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"The tomb is built in a simple style, which inherits characteristics of the Eastern Han Dynasty," says Shi. "However, its extraordinarily large scale gives it a royal aura."

For instance, the burial chamber is 12 meters deep, 18 meters long and 13.5 meters wide, and has a 36-meter-long tomb passage, according to Wang Xianqiu, the archaeologist in charge of the site.

"We've also surveyed about a 1 million square meters area around the tomb, and found an even bigger tomb 400 meters away," says Wang.

"It could be Cao Rui's tomb, but we have decided not to touch it."

For four years in a row, projects undertaken by Shi's institute have been included in "Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries in 皇冠体育app", an annual survey of top experts, which is organized by the 皇冠体育app Cultural Relics News.

"I'm confident that the discovery of this Cao Wei tomb will be on that list," says Shi.

"But, compared with gaining honors, it's more important to let citizens participate in archaeological excavations and learn the history of their hometown," he adds.