Buried deep under a hill in central China, surrounded by an underground moat of poisonous mercury, lies an entombed emperor who's been undisturbed for more than two millennia.

The tomb holds the secrets of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who died on Sept. 10, 210 B.C., after conquering six warring states to create the first unified nation of China.

The answers to a number of historical mysteries may lie buried inside that tomb, but whether modern people will ever see inside this mausoleum depends not just on the Chinese government, but on science.

"The big hill, where the emperor is buried — nobody's been in there, " said archaeologist Kristin Romey, curatorial consultant for the Terracotta Warrior exhibition at New York City’s Discovery Times Square. "Partly it's out of respect for the elders, but they also realize that nobody in the world right now has the technology to properly go in and excavate it."

The Terracotta Warrior exhibition, featuring artifacts from the Qin dynasty and nine life-size statues from the extended burial complex built for Qin Shi Huang, is on display through Aug. 26. [Photos: Terracotta Warriors Protect Secret Tomb]

Qin Shi Huang (pronounced "chin shuh hwang") was born in 259 B.C., first son to the king of Qin, one of six independent kingdoms inside modern China. These kingdoms had been warring for more than 200 years, but through a combination of military strength, strategy and natural disasters, Qin Shi Huang conquered them all, proclaiming himself not just a king, but also an emperor — the first of China.

Scholars still debate the details of how this occurred, and what unique tactics allowed the Qin emperor to achieve what no one had managed before.

When he died, Qin Shi Huang was buried in the most opulent tombcomplex ever constructed in China, a sprawling, city-size collection of underground caverns containing everything the emperor would need for the afterlife. The ancient Chinese, along with many cultures including ancient Egyptians, believed that items and even people buried with a person could be taken with him to the afterlife.

But instead of burying his armies, concubines, administrators and servants with him, the Qin emperor came up with an alternative: clay reproductions.

In 1974, a group of farmers digging wells near Xi'an, China stumbled upon one of the most shocking archaeological discoveries of all time. The life-size terracotta solider they dug out of the ground turned out to be just one of an army of thousands, each utterly unique, with individual clothing, hair and facial features.

For almost four decades, archaeologists have been excavating the site. So far, they've uncovered about 2, 000 clay soldiers, but experts estimate there are more than 8, 000 in total.

"They're going to be digging there for centuries, " Romey predicted.

Still, scientists have yet to touch the central tomb, which holds a palace containing the body of Qin Shi Huang.

"It's really smart what the Chinese government is doing, " Romey told LiveScience. "When we went into [Egyptian King] Tut's tomb, think about all the information we lost just based on the excavation techniques of the 1930s. There's so much additional that we could have learned, but the techniques back then weren’t what we have now."

"Even though we may think we have great archaeological excavation techniques right now, " she said, "who knows, a century down the road if we open this tomb, what they're going to say?"

The decision whether to explore the tomb anytime soon, or ever, is up to the government of China. That decision will likely be influenced by the pace of technological progress.

"In archaeological conservation, every year you have major new developments, " Romey said. "When we began excavating [the soldiers] in the '70s, the minute they were exposed to air and sunlight, the pigment just flaked off. Now they’ve figured out a new technique where they can actually preserve the paint as they excavate."

Perhaps, if science advances enough, that excavation wouldn't cause serious damage to the burial site, and the tomb will finally be opened. [Album: The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World]

"I wouldn’t be surprised if you had some sort of robotic visual survey going in there at some point, " Romey said.

And despite their desire to protect the treasures of antiquity, archaeologists are itching with curiosity to find out what's inside Qin Shi Huang's central tomb.

秦始皇的陵寢：我們能否一窺究竟?

    這一大堆歷史謎題的答案或許就埋在陵墓里，但現(xiàn)代人能否一窺這座宏偉壯麗的皇陵的內(nèi)部，不僅取決于中國(guó)政府當(dāng)局，還有科技。

    “這座葬著秦始皇的山巒----無人曾涉足，”考古學(xué)家克莉絲汀 洛梅伊說道，她是在紐約發(fā)現(xiàn)時(shí)代廣場(chǎng)舉辦的兵馬俑展覽的展品顧問，“部分是出于對(duì)先輩的尊重，但他們也認(rèn)識(shí)到至少在現(xiàn)今的世界無人能有技術(shù)進(jìn)入和采掘陵寢?！?/p>

    兵馬俑展覽8月26號(hào)開展，展覽呈現(xiàn)了秦朝的工藝品和真人大小的九座雕塑，這些雕像出自秦始皇的延伸墓葬群。

    戰(zhàn)國(guó)時(shí)期

    秦始皇生于公元前259年，是秦王的第一個(gè)兒子，秦國(guó)亦是當(dāng)時(shí)中國(guó)境內(nèi)六國(guó)之一。這六國(guó)間相互交戰(zhàn)200多年，但綜合武力，謀略和天災(zāi)的因素，秦始皇最終征服了六國(guó)，他宣稱自己不僅是一位君主，更是一位帝王-----中國(guó)的第一位皇帝。

    學(xué)者們至今仍為秦皇一統(tǒng)中華的細(xì)節(jié)爭(zhēng)論著，是怎樣獨(dú)特的謀略使得秦皇做到了之前無人能完成的偉業(yè)。

    秦始皇死后，葬在了中國(guó)史上最雄偉復(fù)雜的墓葬群中，這個(gè)不規(guī)則延伸，如城池般大小的地下墓穴集齊了一位帝王死后所需的一切。古中國(guó)，和包括古埃及在內(nèi)的許多文明一樣，相信陪葬品甚至與死者同埋的殉葬人能與死者一同往生。

    但與其讓他的軍隊(duì)，妻妾，臣工們殉葬，秦皇想到了替身：陶土俑

    令人震驚的發(fā)現(xiàn)

    1974年，一群農(nóng)民在西安附近挖井，由此中國(guó)偶然得到了史上最讓人震驚的考古學(xué)發(fā)現(xiàn)。他們挖出的真人大小的陶土士兵如一隊(duì)上千人的軍隊(duì)一樣，每個(gè)都非常獨(dú)特，有各自不同的服飾，發(fā)型和面部表情。

    將近四十多年來，考古學(xué)家們一直在采掘著這處遺址。到目前為止，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了2000具兵馬俑，但專家估計(jì)總共應(yīng)有8000多具。

    “他們可能要花幾世紀(jì)去挖掘?！甭迕芬琳f道。

    但是，科學(xué)家們?nèi)晕催_(dá)到墓穴的中心地帶，那里埋藏著一座宮殿，里面躺著秦始皇的遺體。

    “中國(guó)政府的做法很睿智，”洛梅伊對(duì)《生活科學(xué)》雜志的記者說道，“當(dāng)我們?nèi)グ＜巴鯃D特的陵墓時(shí)，所想到的是因20世紀(jì)30年代的開采技術(shù)而失去的信息資料。我們本可以得到更多的資料，但以前沒有我們現(xiàn)在的技術(shù)?！?/p>

    ”就算我們覺得我們現(xiàn)在有了先進(jìn)的考古挖掘技術(shù)，“他說，”但誰知道一個(gè)世紀(jì)以后我們打開陵墓的時(shí)候，我們又會(huì)怎么說？“

    開放陵墓？

    是否要隨時(shí)挖掘或永不探索陵墓取決于中國(guó)政府。這個(gè)決定很可能會(huì)影響到采墓技術(shù)進(jìn)步的進(jìn)程。

    ”在考古學(xué)保護(hù)方面來說，每年你都要修習(xí)最新進(jìn)展，“洛梅伊說，”當(dāng)我們?cè)?0年代挖掘兵馬俑的時(shí)候，它們?cè)诳諝夂完柟庵斜┞兑环昼姡鼈兩砩系念伭暇蜁?huì)剝落一分?，F(xiàn)在科學(xué)家們已找到一種新技術(shù)能實(shí)際維持兵馬俑身上的顏料，使它們一如剛出土那天。“

    也許，如果科學(xué)先進(jìn)到足以在開采時(shí)使被埋的遺址免遭嚴(yán)重?fù)p毀，那陵墓也許有一天能重見天日。

    ”如果你有一些陵墓內(nèi)部的機(jī)器成像勘測(cè)，我不會(huì)驚訝?！奥迕芬琳f道。

    而且不論他們多么想保護(hù)這座古老的珍寶，考古學(xué)家們都好奇得心癢難耐，想去發(fā)現(xiàn)秦始皇陵墓的中心到底藏著什么。

    水銀河

    古代記載中寫到秦皇創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)完整的地下王國(guó)和宮殿，包括模仿夜空建造的天花板，以珍珠作繁星。而墓穴中應(yīng)滿是陶土制的侍妾雕塑，卻從未被發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管專家們估計(jì)它們一定在墓群的某處。

    而且秦始皇陵一直被認(rèn)為是以一條液態(tài)水銀河環(huán)繞著的，古代中國(guó)認(rèn)為這樣能帶來永生。

    ”這有點(diǎn)諷刺，“洛梅伊說道?！边@也許就是他死亡的原因，通過攝入汞。他吃這些含水銀的丹藥是因?yàn)樗腴L(zhǎng)生，卻反而使他在39歲就丟了性命?！?/p>

    水銀深壕也是考古學(xué)家們遲遲不愿探墓的另一個(gè)原因，就是這么做好像實(shí)在太危險(xiǎn)，根據(jù)陵墓周圍的土壤樣本，顯示了那里的汞污染程度相當(dāng)高。

    最后，科學(xué)家和歷史學(xué)家須得權(quán)衡他們想要知道更多的欲望和如此追根刨底帶來的損害。

    “考古從根本上來說是一種破壞性的科學(xué)，”洛梅伊說道?！澳愕闷茐乃拍芰私馑！?/p>