Royal storehouse ruins found at ancient capital in central China

ZHENGZHOU, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Ruins of 240 royal storehouses were discovered within the palace at the site of the ancient capital Luoyang city in central China's Henan Province, said the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

These storehouse ruins once served as royal repositories dating back to the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), and this is the first time that storage buildings have been found in the ancient palace in Luoyang. It is also the highest-ranking ancient storage architecture known in China by far, given that these buildings were located in the palace.

The ruins of these storehouses form a relatively independent area which is 150 meters wide from east to west and 600 meters long from north to south.

In order to further explore the architectural layout of the palace, the archaeological team excavated the palace's east wall in 2022.

"This discovery has greatly enriched the connotation of the study on the shape and layout of ancient capitals and storage architectural sites," said Liu Tao, leader of the excavation team.

Luoyang city site, located in today's Luoyang in Henan, has a history of over 1,500 years, and it served as the capital city for many dynasties in ancient China for about 600 years of its vast history.