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While Greek sculptors made the legendary Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the world's Seven Wonders, in Turkey over 2,300 years ago, Chinese kings and aristocrats were building hundreds of tombs in this ancient capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 B.C.).

Up to 397 tombs and 18 sacrificial pits for horses and horse-drawn vehicles of the time have been found lying within a mere 6,000 sq. m. area in Luoyang city in central China's Henan Province. Historians believe the mausoleum was destroyed as early as the 11th century.

Archaeologists found the tombs at a construction site in the central square in the downtown city. The site is referred to as graveyards for noble families of the period in local records.

A sacrificial horse pit, believed to be the largest of its kind discovered so far in Luoyang, is under excavation with experts on hand eager to unravel its secrets. Horses and vehicles used to be buried alongside human bodies to indicate the dead person's status in ancient China.

So far, Chinese archaeologists have unearthed 98 tombs in the grave ruins, in which 95 belongs to the Eastern Zhou Dynastry, two belongs to the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC) and one, the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD).

The unearthed Zhou tombs, containing earthenware, bronze weapons and jade articles, have been categorized as those for common people, while two bigger ones, with bronze pits, musical instruments and other articles for sacrifice ceremony, belonged to noble families, according to the experts.

The discovery would provide valuable clues in the study of the funeral culture and tomb styles of the period, the experts said.

So far over 1,000 tombs from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty have been excavated across the city.

A 1950s archaeological search discovered 260 tombs of the same period in the city, and the findings helped clarify the time-frame for earthenware use in ancient central China.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2006)