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Show Make A Visit To Provo For Imperial Tombs Of China By Jeanne Harshman Many local area residents have been traveling to Provo to see the Imperial Tombs of China exhibit at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art which continues through March 16. More than 250 objects spanning 2500 years and seven periods of Chinese history have been brought together for the exhibition. Selected from 18 different museums and cultural centers in nine provinces, some of these objects have never before left China and never have they been brought together for public exhibit More than 2,200 years ago China's first Emperer, Qin Shihuang-di, came to power and immediately ordered thousands of conscripts to begin building the Great Wall of China and his tomb. In 1974, local farmers discovered the greatest archeological find of the . 20th century Emperer Qin's underground under-ground army. Chariots, horses and more than 8000 life size terra-cotta Statues, each with individual facial features, were discovered guarding his tomb. During Qin Shihuang-di's reign, to protect his population from at-b at-b tack by northern nomadic tribes, he built the Great Wall of China with a series of 40 foot tall watch towers 100 yards apart. The wall winds from east of Beijing over rivers, valleys, mountains and deserts across northern China to the border of Tibet. It covers a distance equal to the distance from Memphis, Tenn. to San Francisco, Calif. The great wall, up to 30 feet high in some places and wide enough at the top for five horse men to ride abreast, runs some 3,930 miles. It is the only manmade structure on earth visible from outer space. It is estimated that one million laborers died during its 18 years of construction construc-tion with many buried inside the surface of stone and sundried brick. The exhibit makes an ideal holiday excursion where visitors can travel back in time when the Emperer of China was the "Son of Heaven." Museum hours are 9 a.m. - 11 p.m.. Ticket information is available at 1-800-322-2981. School groups are welcomed. |