The Tomb of Qin Shi Huang always contains open secrets, arousing the curiosity of many adventurers and fans of Chinese history.
During the discovery of the mysterious catacombs, archaeologists were really scared when they saw the lights still shining brightly even though they had been underground for thousands of years.
Qin Shi Huang is one of the most famous and influential emperors in Chinese history. During his lifetime, he had his great mausoleum builder for 28 years. Tomb of Qin Shi Huang is considered an underground palace and contains many creepy mysteries. That is why until today, posterity has not dared to completely excavate this famous tomb because there are too many dangers lurking.
Mysterious “Eternal Lamp”
The tomb of the powerful Emperor is famous for a series of inexplicable mysteries such as 8,000 headless terracotta soldiers or a poisonous mercury river. But that is not the end.
Inside the tomb there are also lamps called eternal lamps. When discovered, archaeologists were horrified because they were still burning brightly, as if they had never been extinguished for thousands of years, despite being in such a dark, humid environment for thousands of years deep underground. The bright lights are considered “soldiers” to guard the Emperor’s eternal sleep.
These very unscientific-sounding lamps are actually not only found in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. In some other ancient tombs of China or even foreign countries such as Egypt and Greece, people have also recorded the existence of the “eternal lamp”.
At first, they were also thought to be rumors that were rumored and not true. But later, there were many practical proofs that this eternal light existed. The appearance in ancient tombs makes them tinged with spiritual and mystical colors.
The right answer
A long-held hypothesis is that the lamps that never go out are lit from a special material, whale fat, rather than ordinary wax candles.
There are records in ancient Chinese books that whale fat was once used for lighting because of its extremely high durability. Besides, the lamp is also specially designed so that the melted whale fat falls into the container, from which it can be reused endlessly.
However, this explanation was later rejected quite a lot because it is still unreasonable to want the lamp to burn for thousands of years. After centuries of controversy, an American chemist Simon Affik has finally published a study that has received a lot of sympathy from the archaeological and scientific world around the world explaining the eternal lamp.
Mr. Affik spent 30 years doing research, and performed 700 experiments to get the final answer. In 700 experiments, Mr. Affik tried all kinds of fuels, adjusting different ratios to create a special fuel made of white phosphorus mixed with other combustibles.
This new substance is highly flammable, self-igniting, and difficult to evaporate. In the past, when building tombs, lamps lit with this substance were used to light the way. When the catacombs are closed, the oxygen is depleted, the lights will also turn off by themselves.
The point of it is that when the tomb door is opened, the oxygen in the air comes in again and the lights are once again on. After all, there is no eternal light as people mistakenly believe, only a self-illuminating lamp.
Those who entered later did not know how long before they entered the mausoleum the light had been turned off, giving the illusion that the light had burned for thousands of years.
