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This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.

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The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.

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The only man made object on earth the astronauts could see from outer space was the Great Wall of China.

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Although it is one of the most astounding accomplishments of man, it failed to keep out wave after wave of barbarian invaders.

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Startling new archaeological discoveries in China may shed light on why it was built and on the character of the Emperor who completed it.

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The Great Wall of China. This huge stone serpent winds across nearly 2,000 miles of rugged mountains in the People's Republic of China.

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It is the longest structure in the world.

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The vast land of China has always held mystery for us.

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Her customs, her language and her way of life have differed vastly from the rest of the world.

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Her very remoteness has lent an air of mystery.

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We have admired her ancient culture and her appreciation of beauty.

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In search of is the first major film unit allowed into the People's Republic of China, seeking answers to some of her secrets.

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An ancient ruler who could be the key to some of the puzzles is Emperor Xi Chuan Di.

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He became China's emperor in 221 BC.

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In Chinese, last names come first. The word China comes from the family name Xi. So the land of Xi became China.

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Even before Xi, however, China had rulers who lived behind this land of walls.

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Each one built sections of the Great Wall in hope it would keep out the barbarians.

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The great Tartar leader, Genghis Khan, a brilliant military strategist, had little trouble crossing the Great Wall.

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No mad scouts from the Khan's Gobi Desert Hordes reported that the Chinese government was weak.

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There were traitors to open the gates and the long old hordes swept through to conquer China.

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The irony was that after two generations the new conquerors were totally absorbed by the Chinese.

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Kubla Khan, the grandson of Genghis and the most familiar name to us through the tales of Marco Polo, lived in the height of luxury

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and ruled over the most splendidly opulent court in Chinese history.

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A later emperor, Yong Lo, ordered the city of Peking built with high walls and made it his capital because of its proximity to the Great Wall.

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The ancient Chinese believed that they were the only civilized people in the universe. All others were barbarians.

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In early times many local rulers had built sections of walls for the protection of their area.

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But in 207 BC one man came to power who was to be one of the most dominant figures in early Chinese history.

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He not only filled in the gaps and completed the Great Wall of China, but he conquered all of the local rulers and consolidated China for the first time.

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His name is Xi Chuang Di. He was China's first emperor. His accomplishments were many.

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A skilled general, he put down all opposition by defeating all local marks.

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He built roads connecting his capital with the far corners of his empire.

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He standardized writing, coinage, weights and measures throughout the land.

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At the University of California at San Diego, we spoke with professor of history, Dr. Pikowitz.

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Virtually everything that he did tended to bring China closer together as one unit. It put an end to feudalism.

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And that's the reason why China today, although it's the size of Europe, is one country.

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We sometimes don't think why Europe, for example, is so many different countries and China is only one country.

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It's because of what this man did in 221 BC that China is one nation. To call him a Chinese Caesar perhaps is underestimating it.

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The Great Wall of China defined the emperor's territorial limits.

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The 2,000 miles of wall was purposely built along the most difficult mountain ridges of northern China.

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This huge stone casing filled with tamped earth and rock is larger in bulk than the combined pyramids of Egypt and Mexico.

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It rises to precipitous heights and plunges into deep gorges.

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It is one of the wonders of the ancient world. Some parts of it are so remote they are seldom seen by man.

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Old sections of wall were linked together from the Pacific Ocean to the vast westward stretches of the Gobi Desert.

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It meets the eastern terminus for camel caravans on the fabled Silk Route from the Middle East.

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The path followed by Marco Polo in his famous travels.

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Chinese travelers of the period were terrified that they would die beyond the Great Wall.

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They were afraid their spirits would be unable to pass through the wall to find rest in their homeland.

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The emperor's most astounding accomplishment was the completion of the Great Wall.

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It was however constructed at enormous human cost. Many peasants who built it froze to death in the severe northern winters of the land.

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Hundreds of thousands of conscripted workers died from extremely harsh treatment at the hands of the emperor's guards.

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Beneath the massive stones lie the remains of those laborers who perished, earning it the name of the longest graveyard in the world.

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The emperor's harsh measures were not only felt by the laborers, but also by scholars and intellectuals.

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Their thinking had been formed by the great teacher Confucius. They were pledged to respect tradition.

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Xi Chuan Di wanted just the opposite. He was determined to break with the past completely.

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He was known to have carried out a cultural revolution. Although it wasn't called a cultural revolution at the time,

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it was in fact a movement to erase the history of China in the period preceding his rise to power.

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He burned books. He buried scholars alive, quite literally. One of the methods used to kill scholars,

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and I think there were some 460 scholars killed in a four or five year period.

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One of the methods of killing scholars was to bury them up to their neck and then to take an axe and lop their heads off.

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One of his concerns is that he still had rivals in these former kingdoms, these feudal kingdoms, who could threaten his rule.

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And so he decided, for the first time in Chinese history, to simply collect all of his enemies.

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120,000 families were assembled in his capital. He built palaces for them. He built homes for them.

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But he could keep an eye on them this way. And this is the kind of grand scale in which he always did things.

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As time passed, he became fearful of reprisals. He would travel incognito across the empire with a small group of trusted followers.

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Unannounced, he would inspect progress on the Great Wall, arriving and disappearing quietly.

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The Great Wall became an obsession. It was more to him than a structure of defense.

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It was a statement that defined the line between his China and the outside world.

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Standing on these ancient stones, hearing the eerie sound of the winds blowing along the wall, it is easy to imagine the scene of 2000 years ago.

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Stone fortresses were built at intervals as living quarters for guards who were on constant duty.

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They watched for barbarians threatening from the north.

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The Great Wall

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The fear of death haunted the emperor's dreams. He built many palaces for himself across his empire.

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At his treasured hot springs, the long, cool vistas of crepe myrtle and willow, designed to soothe and calm the mind, brought little solace now.

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He scurried from palace to palace, sleeping under a different roof nightly.

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Drawn sword by his side, he was haunted by his enemies, living and dead.

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Even the roof demons confirmed the fear in his heart that assassins were everywhere.

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There were many attempts made on his life, as re-enacted in the summer palace by members of the Peking Theater.

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It was his who verdidly collected snails that had unfortunately kept him from killing them online and fe Bethel unカtein,

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He was a very mysterious figure in some ways, and this is what has interested Chinese historians

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in him for centuries. He was in search of immortality. He didn't want to die. He had

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heard a story that in the eastern coastal area of China, there were some islands where

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sages and immortals lived, and he wanted to find these areas. He became increasingly

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preoccupied with this in his later years.

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One day, as his search for immortality continued, a magician asked for an audience with the

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emperor. The magician spun tales of a wondrous place to the east where sages knew of a liquid

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potion which granted immortality.

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The emperor insisted on all the details of the miracle potion.

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The magician complied and even provided directions to the mysterious land. Shortly thereafter,

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the emperor embarked on his journey.

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It is ironic that during his travels, while trying to find eternal life, he died at the

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age of 49. During his lifetime, he exerted tremendous effort seeking immortality because

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of an inordinate fear of death. Even at the early age of 13, Xi Chuan Di began construction

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of his own tomb so that he would be insured protection in the afterlife.

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During 700,000 laborers, the emperor spent 37 years building a lavish subterranean palace

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to protect him after his death. His grand design was an enormous map of China. Each city was

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represented in miniature, complete with rivers of mercury. The emperor himself was to be laid

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in a coffin on a huge dragon boat.

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The statues of members of his personal army were placed to guard the emperor in death.

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Legend has it that over 24,000 clay soldiers were buried with him.

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The legendary location of this tomb was said to be under a huge artificial mound called

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Mount Li in the province of Senchi. Stories had been passed down that an army of clay

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soldiers had been buried near the tomb, but none had ever been found. Then in 1974, in

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this quiet rural setting, a great discovery was made. Some workers digging a well near

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Mount Li were amazed when they unearthed strange clay figures. Could these be part of the fabled

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buried army of the emperor Xi Chuan Di?

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In a peaceful rural area of Senchi province, 500 miles west in Peking, these farmers planted

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and harvested grain. When the clay soldiers and horses were discovered in 1974, scientists

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realized this might be part of the legendary buried army of the emperor Xi Chuan Di. If

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so, it would be one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time.

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Some clay miniatures had been found in royal tombs before.

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They represented guards, wives, and servants placed there to care for the monarch after

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death. The figures found near the emperor's tomb, however, were life-size, and there appeared

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to be an entire army of them.

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When the enormity of this discovery was realized, a huge structure was built over the site of

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the buried clay army. After further investigation, archaeologists found the army was larger than

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at first imagined. The emperor's subterranean legions occupied an area of over three acres.

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More than 600 life-size figures have so far been uncovered, and test digs indicate they will be

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at least 5,000 more. Over a period of six years, hundreds of skilled men and women have continued

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the painstaking work of restoration. One of the original archaeologists at the site discusses

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the significance of this extraordinary find. It was on this very spot that the weld diggers

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discovered the first clay figures beneath the earth. As archaeologists continued to dig, they

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were profoundly moved by what they saw. An entire army, battle lines formed, ready for attack.

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Rank upon rank they stood, silently waiting. They had stared into the darkened silence as 22

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centuries slowly ticked away. The only sound, the snap and sag of a pottery neck as it slumped

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against the ground in some earth tremor. Each face is unique. Perhaps each one is the portrait

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of a long forgotten warrior.

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The logistics of creating this vast assemblage were staggering. An artist imagines the scene as

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it was over 22 centuries ago. Thousands of skilled craftsmen spent their entire lives on the project.

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Each figure was carefully modeled in clay, oven fired, and then placed in formation. It was

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often the practice to bury live members of a monarch's personal guard with him at his death.

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If these are indeed the likenesses of she's guards, their loyalty to the emperor may have rested in

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the knowledge that they would not be required to die with him.

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A museum has been built adjacent to the site where these remarkable examples of ancient Chinese

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art can be seen and admired. Details such as the bronze bridles found on some of the horses can

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be studied. A high degree of artistry, even on such a massive scale, was far above that

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it believes possible for this early period. The armor worn by the men and the different

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dress and hairstyle denoting rank or occupation were carefully reproduced by the artisans.

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Much can be learned here of the Xi dynasty and of its emperor who built the wall. Perhaps his vast

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clay army was yet another kind of wall. The controversy over the emperor Xi Chuang

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D continued for centuries. The positive view stresses his unification of China. The negative

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view of the emperor points out the tremendous cost in human lives of his vast projects and his

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repression of scholastic learning. There could be no doubt, however, that shortly after his death,

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China was in turmoil. A commoner named Shen stepped from the ranks of the soldiers and inspired a

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revolt against the weak son of late emperor Xi Chuang D. This soldier became the first emperor

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of the Han dynasty. The Xi dynasty fell, but the great wall of China has remained for 2,000 years.

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Often neglected, in some places it is little more than a pile of rubble repaired many times to

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a semblance of its former condition. Today, the many walls in China are merely decoration,

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attracting visitors from around the world. The greatest of these walled palaces is the

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forbidden city of Peking. It is the most perfect example of the individual isolation

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of early Chinese rulers.

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Only the emperor or empress, their close rungatives, servants, and high officials

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were ever allowed through these gates. The great wall today represents a eulogy to emperor Xi

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for the many positive accomplishments of his rule. It is also a huge stone epitaph upon which

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is written the horrors that he perpetrated. Perhaps it is a timeless comment on the futility of

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isolation. Late in the evening, when the last visitor is gone and the wind blows again from

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the north, the sounds of the dead seem to cry out to us in the whining and sighing of the winds.

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Along the pyramids.

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One might ask the question, did the great wall keep the world out or did it imprison the Chinese

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within? As with many other great works of man, was it worth the thousands upon thousands of lives

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it cost to build?

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Coming up next in search of continues with an expedition into the sacrificial past of the

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great Mexican pyramids. Then 20th century with Mike Wallace reports on the winners and losers

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of America's ever expanding gambling mania. And later tonight, history's mysteries goes hunting

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in Sherwood Forest for the true story of Robin Hood. At eight here on the history channel where

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the past comes alive.