Western Xia Mausoleum 6 (Xianling/Chongzong)

38.4533°N, 105.9850°E.

Western Xia Mausoleum 6, the Xianling tomb of Emperor Chongzong, sits within the Western Xia Imperial Tombs complex at the foot of the Helan Mountains in Ningxia, China. The mausoleum was constructed in 1139 CE following Chongzong's death, of rammed earth on a stepped octagonal plan rising approximately 23 metres above the surrounding plain. The Western Xia (Tangut) Empire ruled this corner of northwest China from 1038 to 1227 CE, when Genghis Khan's Mongol forces destroyed it so completely that the Tangut script and most of the dynasty's records were lost for centuries. The imperial tombs were systematically desecrated in 1227 — every wooden structure burned, the brick facing stripped — leaving only the rammed-earth cores standing. The complex contains nine imperial tombs and over 250 subordinate burials.

Mausoleum 6 is a tomb whose surrounding civilization was so thoroughly erased by Mongol conquest that the script on its walls had to be deciphered from scratch in the twentieth century.