The Epanggong Palace site of Qin period lies to the south of the Weihe River and to the west of the old Zaohe River course that extends 13 km west of Xi'an City. It stands opposite to the Qin capital Xianyang across the river. From October 2002 to December 2004, the Epanggong Palace Archaeological Team made a prospection on the anterior hall site,covering :350, 000 sq m, and revealed an area of 3, 000 sq m by trial and extensive excavations. The results include a rough understanding of the limits of the hall and the layout of its auxiliary buildings. It can be confirmed that the rammed earth foundations of the hall represents just the anterior hall of that of the Qin Epanggong Palace. What merits special notice is that there are no fire traces on the site of the anterior hall of the Qin Epanggong Palace, which forms a clear contrast to the archaeologically excavated Nos. 1-3 palaces in the Qin capital Xianyang that were destroyed by a great fire. Thus the excavations prove that the historically handed-down belief taking the Qin Epanggong Palace to have been fired by Xiang Yu is actually incorrect. There are no any building remains on the excavated hall foundations, which demonstrate that the anterior hall was not completed and that the Qin Epanggong Palace was destroyed not by fire。
The Epanggong Palace-site lies west of Xi'an City,opposite to the Qin capital Xianyang with the Weihe River running between them. Exploration revealed the rammed-earth foundation-platform of the anterior hall with a contracted terrace at the northern edge and vestiges of a rammed-earth wall on the southern side. To the south are mixed earth without traces of ramming and road deposits extending northward to the platform. Beyond the southern edge of the platform, remains of a tile-covered building were found to belong to the turn from the Qin to the Han period. It is an important discovery in the exploration of the Epanggong Palace and the archaeology of the Qin period.
