Museum of the Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nanyue King

Today we went to a museum. In China's history, there had been stories of a certain ruler, but as there was no written record, no one sure whether he actually existed or not. Until his tomb was discovered in the 1980s. There are the steps leading down into the actual excavated tomb. This museum was probably one of the coolest things we've seen this trip. 

Down inside. People stuff money behind the plexiglass protecting the walls. 

These doors were a good 4" thick. 

This was the remains of one of the kings 4 concubines. Interestingly, the human remains didn't seem to fare as well as the bird bones we saw did. The king was buried with dozens of sparrows. 

This was the roof over the excavations. It was just gorgeous here. The clouds overhead were moving so fast, I would have loved to get some video. 

Again, this was incredible reflecting the fast moving clouds. The whole place was impressive and beautiful. 

This is a replica of the outer coffin. 

The king was buried in a jade suit, sewn with silk thread. We saw a similar suit of jade at the museum in Nanjing when we adopted Hannah. 

Family picture with a snoozing baby. 

The king was buried, not only with lots and lots and lots of jade, but also with ten swords, 5 on either side of him. Given that he was buried 100-200 years BC, I'm surprised there's anything left of these!

A reproduction of a screen found in the mausoleum. At the top, see the 3 golden monsters with horns?  Also on display in this room, we saw one of the original ones, with a reproduction beside it. They did a fabulous job. 

Our guide explained that these were special pots for cooking special meat... Human meat. They became symbolic of power. 

Have I mentioned that the grounds here were just lovely? I'm not an architecture geek, but these were some pretty buildings. The whole setup was very well done. 

We've had some neat discussions with two of our guides now about similarities between ancient Chinese practices/artifacts/etc. have been similar to those of other cultures. 

Luke's been waking up a couple times in the night the last few days. Paul can sleep right through it. I told him, "That tiger is how I feel," so he took a picture for me. Mama's tired. 

See the snake?  Our guide mentioned that people in Katie's hometown eat a lot of snake. 

All done!  Waiting for our car to come around and pick us up.