Introduction to Shimao Ruins

The Shimao site is located in Gaojiabao Town, Shenmu City, Shaanxi Province. It is the largest known prehistoric city site in China.

This place can be called the "Pyramid" of Chinese prehistory. The Shimao site was selected as the "Eve of Chinese Civilization" among the top ten new archaeological discoveries in 2012, "the top ten field archaeological discoveries in the world" and "the world's top ten archaeological discoveries in the 21st century". Significant Archaeological Discoveries". In April 2018, a large 4,000-year-old pottery eagle was discovered at the Shenmu Shimao site in Shaanxi.

In May 2019, the Shimao ruins were included in the "China World Cultural Heritage Tentative List". This huge prehistoric city is rewriting China's ancient history and the origin of Chinese civilization.

The Shimao site is located in Gaojiabao Town, Shenmu City, Shaanxi Province. It is located in the northern part of the Loess Plateau and the southern edge of the Mu Us Desert. Gaojiabao was an important camp along the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty. It was a transportation hub from the Hetao area to the Guanzhong area. It is a stone city ruins that has been silent for 4,300 years.

Historical background of the site:

The Shimao site was discovered in 1976. After systematic investigation and archaeological excavation, the Shimao City Site was discovered. This is a grand stone city site. . Archaeological exploration confirmed that the Shimao site consists of three basically complete and relatively independent stone-structured city sites: the "Imperial City Terrace", the inner city, and the outer city. The investigation found that Shimao Stone City is divided into an outer city and an inner city. The remaining wall of the inner city is 2,000 meters long and covers an area of ??about 2.35 million square meters.

The outer city wall remains 2.84 kilometers long and covers an area of ??approximately 4.25 million square meters. Its scale is much larger than the Liangzhu ruins, Taosi ruins and other known city sites of similar age, making it the largest known prehistoric city site.

"Imperial City Terrace" is located in the center of the west part of the inner city. It is a Taicheng with slope protection stone walls on all sides. It is roughly square in shape. The inner city surrounds the "Imperial City Terrace" and is built according to the mountain. The city wall is a stone wall higher than the ground.

The outer city is a curved stone wall that uses the southeastern wall of the inner city and expands it toward the southeast. Most of the wall is above the ground, and the best-preserved parts are higher than the current surface. There is more than 1 meter. The phenomenon of city wall crossing ditches basically closed the Shimao city site, forming a relatively closed independent space, which provided important information for exploring the early landform changes and environment of Shimao.

Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Shimao Ruins