Epang Palace Site, Xi’an, Shaanxi 陕西西安阿房宫遗址
The Epang Palace site lies on the western outskirts of Xi’an and is traditionally the front hall of the court palace the First Emperor began on the south bank of the Wei. The surviving rammed-earth platform measures roughly 1,200 metres east to west and 400 metres north to south, the largest Qin rammed-earth base known. Later writers said the palace was burned by Xiang Yu, but recent excavation has found neither traces of fire on the platform nor remains of palace buildings, and scholars think the front hall was probably never completed. Du Mu’s “Rhapsody on the Epang Palace”, which opens “The six kings were finished; the four seas were one”, used the palace’s splendour and burning as a warning to later rulers, and made its name known to every household.
