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ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 8 



on the whole distinctly higher by several feet than was the surround- 

 ing country. Accumulations of down wash from the inner slopes of 

 the earthen walls have no doubt been responsible for some of this 

 rise in level; but much — probably most — of it was certainly the direct 

 result of long continued human occupation. Similarly, the level of 

 the area inside the walls of Peking, inhabited continuously for a period 

 roughly three times as long as was Old Ch'ang-an, is today in many 

 places from 20 to 30 feet higher than it was originally. 



Immediately west of the city proper, and separated from it by the 

 much eroded remains of two parallel earthen walls of no great size 

 which ran north and south about a hundred feet apart, we came upon 

 the old palace-enclosure of the Han emperors. The surface here also 

 was somewhat undulating in character. Some of the slight irregular- 

 ities in level made us wonder whether they might not conceal the 



■ : e • : : : ; : 



B C 



Figube 2.— Plan and elevation of Wei Yang Kung Palace foundation-mound, Old Ch'ang-an. 



remains of ancient buildings; for the records speak of a number of 

 palaces. The ground here, however, just as in the city proper, had 

 been so long and so continuously under the plow that all surface indi- 

 cations had disappeared, except at one point. 



Here, some hundreds of yards ahead of us, a little to the south of 

 west, we saw a long mound in several superimposed stages, with its 

 major axis extending due north and south and perhaps coinciding with 

 that of the palace-city itself. This mound, our Chinese companions 

 told us, had been the foundation platform of the principal edifice in 

 the old palace complex, the celebrated Wei Yang Kung already men- 

 tioned (for its plan and elevation see fig. 2). 



We found the ground-plan of this interesting construction that of 

 a long rectangle, with corners surprisingly well defined considering 

 its age. The total length was 450 yards, its breadth 145 yards, and it 



