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MING TOMBS
十三陵
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The Sacred Way starts with a huge stone
memorial archway at the front of the area. Built
in 1540, during the Ming Dynasty, this archway
is the oldest and biggest stone archway in
China.
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Along the path we will see statues of ancient
government officials like these.

We will also see statues of animals as well.

We start at the bottom and follow a straight path
through the statues. All tourist maps will start at the
bottom. The first half of statues are the officials, and
the second half are the animals. The Sacred Way ends
at a pavilion protecting a very large stone tablet.


The top of the tablet was destroyed. The tablet
was written by Emperor Zhu Li. It describes
the greatness of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder
of Ming Dynasty. There are
2700 Chinese characters on it.
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The tablet sits on top of a large stone turtle. The
turtle symbolizes longevity.