The Ming Ancestors Mausoleum () is the first imperial mausoleum complex of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

, and a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

located north of the former Sizhou City, Yangjiadun, in present-day

Xuyi County Xuyi County () is under the administration of Huai'an, Jiangsu province, China. The southernmost of Huai'an's county-level divisions, it borders the prefecture-level cities of Suqian to the north and Chuzhou (Anhui) to the south and west. Xuyi is ...

Huaian Huai'an (), formerly called Huaiyin () until 2001, is a prefecture-level city in the central part of Jiangsu province in Eastern China. Huai'an is situated almost directly south of Lianyungang, southeast of Suqian, northwest of Yancheng, almo ...

City, by Hongze Lake, north of

Huai River The Huai River (), formerly romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins in China, and like them runs from west to ea ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

Province, China. It was built by

Zhu Yuanzhang The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398. As famine, plagues and peasant revolts i ...

, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, in 1385, for his great-great-grandfather (posthumously styled Emperor Xuan), great-grandfather (posthumously styled Emperor Heng) and grandfather (posthumously styled Emperor Yu). It is also the actual burial site of Zhu Chuyi, Zhu Yuanzhang's grandfather. In 1680 during the Qing dynasty, the Yellow River changed its course and merged with the

. The quickly accumulated river sediment blocked the flow of the Huai, creating the large Hongze Lake, which submerged the mausoleum complex, along with the nearby city of Sizhou.Eric N. Danielson,
The Ming Ancestor Tomb
". ''CHINA HERITAGE QUARTERLY'', No. 16, December 2008. Not until the dry season of 1966 (or, according to other sources, 1963 or 1964) did the mausoleum surface. It was initially excavated in 1976. In 1980, State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture allocated funds to repair it. The original Xiang Hall and Pei Hall had been destroyed and had no remains. They surfaced because of drought in May 2011. In front of the mausoleum there are several gravestones and ornamental columns which are preserved. Today, the total area of the mausoleum is 351,000 square meters. It contains over 9700 trees, including pines, cypresses, poplars and willows on the banks. An arch bridge and five exhibition rooms have been newly built. The region of Yangze river and Huai river has been affected by serious drought since May 2011, making the water level of Hongze Lake decline almost to the dead water level. The nine arches of the Ming Ancestors Mausoleum, beams under the arches, and most of the top of the paved path leading to the mausoleum are buried deep under the silt in the pond, only showing an outline. In order to protect the cultural relics after being unearthed, the site was submerged.

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