Pingling Mausoleum

34.4478°N, 108.6624°E.

The Pingling Mausoleum in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, China — the tomb mound of Emperor Zhao of Han (Liu Fuling), the eighth emperor of the Western Han dynasty, who reigned from 87 to 74 BCE. Original base 165 by 165 metres; original height 29.2 metres. Emperor Zhao came to the throne at the age of eight under the regency of Huo Guang, the most powerful general and statesman of the late Western Han; his thirteen-year reign ended at twenty when he died without an heir, precipitating one of the most consequential succession crises of the dynasty. The mound is built of rammed earth in horizontal lifts to the standard Han imperial template. The cemetery includes the smaller satellite tomb of Empress Shangguan, his consort and Huo Guang's granddaughter, who survived him by half a century. Excavations have produced bronze ritual vessels, lacquerware, and miniature terracotta figures consistent with the satellite-pit tradition established at Yangling.

A pyramid for an emperor who ruled briefly under a regent and died young, in a cemetery shared with the empress whose family chose his successor.