramid tombs towered
over the fabled Silk Road near the ancient Chinese city of Xian,
their secrets buried and largely ignored. These enormous
structures, built in preparation for the afterlives of China’s
Emperors and other royalty, may hold riches beyond belief.
Mostly still unexcavated they are slowly revealing their mysteries
to archeology.
Chinese archaeologists estimate that they are 4,500 years old.
Ancient Buddhist texts and other surviving documents suggest
that the monuments are over 5,000 years old. Analyzing an aerial
photograph of one set of pyramids east of Xi’an, ancient
civilization researcher and author Graham Hancock determined
that their layout coincided with the constellation of Gemini.
However, computer analysis found that it is what Gemini would
have looked like on the spring equinox in 10,500 BC.
In 2000, China recognized that there were some 400 pyramids
in the Shanxi region, to the north of Xi’an. Smaller than the
legendary “Great White” pyramid, these ancient remains have
been classified by some as burial mounds. While some of
these structures do in fact serve as tombs, others suggest the
earliest Chinese pyramids served a more mysterious purpose.
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