Sanmenxia Guo State Museum Travel Guide

Sanmenxia Guo State Museum is a special site museum built on the site of Guo State Cemetery in the West Zhou Dynasty 1046 to 771 BC. It is mainly divided into five exhibition halls: the history of the Guo State, the display of cultural relics unearthed from the cemetery of Guo State, the display from the tomb of the queen of Guo State, the display of the site of the army and horses and the site of Guo State ancient tombs.

Guo State is a vassal state in the West Zhou Dynasty. At that time, the Emperor Zhou Wenwang (1152-1056 BC) was enfeoffment his two younger brothers the kings of the East Guo State and the West Guo State, they were stationed on the east and west of the capital city of West Zhou as guard. After 300 years, the East Guo State collapsed and attached itself to the West Guo State, then the West Guo State moved eastward to Sanmenxia City in 687 BC, along with the Emperor Pingwang in the late West Zhou Dynasty; and Guo State was destroyed by Jin State in 655 BC. The Guo State was very developed in economy and culture, and the citizen were brave and skillful in battle. Most of the kings and nobles played important roles in the West Zhou Dynasty, directly participated in many important historical events which had a significant impact on the rise, development and decline of the West Zhou Dynasty.

The Guo State cemetery in Sanmenxia covers an area of 324500 square meters. Two large-scale archaeological excavations have been carried out successively. More than 800 various levels remains have been identified, more than 300 tombs and burial pits have been excavated, includeing two kings cemeteries, one queen cemetery and one crown prince cemetery; the excavated culture relics were more than 30000 pieces. It is a well-graded and well preserved vassal state cemetery of West Zhou Dynasty excavated in China so far. In order to protect and display the excavations, the Guo State Museum in Sanmenxia was officially established in 2000. Bronze wares and jade wares are in the period are the highlights of the museum.

In addition to the Guo State Museum, if you would like to learn more about the history and culture of Guo State, you could also visit the Lijiayao Site, which is 2 km southeast of the museum, it is the city-state site of Guo State.