The pyramids of China are approximately 100 ancient mounds, many of which were used for burial. Most of them are located within 100 kilometers of the city of Xi'an, on the Qin Chuan Plains in the Shaanxi Province, central China.

The existence of pyramids in China has come in two stages. Most early stories were focused on the existence of "Great White Pyramid." A photograph of this pyramid in the Qinling mountains was taken by Americans in 1945, but remained in military files for 45 years. US Air Force pilot James Gaussman is said to have seen a white jewel topped pyramid during a flight between India and China during World War II, but there is scant evidence for a source on this story.

However, it is now believed that the Gaussman story was actually based on Colonel Maurice Sheahan, Far Eastern director of Trans World Airlines, who told an eyewitness account of his encounter with a pyramid in the March 28, 1947 edition of The New York Times. A photo of Sheahan's pyramid appeared in The New York Sunday News on March 30, 1947. It is this photograph that later became attributed to James Gaussman.

It is now known, thanks to efforts of Chris Maier, that the particular pyramid shown in the photo is the Maoling Mausoleum. This pyramid sits just outside of Xi'an. In 1994, German tour operator and author Hartwig Hausdorf was noted for photographing and studying several pyramids.

He drew attention to the structures' existence with his 1994 book Die Weisse Pyramide, the subject of an article in Nexus Magazine in 1995 by Philip Coppens, later translated into English under the revised title The Chinese Roswell (1998).

The pyramids of Xi'an can now be visited on trips from Xi'an and no longer are located in "forbidden zones". Several pyramids have small museums attached to them.

The Great White Pyramid itself (rather than the photograph), as described by Sheahan, remains unidentified.

List of Chinese pyramids

* Inner Mongolian pyramid (1 kilometer north of Sijiazi Town, Aohan County)
* Maoling Mausoleum
* Pyramid of Gathering (Tibet)
* Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum
* Zangkunchong
* Step Pyramid (Ziban)

The pyramids in Egypt have always been regarded as a mystery of ancient human civilization. Another mysterious ancient construction that resembles the refulgence has been found in China. Dubbed the "Pyramids of China", the Western Xia Tombs include nine mausoleums housing the imperial family and 207 tombs belonging to dukes and ministers.


In recent years, scientific research and exploration have been conducted at the site, buried in the wilderness of Helan Mountain in West China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region , in hopes of decoding the sudden disappearance of the Western Xia civilization.

Located 30 kilometers west of Yinchuan , capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Western Xia Tombs cover an area of 40 square kilometers; they are located on the eastern slope of the Helan Mountain range, just south of the Gunzhong Pass.

The Russian pyramid investigator Maxim Yakovenko has visited several Chinese pyramid complexes and has finally been able to identify the legendary “White Pyramid” as the Liangshan Mountain, which holds the tomb of Emperor Gaozong. As such, decades of speculation and mystery have finally been answered.

The story of the White Pyramid came about in the 1940s, when eyewitness reports, specifically from pilot James Gaussman, related the presence of an enormous “White Pyramid” near the Chinese city of Xi’an. If true, it was bigger than the Great Pyramid of Giza. The region was off-limits to Western tourists for many decades afterwards and once this restriction was lifted, many pyramids were found, but the gigantic “White Pyramid” was not amongst them. A photograph of what was believed to be the White Pyramid, turned out to be one of a much smaller pyramid near Xi’an.

So what was the White Pyramid? Had someone overestimated the dimensions of a smaller pyramid? The answer is a simple no. The photograph had nothing to do with the original account of the White Pyramid, and this is where the main problem has lain in recent years. The actual White Pyramid is Liangshan Mountain and it is as big as Gaussman and others had claimed it was.

Liangshan Mountain is located in the vicinity of Qiang Xian, a small Chinese town located 80 km to the northwest from Xi’an. In 684 AD, the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty Gaozong was buried at the bottom of the mountain with his wife the Empress Wu. She reigned after Gaozong’s death. When she died in 705 AD, her body was buried near Gaozong’s on Liangshan Mountain. It is the only mausoleum where two Tang monarchs were buried.